BBG Ventures (BBGV) announced today the close of its Fund II at $60 million. This fund brings BBGV’s total assets under management to $130 million. The fund also attracted an impressive array of new partners to the fund, with notable names like Fairview, Pivotal Ventures, California Endowment, and Mizuho. Returning lead institutional partners included State of Michigan Retirement Services, Illumen Capital, and the George Kaiser Family Foundation, signaling their strong belief in the fund’s trajectory.
BBGV’s Fund II strategy was shaped by proprietary research with Centiment conducted over the last year with more than 2,000 Americans across race, gender, age, and income, to better understand how and whether identity shapes priorities. The findings, published today in a report titled, "Investing in the Polycultural Future of America," give voice to profound demographic and economic shifts that are reshaping the nation. The emergence of the majority-minority, a rapidly-aging population, and widening wealth gaps are creating a mosaic of unique segments where identities are complex, dynamic and evolving. Despite these differences, the research uncovered surprisingly common concerns across nearly every age group, race and gender. The pressing needs it identified within health and wellbeing, financial security, employment, education, and underserved consumers will guide BBG Venture’s future investments.
“At BBGV, we’ve always believed that identifying underserved segments, and seeking out the founders who understand them best, will drive the strongest outcomes,” said Nisha Dua, BBGV co-founder and managing partner. “The survey findings show so many shared priorities, but also a need for nuanced solutions that founders with a deep understanding of this new America are best equipped to deliver.”
Moving forward, BBGV will invest in founding teams that include either diverse founding members or female founders solving the problems of today's polycultural America.
“We think founders who bring a combination of lived and learned experience to company building have a competitive advantage,” said Susan Lyne, BBGV co-founder and managing partner. “Investing in women will always be a core element of that thesis, but our research has moved us to broaden our investment mandate to include all underrepresented founders.”
In addition to expanding the mandate, BBG Ventures is also launching its first operator network. As a firm, BBGV has always offered more than just capital, and the Operator Network takes that support even further. Portfolio founders will be paired, based on need, with multi-industry leaders spanning product, engineering, growth, operations, supply chain & logistics, GTM, consumer social, marketing and finance. The list of leaders include operators from Snap, Reddit, Slack, One Medical, Dropbox, Harry’s, Spotify, Google, Otter AI, Glossier, and many more.
Additional investors who affirmed their confidence in the fund’s new vision include returning partners Bank of America, Global Endowment Management, Gingerbread Capital, Nordstrom and Verizon, along with new partner I-Bank of California.
Before BBGV’s most recent fund in 2021, Lyne and Dua led two funds inside AOL, investing in companies such as triple-unicorn Spring Health, HopSkipDrive, Zola and KiwiCo. This is BBGV’s second fund as an independent firm. Notable investments from the firm’s first institutional fund, BBG Ventures Fund I, include Canela TV, Starface, Topline Pro and Supercircle.
About BBG Ventures
BBG Ventures (BBGV) is a seed and pre-seed venture fund backing high growth companies with founders who are uniquely qualified to move the world forward. Co-founded in 2014 by managing partners Susan Lyne (ABC Entertainment, Martha Stewart, Gilt, AOL, GoPro and Blade) and Nisha Dua (Bain, AOL, BUILT BY GIRLS), the firm has since become one of the most active investors in female and diverse founders in the United States. BBGV portfolio companies meet the mandate of serving “Polycultural America,” a term coined by BBGV to represent the pressing needs of today’s diverse society. These founders are bringing new thinking to sectors where change is overdue, such as healthcare, future of work, fintech, climate and underserved consumers, solving problems for millions of Americans via B2B and B2C business models. BBGV has raised $130 million in capital to date and portfolio companies include leaders such as double unicorn Spring Health, KiwiCo, HopSkipDrive, Zola, Canela Media, Starface, Topline Pro, and Supercircle. As of today, 96% of the companies in BBGV’s portfolio have at least one female co-founder and 84% have at least one co-founder of color. For more information visit www.bbgventures.com, follow on bbgventures and connect on BBG Ventures.