‘Revenge’ Funding: How Women-Led VC Funds Are Global Catalysts For Investment Activism
It’s no secret that women founders face major challenges when it comes to getting funding to launch, scale, and grow their businesses. Specific to venture capital, there’s a significant gap, with only 1.9% of this type of funding going to women founders versus men. This is quite jarring considering that women-owned businesses represented approximately 39% of businesses in the U.S., raking in a whopping $2.1 trillion in revenue in 2024.
Nell Daly, a social worker turned venture capitalist, reportedly launched a £50 million venture fund called “Revenge Capital” late last year to invest in “traditionally overlooked founders” (such as women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disabled individuals), seeking to empower and inspire a domino-effect of investment activism.
How did a former social worker do this? Well, the fund is reportedly backed by Mayfair Associates, run by U.K. financier Andrew Antonio.
According to a recent LinkedIn post, Daly indicated that the fund will make “global investments,” and women in the U.S. will be eligible.
“We make investment decisions based on our heads and our hearts. We put people and our relationships with them first,” she wrote.
History has shown that when there’s a rise in political and social activism, there are bold leaders who also use the power of commerce and finance to fight against society’s barriers and empower the disenfranchised. Such was the case with the rise of investment firms during the Civil Rights Movement, like Norman L. McGhee’s Everyday Man’s mutual fund, launched during the early 1950’s and the 1960s launch of Ariel Investments, the first Black-owned mutual fund company in the U.S.
While the jury’s still out on the impact of Daly’s “Revenge Capital” fund, established women investors in the U.S. essentially fight inequality in their launching of funds that offer redress and satisfaction in the face of injustice.
Women Disrupting Through VC Investment
Here are a few women to not only take note of but to support, amplify, and even emulate in order to keep the momentum going and remain at the forefront of real societal change through investment resources:
Arian Simone: The CEO of the Fearless Fund suffered a hard blow after having to shut down a grant program for Black women due to a lawsuit settlement, but she has continued her work to support all women founders, including Hispanic and Asian entrepreneurs.
In September 2024, she announced a new $200 million fund, which includes a loan program still available to “under-resourced” businesses owners.
Arlan Hamilton: Founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, she built the fund in 2015 to combat funding disparities in tech “by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT.”
She has now raised more than $15 million and invested in more than 170 startup companies led by “underestimated founders.”
Sarah Kunst: She founded Cleo Capital to fund ventures launched by entrepreneurs in underrepresented groups.
“We know that women and people of color are underfunded and we are so very proud that the vast majority of our companies have diverse founders,” she told Nette. “In my philanthropic life I also work hard to help increase funding for diverse founders and to get more women and people of color into tech investing.”
The fund has invested in 61 companies, with ranges between $100,000 and $1 million.
Susan Lyne and Nisha Dua: This power duo co-founded BBGV, a New York-based seed fund backed by AOL that was initially founded to invest in consumer tech start-ups that have at least one woman founder.
Demographic and social shifts led to a pivot to focus on what they call “the polyculture,” and they’ve expanded their “mandate to a broader definition of underestimated founders, including age, income and race as well as gender,” according to BBGV’s website.
Pocket Sun and Elizabeth Galbut: Founders of SoGal Ventures, they partnered up to launch what they called in 2016, the first “cross-border venture capital firm” led by millennial women.
SoGal has invested in startups led by women or entrepreneurs of diverse backgrounds in the U.S. and Asia. Since the start of the fund, they’ve invested in unicorns (valued more than $1 billion).
