Urban Innovation Fund

About the fund

Urban Innovation Fund I was the debut fund of Urban Innovation Fund, a San Francisco-based VC firm launched in 2016 by Clara Brenner and Julie Lein after they retired Tumml, the urban-tech accelerator they had co-founded at MIT Sloan in 2012. The fund raised $24.5M and deployed $21.5M in seed and pre-seed capital across 23 early-stage companies working on urban problems spanning transportation, energy and sustainability, proptech, edtech, fintech, govtech, public health, and food systems. A distinguishing feature of the firm is its regulatory expertise: it leans heavily on public-sector networks — government innovation offices, municipal CTOs, and urban-planning departments — for deal referrals that rarely reach generalist VC pipelines, and provides hands-on support to portfolio companies navigating complex municipal procurement and regulatory environments. Across the platform, 75% of portfolio companies have a woman or person of color on the founding team and 58% have an immigrant founder. Illustrative Fund I investment: Ethic, a sustainable asset management platform that has grown to $5B+ in AUM and raised a Series D led by State Street in January 2025.

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