#InvestInWomen: New Growth Kit, Chloe & Cocktails California, and our Impact Investing Course
Find out more about our new growth kit, join us for Chloe & Cocktails in California, and experience our Impact Investing Course
#InvestInWomen: Bank of America Invests in Chloe Capital, Basepaws Acquired by Zoetis, and New Portfolio Additions Announced
Chloe Capital announces a new partnership with Bank of America. Plus, Chloe Capital portfolio company, Basepaws, gets acquired by Zoetis, and we reveal our new portfolio page.
Bank of America Joins Chloe Capital to Invest in Women
Invest Bank of America and Chloe Capital join together on a mission to fund diverse founders.
From left to right: Jennifer Steinberg, Cara Nichols, Erica O’Brian, Myneco Ramirez, Elisa Miller-Out, Kristina Klaas, andIris Liu. (Photo credit: Jill Farrar)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 7, 2022
ITHACA, NY – Chloe Capital, a movement-driven venture capital firm, announces an exciting new partnership with Bank of America to advance equality and economic opportunity for women and minority-led businesses. Bank of America’s investment in Chloe Capital’s Fund I is part of the company’s commitment to increase the amount of capital available to under-represented founders and foster long-term opportunities.
By partnering with firms like Chloe Capital, Bank of America is furthering its commitment to scaling positive change and driving economic opportunity. Bank of America has dedicated $350 million to women and minority-led companies through capital investments in mission-focused venture funds, like Chloe Capital. To date, more than $300 million has been committed to 100+ minority-focused and minority-led equity funds in just over one year.
In 2021, women-led businesses in the United States received only 2.2% of venture capital funding, while the global venture capital industry had a record-shattering year, with a total of $643 billion in investments made, according to Pitchbook and Crunchbase. And yet, the data continues to show that when diverse teams have access to capital, they continue to outperform financially. Investments in firms like Chloe Capital underscore Bank of America’s ongoing efforts to address the lack of access to growth capital for minority-led businesses.
“Bank of America’s investment in Chloe Capital reinforces our ongoing efforts to address the continuous gap in access to capital and to deploy more into emerging companies led by diverse entrepreneurs,” said David Cornell, President of Bank of America Albany-Hudson Valley. “By investing in a fund managed by diverse leaders, who in turn invest in women and BIPOC-led companies, we’re collectively helping to initiate representation at all levels and we believe that Chloe Capital is well-positioned to drive real change.”
Founded by women, Chloe Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm investing in women-led technology companies with diverse leadership teams. In alignment with Bank of America’s focus to increase growth capital for underrepresented groups, one hundred percent of Chloe Capital’s 24 portfolio companies are led by women and at least fifty percent include other underrepresented groups. The firm has built its portfolio value to over $700 million and is widely recognized as a leader in diversity and inclusion.
“This partnership will open doors for the trailblazing diverse women leaders in our portfolio and we’re thrilled to welcome Bank of America into the fund,” said Chloe Capital Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Elisa Miller-Out.
In addition to investing with a diversity lens, Chloe Capital utilizes a community approach by partnering with universities, foundations and corporations to deploy capital and create opportunities for under-represented founders and investors. The firm just wrapped its Invest In Women x Pittsburgh accelerator program, committing $300,000 to three women-founded businesses.
“We’re honored to have the opportunity to work with Bank of America to continue to fund companies and underrepresented founders,” said Kathryn Cartini, Co-founder and Partner at Chloe Capital. “Despite recent progress, women and minority-led companies still account for a very small percentage of capital raised by venture-backed firms in the U.S. We aim to change that, and we’re confident that this partnership will help us move the needle. We’re appreciative to the Bank of America representatives in the Capital Region for following our journey and recognizing our efforts to date. We’ll wear this commitment as a badge of honor to help Bank of America address the economic and racial inequality many communities face,” she added.
Bank of America’s investment amplifies Chloe Capital’s mission of doing well by doing good. Together, both organizations are rewriting the narrative for women and minority-led businesses.
