Women-led Springbank Collective raises $35m for new fund

Springbank Collective, a women-led venture firm based in New York, announced that it has raised $35 million for its debut fund.

Investors include investors include AIG, Bank of America, Foundry Group, Investinor, JPMorgan, Stardust Equity and Union Square Ventures.

The firm was founded in 2019 by Courtney Leimkuhler, the former chief financial officer for corporate insurance broker Marsh; Elana Berkowitz, a former Obama administration technology policy official; and Jennifer Lee Koss, who previously founded creative agency Brika, which was acquired in 2021 by Salt XC.

The founders initially invested their personal capital and then tapped into their “network of friends and former colleagues to create Springbank Collective, writing syndicate checks together,” they wrote in a Medium blog post. To date, they have backed 32 companies.

They invest in pre-seed through Series A, targeting companies addressing “the long-overlooked needs of women and working families,” which they say is “a $1 trillion opportunity hiding in plain sight.” Their investments fall into three categories: career, care and consumer.

“We started Springbank with the view that the needs of women and working families have been under-estimated, under-innovated and under-invested,” they wrote. “Areas like flexible and remote work, caregiving and care infrastructure, women’s health and household financial wellness and productivity have historically been viewed as ‘women’s issues.’ Nice to have; not need to have. We believe these are, in fact, ‘everyone issues’ at the heart of a functioning society, labor market, and the economy at large.”