Dealflow | July 14, 2021

Zeal Capital Partners and Female Founders Fund raise funds to advance inclusion

Roodgally Senatus
ImpactAlpha Editor

Roodgally Senatus

ImpactAlpha, July 14 — Washington, D.C.-based Zeal Capital raised $62.1 million for its inaugural fund from Truist Ventures, Paypal, Synchrony, Skoll Foundation, Bank of America and others to invest in early-stage tech companies focused on bridging the wealth and skills gap.

Zeal Fund I is led by Nasir Qadree, a first-time fund manager. First-time and emerging fund managers attracted only a little over 11% of capital last year, despite their strong performance (see, “How women and VCs of color are finding impact alpha with first-time funds).

The fund is looking to make up to 30 investments over four years in education, workforce development and financial services.

Gender-lens investing

New York-based Female Founders Found is out to “demonstrate top-tier returns by investing in a diverse portfolio of female-led companies,” the firm tweeted.

It raised $57 million for its third early-stage venture fund to invest exclusively in female founders. More than half of the fund is invested in Black, Indigenous and women of color.

Investors include Goldman Sachs, Twitter, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Plexo Capital, Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, Houseparty CEO Sima Sistani and sisters Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube and Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe.