Aliavia Ventures has closed its $13.5 million fund, which it says is focused exclusively on backing female-founded startups in Australia and the US.
This is the first fund from the California-based venture capital firm founded by ex-tech executives Marisa Warren and Kate Vale, which launched in 2021 with a view to helping female founders build tech companies.
The Australian family offices of Carol Schwartz, Tattarang, Robyn and Victoria Denholm and Dom Pym (founder of Up Bank) and Zip Co’s new Group CEO Cynthia Scott contributed to the raise.
“The US market is significantly different to Australia and we help our founders navigate the nuances, connect to our network of co-investors, corporates and individuals to get the US-traction required.”
Marisa Warren – co-founder of Aliavia Ventures
“We want to see more billion-dollar startups funded and led by women,” Warren says. “As investors, we have the power to change the world through what we invest in. We want to make our dollars count by investing in gender-diverse teams that are having a real positive impact on the world, whilst also delivering superior returns.”
Since its launch, Aliavia has invested about $8.4 million into 9 female-founded tech startups, including at-home genetic testing startup Eugene, online training platform HowToo, culture AI startup Othelia and US-based art-streaming startup Loupe.
Warren says the venture capital fund has a concentrated portfolio approach, and acts as a bridge by investing in Australian startups looking to expand into the US. The pair are also joined by venture partners Levi Aron (ex-CEO of Deliveroo Australia), Alexis Versandi (ex-Morgan Stanely) and Head of Platform, Sheetal Singh Tobin (ex-Google).
“The US market is significantly different to Australia and we help our founders navigate the nuances, connect to our network of co-investors, corporates and individuals to get the US-traction required.”
To be eligible for Aliavia’s investment, startups need to have at least one female founder and be building a B2B or B2C tech company from pre-seed and seed stages.
Schwartz, who was featured on the cover of Forbes Australia’s sixth magazine issue, says Warren and Vales are ‘pioneers’. “They’re the first and only pre-series A VC in Australia to be established by, and invest exclusively in women, and they continue to lead the charge to see greater equality in VC funding,” Schwartz says.
According to Cut Through Venture’s Q3 funding report, funding to female-only founder teams in Australia reached its highest percentage contribution since Q4, 2020, but funding share to female founders remains lower than the record-level set in 2020. Secure Code Warrior, Silicon Quantum Computing and Goterra secured 87% of the $152 million raised by female founders.
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