Latina-led Silicon Valley Enterprise Capital agency Ulu Ventures has raised $208 million for its fourth fund.
The increase marks a 50% enhance from its $138 million Fund III. This newest fundraise doubles Ulu’s belongings underneath administration (AUM) to over $400 million.
The fundraising was supported by an extended checklist of institutional restricted companions dedicated to the agency’s technique of funding various tech founders regardless of the present company retreat from DEI efforts.
Ulu Ventures is Supporting Startups With an Unbiased Strategy
Ulu was co-founded in 2008 by Miriam Rivera, a Latina and former vice chairman and deputy basic counsel at Google, and her husband Clint Korver, a serial entrepreneur with a Ph.D. in engineering financial techniques.
The fund helps seed-stage tech startups within the US utilizing an inclusive, data-based method that seeks to filter cognitive bias with out shutting out any demographic group.
“Ulu is a beacon for probably the most gifted entrepreneurial groups as a result of we scale back bias by making use of neutral strategies of assessing danger and the identical standards to all folks,” CEO, Co-founder, and Managing Director Miriam Rivera.
Ulu Ventures Funding Crew: Maria Salamanca, Clint Korver, Miriam Rivera, Steve Reale (Photograph: Enterprise Wire)
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Ulu’s method has resulted in a portfolio that’s extra various than that of typical enterprise investments. Of the almost 250 startups the enterprise agency has backed since 2008, of which ten are unicorns, about 80% have a founder who’s an immigrant, a girl, or from a minority group—Ulu’s definition of various. Concurrently, about 80% of its portfolio corporations have a white co-founder, and 38% have a feminine co-founder.
How The Earlier Funds Have Carried out
Ulu’s earlier funds have carried out nicely. Its Fund I, launched in 2008, had a internet whole worth to paid-in capital ratio of 6.6 instances as of the third quarter of 2024, based on Korver.
That measure exhibits the entire worth of a enterprise fund’s investments, together with income and potential future positive factors, in comparison with the preliminary funding quantity. Corporations driving returns for that preliminary fund 1 included fintech SoFi, knowledge analytics firm Palantir, and authorized tech Everlaw.
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Ulu’s 2016 Fund II stood at 2.1 instances Whole Worth to Paid-In Capital (TVPI) on the identical level. Its third fund, raised in 2020, remains to be too younger to have significant outcomes but, Korver stated. However, the standouts within the second fund have been Edutech Guild Schooling and BetterUp, in addition to faculty bus startup Zum.
Ulu closed Fund IV in October 2024, exceeding the dimensions of its third fund by about 50%. The agency now has over $400 million underneath administration and believes its new fund is the biggest within the U.S. enterprise sphere led by a Latina girl.
Ulu’s Ventures Fund IV’s Supporters
Ulu’s Fund IV was supported by 12 foundations, together with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Basis, the Ford Basis, the California Wellness Basis, and the Marguerite Casey Basis.
Fund-of-funds, together with GCM Grosvenor, Verdis Funding Administration, Fairview Capital, and Illumen Capital, participated, as did the Melinda French Gates household workplace Pivotal Ventures, college endowments, and different company sponsors.
Getting so far wasn’t straightforward. The agency started elevating Fund IV in early 2023 however put the method on maintain after Silicon Valley Financial institution collapsed. After Ulu restarted fundraising, restricted companions gravitated to mega-funds, and the backlash towards range, fairness, and inclusion efforts was constructing.
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Ulu predicts an organization’s success by analyzing key metrics like market share and income. They estimate the possibilities of getting a 10x return on funding. Importantly, they don’t contemplate elements like a founder’s gender, race, or background when making these predictions.
Altering DEI Efforts and Applications
Some massive tech corporations have been reducing again their DEI efforts with the Trump administration’s bent. Google, as an example, eradicated its objectives of hiring folks from underrepresented teams, The Wall Avenue Journal reported, saying a few of its DEI applications could “increase danger, or aren’t as impactful as we’d hoped.” Some not too long ago revealed analysis additionally undermined earlier findings that government range boosts income.
In the meantime, the variety of offers raised by Black founders has been declining since 2021, with simply 128 rounds for $734 million raised final 12 months, based on Crunchbase, a fraction of the almost $179 billion raised by U.S. startups in 2024.
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“If you’re going to be standing sturdy on DEI right now, you must be extremely buttoned-up,” stated Maria Salamanca, a companion at Ulu Ventures, referring to the rigor aimed for in Ulu’s data-driven course of.
The enterprise ecosystem has modified up to now 12 months, with a number of authorized setbacks to company range applications. “We need to be an instance of how you can do it thoughtfully, we don’t need to be a goal,” Salamanca stated of its efforts to be extra inclusive.
Most important picture: Miriam Rivera,