Announced via a blog post from Bumble HQ, the new fund will focus on early-stage investments to women-led startups, particularly those run by women of colour and women from other traditionally underrepresented groups.
“The gender gap in venture capital is staggering, particularly for women founders of color. (B)umble, a tech company (with) an 85% female workforce, wants to be part of the solution, wrote Whitney Wolfe Herd, the CEO of Bumble, on Twitter. “Today we launch Bumble Fund to invest in women ignored by the establishment.”
The point of the fund is to help those founders raise capital for their ventures.
According to Forbes, Bumble has committed over $1 million so far, and says it will invest anywhere between $5,000 and $250,000 in the companies it selects as part of the fund.
Some businesses that the new fund has already committed to are: BeautyCon, Cleo Capital, Female Founders Fund, Mahmee, and Sofia Los Angeles.
Mahmee is a “Headliner” from Backstage Capital, a VC firm run by founder Arlan Hamilton that invests in “underestimated” and underrepresented founders.
Cograts Bumble on your investment in @Backstage_Cap Headliner @getmahmee! August 15, 2018
Read More: VC firm launches fund to invest in black women founders
According to the Bumble blog post, the company isn’t stopping at the five commitments they’ve listed — they’re continuing to look for businesses to support, and recommend that interested parties download the Bumble app and get set up with the networking platform within, Bumble Bizz.
