Cake Ventures, a San Francisco, CA-based pre-seed and seed venture capital firm, launched its $17m first fund.
LPs included Pivotal Ventures (a Melinda French Gates company), Cendana Ventures, Screendoor, Plexo Capital, Foundry Group, and Bank of America.
Founded by Monique Woodard, Cake Ventures specifically focuses on investing in companies creating technology products and solutions that meet the needs of tomorrow’s internet users. Cake Ventures is focused on identifying companies that address the consumer and enterprise needs of three key markets:
- The aging population – whose size and spending power has created unique needs across categories like care and aging in place, preventative health, and late-life financial services.
- The billion dollar female economy – driven by the increased spending power of women in which companies with a significant female user base will return billions of dollars across categories like direct-to- consumer, women’s health, and the many ways women save, spend, and invest money.
- The shift to majority-minority – where Asian, Black, and Latino people become the majority in the United States and represent the changing technology consumption habits and direct influence on internet culture, which in turn impacts social connections, financial empowerment, and the future of work.
To date, Cake has backed companies that include Guaranteed, Pamper, Bright, and Rares.
Woodard is an experienced venture and angel investor, entrepreneur and operator. She began her venture investing career as a Venture Partner at 500 Global, and invested in early stage companies like Silvernest and Blavity. Following her time at 500 Global, Woodard was a Venture Scout at Lightspeed Venture Partners. She also became a trusted advisor to foundations interested in increasing capital allocation to diverse fund managers and entrepreneurs. At venture capital firms like SoftBank she is an Advisor on Emerge, its early stage pipeline program focused on companies led by underrepresented entrepreneurs.
FinSMEs
13/01/2023