Contact
Elisa Miller-Out
Managing Partner, Chloe Capital
info@chloecapital.com
***
About Chloe Capital
Chloe Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in women-led technology companies. In addition to investing with a gender and diversity lens, Chloe Capital partners with universities, foundations and corporations to host accelerator programs that help catalyze fundraising efforts for underrepresented founders. This collaborative approach to early-stage investing has resulted in millions raised. Today, more than 20,000 people around the world have joined Chloe Capital’s Movement to #InvestInWomen. ChloeCapital.com
About Bank of America
At Bank of America, we’re guided by a common purpose to help make financial lives better, through the power of every connection. We’re delivering on this through responsible growth with a focus on our environmental, social and governance (ESG) leadership. ESG is embedded across our eight lines of business and reflects how we help fuel the global economy, build trust and credibility, and represent a company that people want to work for, invest in and do business with. It’s demonstrated in the inclusive and supportive workplace we create for our employees, the responsible products and services we offer our clients, and the impact we make around the world in helping local economies thrive. An important part of this work is forming strong partnerships with nonprofits and advocacy groups, such as community, consumer, and environmental organizations, to bring together our collective networks and expertise to achieve greater impact. Learn more at about.bankofamerica.com, and connect with us on Twitter (@BofA_News).
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Women-Owned Venture Capital Firm from NY Commits $300,000 to Pittsburgh Tech Startups
Invest In Women x Pittsburgh is a Chloe Capital signature program, in partnership with Ascender, and supported by the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
[RELEASE] May 24, 2022 – Pittsburgh, PA – Chloe Capital, a New York based venture capital firm that invests in women-led technology companies, is excited to share the success of Invest In Women x Pittsburgh (chloecapital.com/pittsburgh). The accelerator program’s final showcase was held on April 27, 2022, in Pittsburgh, PA in partnership with Ascender, a nonprofit incubator for Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurs, and supported by the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
Despite recent progress, in 2021, businesses solely led by women attracted just 2.2% of all capital raised by venture-backed firms in the U.S., while the global venture capital industry had a record shattering year, with a total of $643 Billion in investments made, according to Pitchbook and Crunchbase.
“We’re elated to have been a part of this event and to contribute to the growing startup culture in Pittsburgh alongside Chloe Capital and the Richard King Mellon Foundation,” said Nadyli Nuñez, executive director at Ascender. “Every city should have an #InvestInWomen program. Such immense benefit directly to founders in an efficient and effective way. This program is a game-changer for our local entrepreneurs.”
Five women entrepreneurs from the Pittsburgh area were chosen to participate in Invest In Women x Pittsburgh. This unique fundraising experience was designed to move capital to women and minority founders in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. The cohort received the opportunity to connect with investors and industry leaders for critical feedback on how to scale their companies. In addition, a select group of Ascender startup members received pitch prep from Nuñez and mentoring from Chloe Capital’s Managing Partner, Elisa Miller-Out.
Leading up to the in-person experience, Pittsburgh-based entrepreneurs were invited to participate in virtual workshops to equip them with essential skills and knowledge for growing their businesses. Some topics included DEI recruiting and funding application writing tips for startups.
To round out the program, the Pittsburgh community was invited to the Founder Showcase held at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater to celebrate the local entrepreneurial community and hear live pitches. In addition to networking, attendees heard from Ascender member and founder of Sustainible, Talpha Harris; and SaLisa Berrien, trustee and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, and founder of COI Energy. Berrien shared her experiences on being a Chloe Capital portfolio company after receiving an investment from Chloe Capital following her participation in Diversity in ClimateTech this past fall, a partnership with Cornell University and NYSERDA.
At the end of the evening, Chloe Capital announced to the audience a total of $300,000 in investments to three founders creating technology for good: Alison Alvarez of BlastPoint, Holly Adams of GoWell Benefits, and JJ Xu of TalkMeUp.
Additional members of the accelerator cohort to join the Chloe family included Lauren Golembiewski of Voxable and Nehal Bhojak of Lumis.
“We’re excited to be moving capital to women-led companies in Pittsburgh and contributing to this vibrant, growing tech ecosystem,” added Miller-Out.
