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Image Credits:The Artemis Fund / The Artemis Fund general partners Diana Murakhovskaya and Stephanie Campbell
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Image Credits:The Artemis Fund / The Artemis Fund general partners Diana Murakhovskaya and Stephanie Campbell
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The Artemis Fund , which invests in underrepresented founders , closed on its second monetary fund with $ 36 million in capital commitment .
Stephanie Campbell , Diana Murakhovskaya and Leslie Goldman Tepperfounded Artemis in 2019 , name the firm after the Grecian goddess of the hunt , wild things and a champion of womanhood .
Artemis , with office in Houston and New York , lead seed rounds for divers founders in fintech , DoC and tending , having so far composed a portfolio of more than 20 companies that are all led by distaff founders , with over 60 % that have Black , Latinx or immigrant leadership .
The second fund is backed by a grouping that includes Bank of America , Bank of Montreal , TIAA Nuveen ’s Churchill Asset Management , Texas Capital Bank , Amazon , The Rockwell Fund and Ballentine Partners .
“ We really want to check that that our LP line up with our farseeing - term goal of backing diverse founder , ” Murakhovskaya tell TechCrunch . “ There ’s a lot of pressure on that . We also want to develop with them . ”
The Artemis Fund focuses on women founders in underserved residential district
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The firm ’s strategy is to “ help move the funding phonograph needle for distaff and diverse founder by lead their rounds , recommend for them , providing accession to national conscientious objector - investor and instituting discipline betimes to strike actual revenue growth , ” Campbell said .
“ It ’s good business concern to have diverse perspectives , and we sense that there was money being pull up stakes on the table , and we ’re there to be the good at it , ” she said . “ We ’re staying the course so we array the impact that we ’re making with financial rejoinder , not only for our LPs , but also for the communities that these entrepreneurs come from . ”
More capital targeting female and underrepresented founder , from Artemis and others ( for example , Amplifica CapitalandBlack Tech Nation Ventures , which recently arouse a $ 50 million investment firm ) is good . VC investiture itself continues to be passably moribund in these domain , according to my workfellow Dominic - Madori Davis , whocrunched the numbers on venture capital fundingto these demographic sooner this month .
Funding to bleak founders has slump since 2021 , with Black father in the U.S. call down 0.48 % of all speculation dollars allocated last year , which come out to about $ 661 million out of $ 136 billion . Women received 2 % of the total backing each year for the past two years .
There is some promise , though , albeit in the pattern of a interracial bag . Female founder and co - founders secure more capital overall in 2023 than they did in 2020,according to new PitchBook research . Perhaps it ’s because more woman are compose checks . PitchBook reported that at the general partner level , the part of distaff check - writers at the largest venture cap house grew slightly to 17.4 % . At the same fourth dimension , though , the numeral of female - led startups that secured funding fell by 25 % .
Artemis began investing from its first fund of $ 15 million in 2019 . There have not been any way out yet ; however , Campbell and Murakhovskaya say the portfolio is have procession . For example , 60 % of the company in Fund I have raised follow - on capital tot up $ 250 million . Among those , 70 % came from Artemis introduction .
While Artemis is far from the only fund that pore on diverse founders , it is among the few that also funds technical school to cover barriers face by unnoted and underrepresented businesses , communities and family line in the U.S. , Campbell said . Companies invested from the Fund I include senior home health company Naborforce , rideshare startupHopSkipDrive , Upgrade , a custom wig and extensions company , and bodied lactation room service startup Work & Mother .
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Meanwhile , portfolio revenue from that fund increased four sentence between 2021 to 2022 and two sentence between from 2022 to 2023 . Total Fund I revenue in 2023 was over $ 100 million , they said .
For Fund II , Artemis intends to continue top and co - ahead investment and will direct around 20 young companies . Funds deployed from this fund have already endure into Payverse , an alternative payments C.P.U. ; Max Retail , an online weapons platform that helps retailers and brands sell their unsold merchandise ; and on-line divorcement platformHello Divorce .
The firm will continue to invest in economic problems Campbell and Murakhovskaya say other VCs write off too apace .
“ A lot of people do n’t wish to speak about uncomfortable things , even though they ’re so prevalent in our lives , ” Campbell said . “ We really care about a lot of those inherent matter that affect a much bigger population than multitude realize . Especially in the attention industry , it is these bounteous , hairy problems that no one seems to care . Instead we talk about how difficult they are and that there ought to be solutions to solve them . ”
Funding for female founders stay on consistent in 2023
