Capital F closes $17M debut fund to back the 'female economy
What's the deal? Capital FDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, one of the few all-female-led VC firms, closed its $17 million debut fund on Wednesday. Co-founders Margaret Coblentz and Dawn Dobras will back early-stage startups in the "female economy" — markets where women drive demand. The firm writes checks of $250,000 to $1 million.
What's the endgame? Capital FDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → targets three areas: women's health, digital commerce, and AI tools. It has already backed 13 companies, including telemedicine startup Hey JaneDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, hormone-tracking platform Stardust, and MalamaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, which offers doula support for people on Medicaid.
Who's backing it? Almost 80% of the fund's limited partners are women, recruited partly through "salon" events the founders hosted across the country for the "VC curious." LPs include Jenny Ming, chief executive officer of Rothy's; Marta Benson, former CEO of Pottery BarnDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →; and Linnesa Roberts of Gingerbread CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
Coblentz and Dobras have run companies together for three decades. Dobras led clean beauty retailer Credo BeautyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and spent a decade at GapDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, while Coblentz built and exited a luxury knitwear brand.
Why now? The pair launched the firm after realizing few women reached executive top ranks. "We realized that many times women aren't invited into the rooms to invest in funds," Dobras said.
The LP relationships come with a condition: Capital F won't back a founder until they've spoken to at least two of its LPs. "We've seen those relationships move into advisor, into board members, into additional investments," Dobras said, "and most importantly, lots and lots of sales introductions."
The firm has already logged an exit: portfolio company Big Sur AI was acquired by Google last year. "That was a fun LP letter to write because we hadn't even closed the fund and we've already had an exit," Dobras said.
The signal: Over the past decade, investors have talked up the importance of funding women's health and other long-underfunded areas. Capital F expects to finish deploying the fund by the end of 2027 — a test of whether that talk translates into returns.
Read more: TechCrunch
Image credit: capitalf.vc
