Astia, a Silicon Valley-based investment organization, launched a $100M early-stage venture fund focused on addressing the disparity in funding for companies that include women in founding or executive roles.
Led by an investment from Mastercard, the Astia Fund will invest globally in high-growth companies that have at least one woman in an executive, equity-holding position. Additional investors include:
- Priya Mathur, past president of the board of CalPERS;
- Jim O’Neill former chief economist and former chairman of Asset Management at Goldman Sachs;
- Farvatn Venture;
- Portola Creek Capital;
- Tides Foundation; numerous members of Toniic, a global network of impact investors; and other notable LPs.
Since launching investment activity in 2013, Astia has invested over $27M in companies sourced by the Astia Expert Sift™ that is proven to eliminate gender, racial, age and geographic bias in the investment sourcing and screening process. Those companies have gone on to raise more than $450M.
Founded in 1999 as a nonprofit organization, and led by Sharon Vosmek, CEO, Victoria Pettibone, Evie Mulberry and Omar Ali, Astia works globally to level the investment playing field for high-growth startups led by women.
FinSMEs
08/02/2021