Invest In Women x Pittsburgh was made possible by the generous support of the Richard King Mellon Foundation and extensive community of investors. Featured investors included Silvia Mah (Stella Impact Capital), Gabriela Isturiz (The Fund XX), Brandon Greer (HubSpot Ventures), Matt Harbaugh (Mountain State Capital), and Lu Zhang (Fusion Fund).
“We are excited to support these founders and help them accelerate their ventures through this partnership with Ascender and Chloe Capital,” said Sam Reiman, director of the Richard King Mellon Foundation. “From using AI in customer intelligence and workforce training to disrupting the insurance tech industry, we’re optimistic about the entrepreneurial future for women in our region.”
Contact
Elisa Miller-Out
Managing Partner, Chloe Capital
***
About Chloe Capital
Chloe Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in women-led technology companies. In addition to investing with a gender and diversity lens, Chloe Capital partners with universities, foundations and corporations to host programs that help catalyze fundraising efforts for underrepresented founders. This collaborative approach to early stage investing has resulted in millions raised. Today, More than 20,000 people around the world have joined Chloe Capital’s Movement to #InvestInWomen. ChloeCapital.com
About Ascender
About Ascender: Ascender, a 501(c)3 and vibrant community of innovators located in East Liberty, helps entrepreneurs start and build their companies by offering educational programming, mentorship, expert coaching, incubation, and a collaborative coworking space. Annually Ascender touches 500 entrepreneurs across many industries and works with both venture track and small businesses. Ascenderpgh.com
About the Richard King Mellon Foundation
Founded in 1947, the Richard King Mellon Foundation is the largest foundation in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and one of the 50 largest in the world. The Foundation’s 2020 year-end endowment was $3.1 billion, and its Trustees in 2021 disbursed $152 million in grants and Program Related Investments. The Foundation launched a new ten-year Strategic plan in 2021, focusing funding on six primary program areas: conservation, economic development, economic mobility, health and well-being, organizational effectiveness, and social-impact investing. RKMF.org
Five Pittsburgh-area Founders Pitch for Investments
Invest In Women x Pittsburgh is a partnership between Chloe Capital and Ascender, and supported by the Richard King Mellon Foundation, to help move capital to underrepresented founders in the Pittsburgh area.
[RELEASE] April, 19, 2022 – Pittsburgh, PA – Chloe Capital, a Movement-driven venture capital firm, has selected five women-led technology companies to participate in INVEST IN WOMEN x PITTSBURGH (chloecapital.com/pittsburgh) this Spring. This unique fundraising experience for underrepresented founders is in partnership with Ascender, a nonprofit incubator for Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurs, and supported by the Richard King Mellon Foundation.
Despite recent progress, a study by Boston Consulting Group shows that if men and women around the world were treated equally as entrepreneurs, our global economy would experience a $5 trillion boost.
To help move the needle, five women entrepreneurs from the Pittsburgh area have now been chosen to participate in INVEST IN WOMEN x PITTSBURGH. Each receives the opportunity to connect with leaders across industries, hear critical feedback on how to grow their businesses, and pitch for investments from Chloe Capital and the Firm’s community of impact investors. By the end of the program, Chloe Capital will make at least one investment in a company located in, or willing to relocate to, Allegheny or Westmoreland counties.
Investors and community members are invited to the Founder Showcase, which will take place April 27, 2022 at 5 p.m. (et) at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, located at 5941 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA.
Space is limited. RSVP > InvestInWomenPittsburgh.eventbrite.com
In addition to Chloe Capital, featured investors for INVEST IN WOMEN x PITTSBURGH include Sylvia Mah (Stella Impact Capital), Gabriela Isturiz (The Fund XX), Brandon Greer (Hubspot Ventures), Matt Harbaugh (Mountain State Capital), and Lu Zhang (Fusion Fund).
“Each investor has joined our Movement to Invest In Women by meeting the founders and exploring the investment potential of each company,” said Chloe Capital co-founder and partner, Kathryn Cartini. “On average, participants in a Chloe Capital program each go on to raise $2,000,000 within the year, catalyzed by visibility and introductions to our firm’s world-wide network.”
