Brewing Success Through Community

Welcome back to Chai Time by Chai Ventures. Here at Chai Ventures, we believe that building a thriving community is an art, much like brewing the perfect cup of chai. Each fund has its distinct approach to supporting founders, blending mentorship, resources, and networks to guide them toward success. For us, the strength of our community is fueled by the network effect: as more women founders, investors, and operators join us, the value of our collective grows exponentially.

In this edition, we're excited to spotlight remarkable women across different roles within our community—from emerging VC check-writers to seasoned partners, from founders innovating within female-driven sectors to next-gen apprentices eager to learn. Together, these women represent the essential pillars of Chai Ventures’ mission. Much like the sturdy legs of a chair, each member plays a critical role in balancing and uplifting the entire ecosystem.

Thank you for being a part of this journey. Let’s dive into the latest highlights, achievements, and opportunities from our inspiring community.

1. Emerging VC Check-Writers: Empowering the next generation of check-writers at VC firms ranging from $13M to $1.5B in AUM.

   Caroline is a generalist Series A investor at Interplay with a focus on B2B marketplaces and vertical software — if you’re a founder building in these spaces or want to learn more about Interplay, reach out to Caroline! Fun Fact: Caroline ran her first marathon last weekend in NYC—congratulate her if you see her around!

2. VC Partners: Providing a space for women-identifying VC partners to speak about their current challenges and leverage peer support groups to tackle these obstacles.

   Liz is investing at SHAKTI in pre-seed and seed stage companies reimagining three global habits—commerce, mobility, and media. If you’re a pre-seed or seed stage company innovating in one of these areas or want to learn more about SHAKTI, reach out to Liz!

3. Apprentices and Fellows: Creating learning and mentorship opportunities for current college-aged / early career stage women who want to immerse themselves into the world of venture and startups.

   Kosha is a Chai Ventures Fellow and Master of Public Health candidate at Columbia University with an interest in supporting healthcare startups, particularly in women's health, mental health, and the wellbeing space — reach out to Kosha you’re looking to add to your team on the startup or investing side and you’re focused on one of those areas mentioned above!

4. Founders and Operators: Engaging a community of women-identifying founders and operators as a deal sourcing mechanism and to leverage expertise and insights on a deal-by-deal basis.

   Check out what Katie is building lume, and what Alex and Noelle are building at Girl Dinner (@thegirldinnernyc).

Team Update

We’ve had a busy September and October, and we wanted to share some exciting updates from our team with our Chai Ventures Community:

• Rajiv was invited to Dubai by LTV Capital and the organizers of the Expand North Star Conference. He met with incredible women leading and innovating in various areas and was reminded of his visit to Tokyo last spring with JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), where he met inspiring women across various levels, including a student leading a women-in-business initiative at Keio University (supporting our commitment to inspire students), an associate at a fund (eligible for our VC support programs), and a partner at a $150 million impact fund (a potential collaborator). Check out Rajiv’s full recap of his trip to Dubai here.

• Alex was featured in TechCrunch’s Top VC Investors Under 30 in NYC list. Check out the full list here (written and curated by Dominic-Madori Davis).

• Rajiv wrote an OpEd on Why We Must Continue Supporting and Investing in Women Founders in response to Nell Gallogly’s Article in The New York Times. Rajiv’s OpEd is linked here, and Nell’s original article is linked here.

• Alex was featured in Juliette Richert’s fourth edition of her monthly series on emerging VC talent. Check out Juliette’s full article here.

• Rajiv attended the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Conference in NYC, and was invited to participate in a private roundtable on Gender Lens Investments: Closing Funding and Financing Gaps for Women and Girls. Check out Rajiv’s full recap of his experience at CGI here.

• Alex ran her first marathon on Sunday in NYC!! Check out Alex’s recap here, and read about why running a marathon and running a startup / investing in startups are not so different.

