Artemis Fund has a recent $36 million to again numerous founders fixing ‘big, hairy problems’

The Artemis Fund, which invests in underrepresented founders, closed on its second fund with $36 million in capital commitments.

Stephanie Campbell, Diana Murakhovskaya and Leslie Goldman Tepper founded Artemis in 2019, naming the agency after the Greek goddess of the hunt, wild issues and a champion of ladies.

Artemis, with places of work in Houston and New York, leads seed rounds for numerous founders in fintech, commerce and care, having up to now composed a portfolio of over 20 firms which can be all led by feminine founders, with over 60% which have Black, Latinx or immigrant management.

The second fund is backed by a gaggle that features Financial institution of America, Financial institution of Montreal, TIAA Nuveen’s Churchill Asset Administration, Texas Capital Financial institution, Amazon, The Rockwell Fund and Ballentine Companions.

“We really wanted to make sure that our LPs aligned with our long-term goal of backing diverse founders,” Murakhovskaya instructed TechCrunch. “There’s a lot of pressure on that. We also want to grow with them.”

The agency’s technique is to “help move the funding needle for female and diverse founders by leading their rounds, advocating for them, providing access to national co-investors, and instituting discipline early to hit real revenue growth,” Campbell stated.

“It’s good business to have diverse perspectives, and we felt that there was money being left on the table, and we’re there to be the best at it,” she stated. “We’re staying the course so we align the impact that we’re making with financial returns, not only for our LPs, but also for the communities that these entrepreneurs come from.”

Extra capital concentrating on feminine and underrepresented founders, from Artemis and others, for instance Amplifica Capital and Black Tech Nation Ventures, which lately raised a $50 million fund, is sweet. VC funding itself continues to be pretty stagnant in these areas, in response to my colleague Dominic-Madori Davis, who crunched the numbers on venture capital funding to those demographics earlier this month.

Funding to Black founders has declined since 2021, with Black founders within the U.S. elevating 0.48% of all enterprise {dollars} allotted final yr, which comes out to about $661 million out of $136 billion. Girls acquired 2% of the full funding every year for the previous two years.

There may be some hope, although, albeit within the type of a blended bag. Feminine founders and co-founders secured extra capital total in 2023 than they did in 2020, according to new Pitchbook research. Maybe it’s as a result of extra ladies are writing checks. Pitchbook reported that on the normal accomplice degree, the share of feminine check-writers on the largest enterprise capital corporations grew barely to 17.4%. On the similar time, although, the variety of female-led startups that secured funding fell by 25%.

Artemis started investing from its first fund of $15 million in 2019. There haven’t been any exits but, nevertheless, Campbell and Murakhovskaya say the portfolio is making progress. For instance, 60% of the businesses in Fund I’ve raised follow-on capital totaling $250 million. Amongst these, 70% got here from Artemis introductions.

Whereas Artemis is way from the one fund that focuses on numerous founders, it’s among the many few that additionally funds tech to handle obstacles confronted by ignored and underrepresented companies, communities and households within the U.S., Campbell stated. Firms invested from the Fund I embrace senior residence well being firm Naborforce, rideshare startup HopSkipDrive, Upgrade, a customized wig and extensions firm, and company lactation room companies startup Work & Mom.

In the meantime, portfolio income from that fund elevated 4 instances between 2021 to 2022 and two instances between from 2022 to 2023. Whole Fund I income in 2023 was over $100 million, they stated.

For Fund II, Artemis intends to proceed main and co-leading investments and can goal round 20 new firms. Funds deployed from this fund have already gone into Payverse, another funds processor; Max Retail, a web based platform that helps retailers and types promote their unsold merchandise; and on-line divorce platform Hello Divorce.

The agency will proceed to spend money on financial issues Campbell and Murakhovskaya say different VCs write off too rapidly.

“A lot of people don’t like to talk about uncomfortable things, even though they’re so prevalent in our lives,” Campbell stated. “We really care about a lot of those underlying issues that affect a much bigger population than people realize. Especially in the care industry, it is these big, hairy problems that no one seems to like. Instead we talk about how difficult they are and that there ought to be solutions to solve them.”