The founders selected to participate in INVEST IN WOMEN x PITTSBURGH are:
ALISON ALVAREZ
CEO & Co-Founder, BlastPoint
Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA
BlastPoint builds AI platforms for highly regulated industries so that they can better understand their customers and how to talk to them.
HOLLY ADAMS
CEO, Go Well Benefits
Philadelphia County, Philadelphia, PA
Go Well Benefits makes health insurance enrollment and underwriting faster and easier with an end-to-end solution that links employee, employer, broker and insurance carrier.
NEHAL BHOJAK
President & CEO, Lumis Corp.
Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA
Lumis is committed to democratizing healthcare education, and disrupting traditional clinical training through its immersive AR-based platform.
JJ XU
CEO, TalkMeUp
Allegheny County, Pittsburgh, PA
TalkMeUp uses AI to aid workforce communication development at the enterprise level. Employees use their mobile devices. Managers get measurable insights.
LAUREN GOLMBIEWSKI
CEO & Co-Founder, Voxable
Westmoreland County, New Kensington, PA
Voxable helps enterprise teams create and manage AI experiences at scale by automating conversational content creation, and streamlining collaboration.
“Each year Ascender impacts hundreds of entrepreneurs across many industries,” said Nadyli Nuñez, executive director at Ascender. “Now with the help of Chloe Capital and the Richard King Mellon Foundation we’re highlighting some of our region’s top performing, technology companies, that are also women-led. The talent is impressive.”
On top of hearing from the founders, INVEST IN WOMEN x PITTSBURGH will feature speaker Gabriella Gonzalez, program officer from the Richard King Mellon Foundation. Gonzalez is a senior thought leader in the future of work, workforce development, and economic development.
SaLisa Berrien, trustee and graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, and founder of COI Energy, will also share insight on being a Chloe Capital portfolio company. Berrien participated in INVEST IN WOMEN x CLIMATETECH in October 2021. She received a Chloe Capital investment following that program. Berrien has over 25 years of experience in the energy industry assisting clients with process improvements, energy efficiency, grid reliability, clean technology, and big data analytics.
Economic development has been a primary focus of the Richard King Mellon Foundation since its founding, and the Foundation’s new Strategic Plan includes a specific focus on entrepreneurship, as an essential pillar of its economic-development efforts. The Foundation’s plan notes that “small businesses are the backbone of our economy,” and the “Foundation’s investments aim to support efforts to allow entrepreneurship to thrive, to build the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, and to support efforts for under-represented groups to jumpstart or grow entrepreneurship efforts.” The Foundation’s funding of Chloe Capital’s “Invest in Women x Pittsburgh” initiative fits squarely within that plan.
Investors and community members are invited to the Founder Showcase, which will take place April 27, 2022 at 5 p.m. (et) at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh.
Space is limited. RSVP > InvestInWomenPittsburgh.eventbrite.com
Contact
Kathryn Cartini
Partner, Chloe Capital
***
About Chloe Capital
Chloe Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in women-led technology companies. In addition to investing with a gender and diversity lens, Chloe Capital partners with universities, foundations and corporations to host programs that help catalyze fundraising efforts for underrepresented founders. This collaborative approach to early stage investing has resulted in millions raised. Today, More than 20,000 people around the world have joined Chloe Capital’s Movement to #InvestInWomen. ChloeCapital.com
About Ascender
About Ascender: Ascender, a 501(c)3 and vibrant community of innovators located in East Liberty, helps entrepreneurs start and build their companies by offering educational programming, mentorship, expert coaching, incubation, and a collaborative coworking space. Annually Ascender touches 500 entrepreneurs across many industries and works with both venture track and small businesses. Ascenderpgh.com
About the Richard King Mellon Foundation
Founded in 1947, the Richard King Mellon Foundation is the largest foundation in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and one of the 50 largest in the world. The Foundation’s 2020 year-end endowment was $3.1 billion, and its Trustees in 2021 disbursed $152 million in grants and Program Related Investments. The Foundation launched a new ten-year Strategic plan in 2021, focusing funding on six primary program areas: conversation, economic development, economic mobility, health and well-being, organizational effectiveness, and social-impact investing. RKMF.org
#InvestInWomen: SXSW Recap, Unruly Studios Investment & Pittsburgh Online Workshop
View highlights from Chloe Capital’s visit to SXSW 2022, meet the founder of portfolio company Unruly Studios, and RSVP for an online workshop about startup resources!
