XFactor, the early stage VC that invests in women-led startups, raises a second fund

XFactor, the pre-seed and seed-stage VC out of FlyBridge Capital, has today announced that it has raised a second fund of $8.5 million.

XFactor first came on the scene in 2017 with $3 million. FlyBridge Capital partner Chuck Hazard started the fund alongside several female founders who were interested in getting into investment.

The idea is not just to fund startups led by at least one female, but also to give female founders a path into investing.

With Fund 2, XFactor is able to not only increase its check size from $100K to $150K, but it also makes room for more partners at the firm. From Fund 1, XFactor has grown from 9 investment partners to 23, operating in cities like LA, Seattle and Denver alongside original markets of Boston, NY, and SF. Collectively, this group of women has raised more than $550 million in venture capital for their own businesses.

Some notable investments from Fund 1 include Chief, The Riveter, Choosy, CourtBuddy, and MixLab, which today raised an $8.5 million seed round.

The increase in fund size will allow XFactor to invest in 53 companies, and the fund is looking to finance companies in new verticals, such as healthcare, fintech, agtech, and frontier tech.

All of the investors at XFactor, which include Anna Palmer, Kathryn Minshew, Kate Ryder, Danielle Morrill, Allison Koopf, and Aubrey Pagano, work on the fund part-time while running their respective businesses.

“The greatest challenge is managing deal flow, given we’re all operators at our day jobs,” said Anna Palmer, cofounder and CEO of Dough and investment partner at XFactor. “We saw 1,500 opportunities come through on the first fund, and we’re expecting to see the same if not more this time around. The biggest challenge is seeing everything and managing that alongside our day jobs.”