Monique Woodard, a veteran of startups and VC for two decades, was more interested in new businesses driving demographic change in a handful of very specific areas 3 complementary “layers” of a cake.
Solo capitalist Monique Woodard's fund Cake Ventures is looking to invest in companies focused on users reflected in her theory of"demographic change."The Black founder-turned-investor will write seed and pre-seed checks, backed by investors including Bank of America and billionaire Melinda French Gates.
Startups that fit such a thesis, according to Woodard, would cater to customer bases that reflected such layers. Take Rares, a social investing site enabling fractional ownership of collectives like sneakers, which embraces Black, Latin and Asian cultural influences; or Most Days, an app for setting healthy routines in areas like sleep and depression, that is mostly used by women.
Cake will look to make about 25 investments overall from its fund; Woodard has made 12 so far. The portfolio already includes companies like Rares and Most Days, but also training startup Bright, household bills tracker Gerald, disability and neuro-divergence support business Joshin, among others.
Despite such support, Woodard said that raising Cake Ventures’ first fund was a challenging process, despite a career that has included building and selling an ad network, launching a mobile shopping startup, and stints as a Venture Partner at 500 Startups, a Venture Scout at Lightspeed Venture Partners and an ongoing advising role with SoftBank Vision Fund’s Emerge startup accelerator.
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