#InvestInWomen: Funding Opportunities for Pittsburgh Entrepreneurs
Join us April 6 at 4 p.m. for this online information session. Learn from Ascender Executive Director, Nadyli Nuñez, about funding opportunities and other resources available in both the Pittsburgh area and online. This includes competitions, accelerators, and active VC firms like Chloe Capital that are seeking to make investments.
#InvestInWomen: SXSW, ShearShare Investment & Pittsburgh Online Workshop
Join us on Wed, April 6 at 4 p.m. ET for another INVEST IN WOMEN X PITTSBURGH online workshop. Ascender Executive Director Nadyli Nuñez will share resources for early stage innovation companies. Learn about incubators, competitions and accelerators that offer funding, both within the Pittsburgh area and online.
#InvestInWomen: Diversity Is More Than a Checkbox; Free DEI Recruiting Workshop
The first information session will be held on January 19, 2022 at 11 a.m. ET.
In addition to hearing more about our unique fundraising opportunity, EVERYONE is invited to log on to learn from Anu Gupta (he, him). Anu is a scientist, educator, lawyer, and the Founder of BE MORE with Anu. He’ll teach us how to become more attractive to investors by transforming our DEI recruiting efforts.
Tompkins Weekly: Chloe Capital partners with Cornell University to help climate tech entrepreneurs
By Jessica Wickham, Tompkins Weekly
In October, Chloe Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in women-led innovation companies, announced its partnership with Cornell University and NYSERDA to help climate tech innovators “launch and advance solutions to the world’s climate crisis,” according to a recent release.
The result of the partnership is a program called Diversity In ClimateTech, and its business accelerator was held Oct. 27. At the accelerator, held in Ithaca, five women-led climate tech companies were selected, based on their potential impact, to pitch and secure business deals, with over $500,000 in investments being offered.
“Out of 300-plus applicants that met the program criteria, the five finalists selected were ones that showed both experience and early success in the niche market where their solution is needed,” said Kathryn Cartini, Chloe Capital co-founder and partner, in the release.
Dorrit Lowsen, co-founder of Change Finance, received a $250,000 investment. Her company produces “performance-oriented investment products that seek to promote a more just and sustainable world,” according to the release.
SaLisa Berrien, founder and CEO of COI Energy, received a $200,000 investment.
“COI Energy is changing the face of energy with its digital energy management that detects and eliminates energy waste in buildings and repurposes that waste for good,” she said in the release. “We use machine learning and artificial intelligence to predict energy behaviors and make corrections to avoid waste.”
While Diversity In ClimateTech only began earlier this year, Chloe Capital and Cornell’s work in the climate tech space goes way back. Elisa Miller-Out, Chloe Capital co-founder and managing partner, said that Chloe Capital staff members have been “researching, actively mentoring, participating in accelerators, incubators, competitions, in the climate tech space for nearly a decade now.”
“We’ve been doing that work in our careers even prior to Chloe Capital,” she said. “And so, it was [a] natural fit for us to leverage those relationships that we’ve been building for years, with Cornell, with NYSERDA, through all the programming that they’ve done across New York state and across the Southern Tier where this program is based. It was a natural fit for us to then, with Chloe Capital, put this together to do a diversity and climate tech program.”
At Cornell, the feeling is mutual, as Andrea Katherine Ippolito, director of Women Engineers Cornell (W.E. Cornell), explained. Katherine Ippolito is also the founder of SimpliFed, a company focused on infant feeding, both chestfeeding and formula feeding. W.E. Cornell is a program out of the Center for Regional Economic Advancement at Cornell University (CREA).
