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Editor’s Note

This week’s Women’s PE Briefs has something for everyone — even dogs with bad breath. (You’ll have to read about Dana Settle’s recent deal to understand.) There were a number of personnel moves this week, including Jennifer Dunham and Nicole Glaros being named partners at Arsenal Venture Partners and Techstars. In addition to Dana, Rebecca Gibson at Oakley, Rachel Lam at Time Warner Investments and Luciana Lixandru at Accel all did new deals. Anu Duggal at F Cubed provides an interesting analysis of women-led companies in New York getting Series A financing. And, this week’s “Leading Ladies” session features deals involving companies in such areas as car sharing, consignment, education, diagnostic testing, Legos and fragrances.

– David G. Barry

 

Video Voices

Sharon Wienbar_cropped

Our February Video Feature
Scale Venture Partners' Sharon Wienbar discusses eye-popping valuations, why looking outside of Silicon Valley makes sense and the competitive advantage of her firm's "diversity by design" leadership structure.

Tune in for the full interview.

A Falk Marques Group Publication
February 6, 2015

In the Spotlight ...

When it comes to demographics, Generator Ventures is not your typical Silicon Valley venture firm. Rather than targeting “Millennials”, the San Francisco-based firm is focused instead on their grandparents. Co-founded by Katy Fike, Generator Ventures was created to invest in companies focused on aging and long-term care.

“The combination of disruptive demographics and exponential technology creates an exciting opportunity area for investment,” Katy tells Women’s PE Briefs. “I enjoy working with entrepreneurs in this space because they are working on important societal challenges and see the dual potential to do good and do well.”

Generator launched last May and has to date been publicly linked to two investments: Everplans and Caremerge. Based in New York, Everplans helps people complete, organize and securely share legal, financial and health planning. The company was co-founded by Abby Schneiderman. Caremerge, based in Chicago, provides a platform that allows providers, payers, families and seniors to improve communication related to health care. Both companies are also involved with Aging2.0, the global innovation network and accelerator program that Katy co-founded with Stephen Johnston in April 2012.

Katy, who will speak on aging at the upcoming 2015 Women’s Private Equity Summit, ended up focusing on aging through, in her words, a “non-traditional path.” An Engineering major in college, she was working at Lehman Brothers when the events of Sept. 11, 2001 unfolded. It made her ask herself what she really wanted to do with her life. She didn’t have an immediate answer, but she knew it did not involve the spreadsheets that she was working on until 2:00 a.m. at Lehman. Over the next couple of years, Katy started exploring other opportunities, and was ultimately captivated by the aging space, which excited her on both a personal and professional level.

Studying at the University of Southern California for what would eventually be a Ph.D. in Gerontology, Katy saw that there was a need to bring more technology and innovation to the aging sector. “The two worlds of technology and aging felt too far apart,” she said. “I saw the potential to bring them together to create new products and services to improve quality of life, quality of care, and drive down costs.”

That desire led her to team up with Stephen to found Aging2.0, with its mission being to accelerate innovation to improve the lives of older adults. The initiative began with networking-type events that brought together entrepreneurs, designers, investors and seniors themselves to discuss opportunities and pitch new solutions. For roughly the first 18 months, Katy and Stephen just listened. They did not have a “massive plan,” says Katy but they kept seeing the need to help aging-focused entrepreneurs efficiently connect with large long-term care providers and vice versa. The startups also needed help with access to consumer insights, design, marketing, PR, distribution and capital.

The result was the Aging2.0 Academy. The first class featured 11 San Francisco Bay Area companies, while the second featured 20 companies across the United States, as well as some international companies. Through the Academy, startups get help with business development and with introductions to providers, some of whom are actively involved in the efforts, such as Brookdale, Life Care Services, Genesis Rehab, Silverado and Home Instead Senior Care.

To help address the capital side of the equation, Aging2.0 partnered with Arnie Whitman, co-founder and executive chairman of Formation Capital, to launch Generator Ventures — one of the first venture firms to focus on aging and long-term care — in May 2014. Formation Capital is a $6 billion private investment firm focused on seniors housing and care. Generator Ventures provides not only capital, but also unprecedented access to leading long-term care organizations, customers and distribution channels. The size of the fund is not being disclosed, but Katy said the firm has backed a total of eight companies to date.

“It’s all part of our broader mission to accelerate innovation to improve the lives of older adults. We are dedicated to helping build successful businesses to serve this large and growing market opportunity,” she said.

Next Acts: Women on the Move

Joanne Chen joins Foundation Capital as an associate. Read more...

Arsenal Venture Partners promotes Jennifer Dunham to partner. Read more...

Nicole Glaros is named a partner of Techstars Ventures. Read more...

Mid Europa Partners promotes Helena Lehtmets to operations executive. Read more...

Kerry Van Voris joins Madrona Venture Group as director of talent. Read more...

