Welcome to Chai Time by Chai Ventures

Introducing Chai Time by Chai Ventures

Author

Alex Chung
25 Jun

Each fund has its unique vision on how to be the guiding force for a founding team's success. It often boils down to a blend of connections and expertise. This alchemy is akin to making Chai. While our support model at Chai Ventures is an ever-evolving entity, the current linchpin is the network effect. To us, it means the value of a community compounds as more individuals join.

During each edition of Chai Time by Chai Ventures, we will highlight our community of incredible women founders, investors, and operators.

We think of our Chai Ventures community like a chair, with each part of the community representing a leg of the chair. Just as a chair requires all its legs to stand firmly and provide support, a community relies on its diverse elements to function smoothly and maintain balance.

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

    Amira is investing in early-stage companies building in food and nutrition at Bluestein Ventures — if you’re a founder building in these spaces or want to learn more about Bluestein Ventures, reach out to Amira!

  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.

    Jennifer is investing in early-stage, women-led B2B and consumer companies at Halogen Ventures — if you’re an early-stage women-led company or want to learn more about Halogen Ventures, reach out to Jennifer!

  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.

    Sriya is currently going into her final year at NYU, while also serving as a Venture Scout for both GoAhead Ventures and Soma Capital — if you’re looking for an amazing college student to help out with anything finance, ops, or marketing-related, reach out to Sriya. Fun Fact: we originally met Sriya through Alessandra and Jannine from Elektra Health!

  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 Maya is working on at Amira Health, and what Irene and Jennifer are building at Chiyo.

A collection of photos from some of the events we’ve hosted so far this year. More to come!

Community Update

Our community of women capital allocators, operators, and founders is at the core of everything that we do. Since March, we have hosted several events too bring the various members of our community together, such as:

  • Chai Ventures Women’s History Month Celebration (check out Rajiv’s recap here) 

  • Dentons x Chai Ventures: Series B+ Women Founder Dinner Series (check out Alex’s recap here)

  • Beyond Capital Ventures x Chai Ventures: Women in Impact Lunch (check out Alex’s recap here)

🏆 Some wins from our community:

  • Aagya from Aavia recently completed the Mayo Clinic and ASU MedTech Accelerator (check out Aagya’s recap here).

  • Liesel + Victoria co-founded a startup together called Imera, which bridges the knowledge gap for immigrants with an app that offers personalized AI guidance, exclusive partnerships for essential services, and a community of experts who have successfully navigated similar challenges.

  • Sophie launched The Art of Broth, reinventing the way you sip broth. Use code “chai” for 10% off your online order!

Portfolio Update

As Rajiv said in his opening remarks at our Women’s History Month Celebration in March, “the world of Venture Capital is undergoing a seismic shift!” There are more and more areas of spend and income that women are leading, and in many countries, including the United States, more women are graduating from college than men.

According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the U.S., women have earned the majority of bachelor's degrees since the early 1980s. As of the most recent statistics, women earn approximately 57-58% of all bachelor's degrees awarded. Women now control about a third — or $10 trillion — of total U.S. household assets, according to McKinsey & Company. Women-led companies are leading the charge in terms of innovating solutions in areas that women know best.

🚀 Some wins from our portfolio companies:

✨ Some asks from our portfolio companies:

  • ENTR would love to meet with both early-stage and mid-market packaged food & beverage brands. Reach out to Chelsea or Kristin if that sounds like you or someone you know!

  • Landing would like to speak with creators that use LTK, Shopmy, or Substack to share their fashion recommendations. Get in touch with Miri if that sounds like you or someone you know!

  • Vizer would appreciate introductions to decision-makers at enterprise CPG brands. Ping Sam 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!

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.

  • Diem — a social search engine, powered by community conversations & Diem AI.

  • Indyx — a digital catalog (or index!) of your wardrobe, unlocking opportunities for styling services as well as low-friction resale of items in your wardrobe.

  • Mika — smart inventory software for modern clinics.

  • Overstand (no website yet) — a co-pilot for growth and revenue teams at large B2B companies.

  • REOME — the only premium biotech skincare brand that fuses a premium, modern brand experience + biotech.

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

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

About Chai Ventures

Chai Ventures is a NYC-based pre-seed and seed stage fund investing in women-led companies solving critical problems with businesses that deliver impact at scale in sectors where women make up a significant portion of the total addressable market particularly via decision-making power and spending power. 

We take a full ecosystem approach and apply a multifaceted strategy to supporting women entrepreneurs by considering the pivotal role of women as both capital allocators and recipients. We cultivate relationships with women check-writers (both emerging and active) to increase their overall conviction around investing in women-led startups at their firms.

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

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