XFactor Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on making pre-seed and seed stage investments in companies with at least one female founder that are pursuing billion-dollar market opportunities, announced that it has launched its second fund with $8.6 million in capital commitments.
“As founders themselves, each investment partner has the insight to know who has what it takes to succeed, the insights and willingness to take a bet on entrepreneurs at the earliest stage, and the experience to help those companies succeed.”
The fund is led by current successful female founders who leverage their operating backgrounds, insights, and expertise to provide capital, connections, guidance, and mentorship to the companies in which the fund invests. Collectively the team has founded 28 companies, raised over $550 million in venture capital, and hired thousands of employees.
The firm’s “Fund 2” nearly tripled in size from a $3m Fund 1, has more than doubled the number of female investment partners from 9 to 22, and will invest $150,000 into 53 companies during its lifespan. “When we started XFactor, we saw the opportunity to build the largest network of current female founders investing in new female-founded companies pursuing billion-dollar opportunities,” said Anna Palmer, co-founder and XFactor investment partner. “We successfully proved this out with XFactor 1 and, given the current landscape of women in VC and limited venture money still going toward female founders, we set out to build Fund 2 on a much larger scale.”
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In XFactor’s short two year history, the team has made 28 investments, and the portfolio is already showing signs of success with many companies raising follow-on capital at increases in valuation. Notable companies include New York-based Chief and MixLab, Seattle-based The Riveter, San Francisco-based CourtBuddy and Vinsight, and New Orleans-based BATON Financial.
Chip Hazard, co-founder and XFactor investment partner said, “As founders themselves, each investment partner has the insight to know who has what it takes to succeed, the insights and willingness to take a bet on entrepreneurs at the earliest stage, and the experience to help those companies succeed.” He continues, “XFactor 2’s team will increase to 23 investment partners, including myself, and expand across 6 cities. Our Industry expertise ranges from B2B Software, to FinTech, AgTech, Healthcare, to consumer marketplaces and products. This gives us the ability to dive in head first and be helpful to our portfolio companies on a much deeper level.”
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The goal of XFactor Ventures is threefold: To make a difference for the next generation of female founders by providing them with needed capital, connections, guidance, and mentorship to build billion dollar companies, to increase the ranks of female investors in the venture and angel investing community, and to generate venture returns by making investments in companies that have the opportunity to build significant scale and create value accordingly.
Palmer says, “we built XFactor Ventures with the belief that if we have more women investors, more women founders will get funded. Each of us has been through the funding process and are here with the goal of growing the pool of female investor talent while also opening our unique networks to the wider female entrepreneur community.”
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