Women in Private Funds

New limited partners in the sophomore fund include The Health Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Vivensa Foundation, as well as some family offices.

The firm began fundraising in March 2025 for Fund IV, which is targeting $50m to make seed investments in software start-ups.

'I think resonated in a market where seed stage funds suddenly started opportunity funds and everybody seemed to have a growth fund,' Breakout managing partner Lindy Fishburne tells VCJ.

While almost half of respondents to a recent survey of high-net-worth women investors are in the earliest stages of engaging with private markets, 67% say they plan to invest $25k-$49k in venture funds this year.

Founded by Khosla Ventures veteran Sandhya Venkatachalam, the new seed-stage firm is backing AI companies that target the 'capacity crunch' to democratize access to critical services.

Michelle Volz, who was previously an investment partner for Andreessen Horowitz, raised her first fund in just 12 months.

General counsel Deborah Carrillo makes sure that members of Menlo’s investment team understand LPs’ concerns as well as legal issues they need to be aware of as board members.

Fundraising for women-led venture firms dipped again in 2025, but our analysis of four years of research shows that women-led firms' share of total industry fundraising is still growing.

A total of 127 women-led venture capital funds closed on a combined $2.45 billion in 2025, according to Venture Capital Journal's exclusive research.