Community Update

Our community of women capital allocators, operators, and founders is at the core of everything that we do. Since our last edition of Chai Time, we have hosted (and are planning to host) several events to bring the various members of our community together, such as:

• Carta x Chai Ventures x Citizens Private Bank: Founder & VC Squash Night 1 — check out Alex’s recap here, and Carta’s recap here.

• nextNYC VC / Founder Coffee Meetup with Olivia Katcher from Dream Capital — Alex and Olivia hosted a casual coffee meet-up in NoHo for early-stage founders.

• Girls into VC Summit — Chai Ventures was a co-sponsor for Isabella Mandis’ Girls into VC Summit where they brought together over 200 inspiring women and allies for a day filled with connection, empowerment, and invaluable insights from some of the brightest minds in venture capital and entrepreneurship.

• Carta x Chai Ventures x Citizens Private Bank: Founder & VC Squash Night 2 (happening tonight on November 8th) — there are a few spots left, RSVP here!

• Chai Ventures x Lyonshare: Women GP & LP Dinner (happening next week on November 13th) — there are a few spots left, email Alex if you want to join!

We’ve also attended a number of events hosted by friends in our community. Details below.

• Alex attended Project W’s WEB | Consumer, where she heard pitches from eleven remarkable women building incredible consumer brands. Check out Lynn’s recap here.

• Alex assisted with the pitch practice for the British Consulate General of New York’s Department for Business and Trade’s Female Founder Tech Mission for the second year in a row. Reach out Shree if you want to learn more!

• Alex attended APEX’s USA launch in New York. Check out what Kari is building here, and feel free to reach out to her if you’re interested in learning more or joining her community!

🏆 Some wins from our community:

• Bryanna hosted an incredible Good Rapport Pop-Up and Panel at Shopify in September with 500+ RSVPs (!!!) and lines around the block. Ping Bryanna if you want to collaborate on a future event, or learn more about what she’s building at Good Rapport.

• Michelle just started at Draper VC after founding FLIK (Acquired by Rumor Avenue).

• Miri also ran her first marathon last weekend in NYC and raised $3,000+ for Free Arts, an incredible achievement that will have a huge impact on so many kids.

Portfolio Update

Our portfolio companies have been making incredible strides and launching innovative initiatives that align with Chai Ventures' mission to empower and uplift women founders, innovators, and operators. From new product launches to strategic partnerships, these companies are pushing boundaries across diverse sectors—from health and wellness to cutting-edge technology and digital commerce. As they continue to scale and reach new audiences, they’re also looking for meaningful partnerships to fuel their growth and further their missions. Here’s a look at some recent wins and ways to get involved.

🚀 Some wins from our portfolio companies:

• Aavia launched Curated Commerce to bring intentional, integrated brand and service recommendations to their members, all with proudly women-owned and science-backed brands.

• illumyn Impact (the nonprofit arm of illumyn, a Chai Ventures Portfolio Company) announced an investment from the Ford Foundation, which will enable them to continue the incredible work they are doing to bring fresh, experienced talent into the board ecosystem.

• Landing (scaled to 1.3M users with features in Forbes, Business Insider, Byline and partnerships with the likes of Bumble and Girlboss) announced and launched Zeen at the beginning of October. Zeen is a platform for visual, shoppable blogs. Creators use Zeen to make, share, and earn from visual posts featuring products they love. Their subscribers receive digests of new posts over text, and use Zeen as an archive of recommendations to shop from their favorite creators, all in one place. You can think of Zeen like a shoppable, visual Substack.

• Sixfold presented research on the Company's RNA delivery system at The 5th Nordic Nucleic Acid Based Medicine Industry Network Meeting. Sixfold uses advanced AI/ML, automated chemistry and high throughput screening to learn the language that encodes RNA destination and unlocks new cell types for treatment.

✨ Some asks from our portfolio companies:

• Aavia is looking to partner with brands in period care, skin/body care, nutrition, healthcare, workouts, and sexual wellness for our Curated Commerce program. If you know any brands that might be interested, especially entering BFCM, get in touch with Janice if that sounds like you or someone you know!

