“We’re on a venture capital adventure,” proclaims the landing page of SoGal Ventures. It’s clear right off the bat that they aren’t like other firms. They’re millennial-friendly, focused on the future of wellness and, perhaps most notably, female-led. In a field that is notoriously male-dominated, SoGal Ventures are carving out a space for both women in VC, as well as women entrepreneurs. At the average VC firm, chances are high that not a single woman works for the company — at SoGal, it’s women only who make the calls.
Founded in New York City in 2016, SoGal Ventures wears the crown of being the first by-and-for women investment firm of its kind. Of course, the radical concept isn’t the only thing that makes SoGal Ventures unique: When co-founders and partners Pocket Sun and Elizabeth Galbut came together, they both boasted equal levels of investment experience from around the world.
We’re on a venture capital adventure.”
Sun’s background involves working with startups in the United States, China and Southeast Asia, as well as an extensive speaking resume. Galbut previously founded A-Level Capital, a student-run VC firm out of Johns Hopkins University. Both women were also honored on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of venture capitalists.
Since its inception, SoGal Ventures has invested in more than 40 companies across the United States. “Our investments paint the future picture of how we live, work, and stay healthy,” reads the firm’s mission statement. Indeed many of the company’s investments — Function of Beauty, Unbound and Everly Well, to name a few — emphasize concepts like wellness, mindfulness and self-care.
SoGal Ventures emerged from its sister organization SoGal, also founded by Sun. SoGal acts as a network for “diverse entrepreneurs” through social media networking as well as in-person panels and workshops hosted around the world. SoGal Ventures helps elevate the spirit of this entrepreneurial community into a tangible facet of the larger entrepreneurial community.
Our investments paint the future picture of how we live, work, and stay healthy.”
What makes SoGal Ventures so uniquely important in this time in history is both its female leadership and emphasis on female-driven and targeted businesses. It’s no secret that men dominate both sides of the investment space, but the statistics are perhaps more harrowing than you realized: more than 75 percent of VC firms don’t have a single woman working on their staff. Likely as a result, VC firms are far less likely to invest in female CEOs. Over the last ten years, a mere three to five percent of VC deals have involved a company with female leadership — and that number is remaining relatively stagnant.
While such a state of affairs has lead women in the startup space to get creative (female CEOs are more successful at crowdfunding, for example), firms like SoGal represent an important, and major, step in the restructuring of the traditional investment field to break free of its outmoded ways and step into the 21st century.