Women Investing in Women

An online clothing donation site founded and led by Anna Palmer and Christine Rizk has raised Series A funding from a group that includes Second Time Around, an upscale consignment retailer, whose CEO is Kristin Burrows. Read more...

The Dish on the Deal

It’s not often that the same company produces an exit and a new investment but that is the case for Avante Mezzanine Partners, whose founding team includes managing partner and CEO Jeri Harman and managing partner Natasha Fox. Read more...

Oakley Capital Partner Rebecca Gibson leads the firm in acquiring the European companies owned and operated by Damovo II Sarl. Read more...

Brenda M. Hogan, a senior investment manager with Ontario Capital Growth Corporation, facilitates an investment in a portfolio company by a key strategic investor. Read more...

WestBridge Capital Partner Valerie Kendall guides the London private equity firm to a successful exit. Read more...

Rachel Lam, senior vice president and group managing director of Time Warner Investments, joins the board of Mashable after the corporate venture firm leads a new funding round for the media company. Read more...

Aileen Lee’s Cowboy Ventures has a portfolio company acquired by a publicly traded company. Read more...

Accel Partners Vice President Luciana Lixandru helps lead the venture firm in backing a London-based food delivery company. Read more...

The work that Orabrush, Inc.’s online video marketing business has done in promoting the company’s tongue cleaner and dog breath brush has led Greycroft PartnersDana Settle to lead the effort to spin the unit out as an independent company. Read more...

Stephanie Tilenius sees a company in which she invested personally, and in which she also helped Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers invest, acquired for $475 million. Read more...

Backstory: Industry Data and Analysis

F Cubed Analysis: Female-Led Companies Landing Series A Rounds
F Cubed, the venture firm founded by Anu Duggal to back female entrepreneurs, found that 2014 was an improved year for female-led companies to land Series A rounds. Click here for the blog entry.

Stepping Out in Public

No items this week.


If you have news about a portfolio company going public, please feel free to forward it to David Barry, Editor.

It’s a Wrap: Fund Closures

Singulariteam, a Tel Aviv-based venture firm whose managing partner and president is Elizabeth Chen, garners backing from the founders of Tencent and Renren to close its second fund. Read more...

EIV Capital, whose team includes managing director Patti Melcher, director Jennifer Gottschalk and CFO Jill Stamets, needed just six months to not only close its second fund, but to do so well above target. Read more...

Leading Ladies: Women-Run Companies in the News

A company led by former venture capitalist Kathy Crothall has secured financing to continue a key trial. Read more...

Frances Cairns’ vision to improve college retention, graduation rates and student success has yielded financial support from a major player in the educational sector. Read more...

A company that was spun out of Boston Children’s Hospital two years ago and is headed by Patrice Milos has secured Series B financing. Read more...

Koru, a Seattle-based education startup whose co-founder and CEO is Kristen Hamilton, completes its Series A financing. Read more...

Pley, which was co-founded by Elina Fuman and is often described as a Netflix for Legos, is guaranteed a few more “pley days.” Read more...

Thymes, a maker of branded fragrances whose CEO is Anne Sempowski Ward, receives backing from a private equity firm that counts a high-profile, women-founded company in its portfolio. Read more...

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has given an additional vote of confidence — and capital — to Tracy DiNunzio and her startup Tradesy. Read more...

A ride-sharing company co-founded and led by Adi Vaxman has gotten venture capitalists to take a spin. Read more...

If you needed to purchase cosmetics 15 years ago, you generally had to go to a department store or perhaps a drug store. Maria Malcolm Beck and her husband, Barry Beck, thought there was a better way and started a standalone beauty store in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. That store, Bluemercury, evolved into a well-known, high-end seller of luxury beauty brands with 60 specialty stores in 18 states. And now, in an event that brings the Becks full circle, Bluemercury is being sold to Macy’s, Inc. Read more...

Bravo! And the Award Goes to ...

Michelle Moran, a partner in the London office of law firm Ropes & Gray, is appointed an officer of the International Bar Association’s Investment Funds Committee. Established in 1947, the International Bar Association is a global organization of legal practitioners, bar associations and law societies. It influences the development of international law reform and aids to shape the future of the legal profession throughout the world. The Investment Funds Committee provides support to its members across the world on the developments in the global investment funds industry. Michelle joined Ropes & Gray in 2013, from Dechert, LLP. Michelle focuses on advising European and U.S. clients on the establishment, authorization and management of all types of retail and institutional investment funds domiciled in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Luxembourg and Jersey, including UCITS, ICVCs, investment trusts, hedge funds, real estate funds and segregated institutional portfolios. Her background includes serving as head of legal for Invesco in the United Kingdom and Ireland. She has also participated on the EU Commission working groups responsible for formulating proposals to change UCITS legislation.


If you have news about awards presented to women for their work in the private equity industry, please feel free to forward it to David Barry, Editor.

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