• ENTR would love to meet with anyone at food, beverage, or supplement companies. Reach out to Chelsea or Kristin if that sounds like you or someone you know!

• The Know’s early users love their product: they have received 10/10 customer happiness scores with a big 4 consultancy! They are eager to expand to new buyers and are looking for introductions to executives at large enterprises that have to determine if, when, and how to respond to global news events. Reach out to Selena if that sounds like you or someone you know!

Know someone that one of our portcos should talk to? Reply to this newsletter, or message Alex!

Ecosystem Partner Update

We've recently partnered with TriNet to better support our portfolio companies and Chai Ventures community.

TriNet acquired a company called Clarus R&D! Are you familiar with the R&D Tax Credit for your business? 

Imagine this: Your business is thriving, but you're still leaving money on the table. The R&D Tax Credit is a powerful tool that can significantly boost your bottom line.

For most companies, the credit is worth 7-10% of qualified research expenditures. This is a dollar-for-dollar credit against taxes owed which can dramatically lower your effective tax rate. Plus, it can carry forward 20 years. For young businesses that are not yet profitable, applying the credit against payroll taxes is a valuable, non-dilutive funding opportunity.

They've also extended discounted pricing for their PEO services to all of our portfolio companies and to members of our Chai Ventures community. Reply to this email, or message Kristie or Rachel to learn more!

Pipeline Update

We’re incredibly lucky to speak with amazing founders everyday, and we have highlighted a selection of companies that we’ve met with recently for our community.

• Astor — a financial health platform that crafts your path to financial freedom at all stages of life. Today, only 27% of women are confident investing; with women in the US controlling $30T in the next 10 years, we must create a world where women feel confident growing their wealth.

  • Founder: Lindsay Dorf

  • Stage: 🌱 Seed

  • How We Met Lindsay: via Emma from TMV.

• Brightland — transforming the premium pantry space, offering beautifully designed, high-quality products focused on transparency and sustainability.

  • Founder: Aishwarya Iyer

  • Stage: 🌱 Series A

  • How We Met Aishwarya: via Annie from Dream Ventures and Kelley from Golden Hour Ventures.

• Nelle Atelier — the essential edit of wardrobe staples for women below 5 '4 and they are on a mission to reinvent the petite category for the modern shopper.

  • Founder: Madeleine Cohen

  • Stage: 🌱 Pre-Seed

  • How We Met Madeleine: via Ruffin from brydge club. Madeleine will be doing a pop-up at the beginning of December in NYC — respond to this email if you want details!

• Systole Health — addressing a crisis in women's health – the growing epidemic of heart disease and its risk factors – through an innovative group virtual care solution.

  • Founder: Simin Gharib Lee

  • Stage: 🌱 Seed

  • How We Met Niha: via Niha from Redwood Pacific.

• Velvet — an AI gateway to develop and deploy AI applications with confidence.

  • Founder: Emma Lawler

  • Stage: 🌱 Seed

  • How We Met Emma: Alex and Emma were classmates at Chicago Booth, and co-led the Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital (EVC) Club!

If you’d like to be connected to any of these founders, please respond to this email or reach out to Alex.

Happy Fall to our Chai Ventures Community, and thank you for reading the second edition of Chai Time with Chai Ventures!

About Chai Ventures

Chai Ventures is a New York City-based pre-seed and seed-stage fund investing in women-led companies addressing critical challenges with scalable, impactful businesses. We focus on sectors where women comprise a significant portion of the total addressable market, particularly through their decision-making and spending power.

We prioritize exceptional women founders—trailblazers who defy the norm and are often underestimated. Our approach is holistic, supporting women entrepreneurs with a multifaceted strategy that recognizes the essential role of women as both capital allocators and recipients. By fostering relationships with women check-writers, both emerging and established, we aim to strengthen their confidence and commitment to investing in women-led startups at their firms.

• We invest in companies building in sectors where women currently control the majority of decision-making and spending power.

• Our initial check size ranges from $100-500K.

• Get in touch with us by emailing [email protected].