“W.E. Cornell’s goal is to create an on-ramp for STEM women to pursue entrepreneurship,” she said. “And so, the beginning of this program is a climate-tech-focused track of the W.E. Cornell program, where we go through an ideation process with them, we arm them with resources, we teach them and educate them on how to start your own company and test assumptions surrounding who’s your customer, what they care about and what your revenue model looks like.”
For Katherine Ippolito and Miller-Out, the importance of the Diversity In ClimateTech program is vast.
“We are in a climate crisis in the world right now,” Katherine Ippolito said. “And when you look at the innovation in climate technology, especially some of the newer entrants into this space, especially on the startup side, they are, for the most part, being run by males. And if we are going to tackle the climate crisis that we are in right now, we need to better take advantage of half our population and support them in their entrepreneurial journey to create new innovations and implement those new innovations to make an impact to tackle the crisis we’re facing.”
Katherine Ippolito and Miller-Out both spoke highly of this year’s investment winners. Miller-Out highlighted Berrien, who has already seen tremendous growth in her company despite it being relatively new.
“Seeing Black female founders with millions in contracts, millions in revenue, millions in funding is a whole new world because we’re coming from a place where Black female founders, in the data, in the investment world have received historically less than .1% of the funding and access to capital,” Miller-Out said. “So, it’s really exciting to see what can happen when you have a founder who has access to capital and resources and then is making full use of that and really scaling a huge company that’s going to be a tremendous force in both our region as well as the world moving forward.”
Miller-Out said that beyond the individual benefit for the entrepreneurs in the Diversity In ClimateTech program and the worldwide benefit of fighting climate change, there’s another big plus to this new program — creating role models.
“Seeing all those role models and mentorship is a key part of the Chloe Capital movement and how we build this ecosystem for underrepresented founders, for women, for nonbinary, for BIPOC founders,” Miller-Out said. “Part of how we build that is by these role models and women lifting other women up through this process.”
Now that the business accelerator is over, the next step in the Diversity In ClimateTech is to connect the selected companies with resources in their community like vendors “and embedding these companies more deeply in our community in different ways that are really meaningful to everyone and that helps with the economic development of the region,” Miller-Out said.
The selected applicants in Diversity In ClimateTech have all made great progress with their businesses since starting, which Katherine Ippolito is indicative of a shift in the common narrative regarding investing in female founders.
“There’s this unfortunate narrative that sometimes out there [that] investing in female founders is impact investing or philanthropic in nature,” she said. “Investing in female founders, those that are making an impact, is what’s good for business. And so, I would say that we’re seeing tremendous interest in the space in those that are making incredible impact and those that are making profit in the process. You can do good while also doing well, from a business standpoint, as well. And that’s the merger of what we’re really trying to accomplish.”
Though challenges caused by the pandemic continue for some business owners, generally speaking, Katherine Ippolito said that the entrepreneurial ecosystem is “thriving” right now. She said she hopes to see more entrepreneurs coming to the county thanks to the Diversity In ClimateTech and other similar programs.
“With the recent announcement of what is happening with Ithaca being a pioneer in the United States with getting to carbon neutrality, and especially with our building space, that’s attracting a lot of attention from elsewhere across the country to Ithaca,” she said. “Ithaca and Tompkins County is open for business for entrepreneurs and innovators, especially diverse innovators. We have such a supportive community here, and come innovate here because we have a platform to allow you to go a lot further faster.”
Still, Katherine Ippolito recognizes that many women are struggling due to “playing double duty,” meaning having full-time jobs and being expected to be the main caretakers.
“We’re having the great resignation happen across the United States because we don’t have access to child care and these types of things,” she said. “So, my whole standpoint on this is that if we can get better social infrastructure, such as universal child care support, paid parental leave, we can better retain women that want to be retained, we can better retain them in the workforce, and this also opens up opportunity for them to be able to innovate and lead companies.”
Chloe Capital and W.E. Cornell continue to work to support women entrepreneurs through a variety of services, investments and programs. For more information about the Diversity In ClimateTech program, visit its website at chloecapital.com/climatetech. Learn more about Chloe Capital at chloecapital.com and about W.E. Cornell at crea.cornell.edu/project/w-e-cornell.
Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@vizellamedia.com.