PALO ALTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 22, 2022–
Ulu Ventures, a leading seed-stage venture firm with $200M AUM and 10 unicorns in its portfolio, has deepened its own bench by promoting two first-generation American women on the team to Partner, each with extraordinary academic and professional backgrounds as investors. Kathy Chen and Nancy Torres advance to leadership positions within the growing investment team at Ulu Ventures, headed by Managing Directors Clint Korver and Miriam Rivera, (who is also CEO and Co-Founder) along with CFO and investment team member, Steve Reale (who was also recently named Partner). These promotions will boost Ulu’s capacity to review new investment opportunities, expand expertise in industry sectors, and build on Ulu’s pioneering work of investing in diverse founders; more than 75% of entrepreneurs across Ulu’s three funds are diverse.
Kathy Chen is focused on healthcare and sustainability; both are sectors where under-represented founders have incredible potential to shape the future. Prior to Ulu Ventures, Kathy spent eight years in direct investing, covering early- and late-stage companies across consumer, industrial, health, and climate sectors. She has assisted portfolio companies with fundraising, financial planning/budgeting, analytics and KPI design, and new market and product line research, just to name a few.
Nancy Torres is focused on backing diverse teams in fintech and web3, areas where founders are unlocking new types of access to opportunity. Prior to Ulu Ventures, Nancy worked in technology investment banking at Goldman Sachs, advising leading software, internet, and fintech companies on strategic transactions. She also spent more than five years as an operator at Google, Uber and IDEO CoLab. Nancy is the co-founder of the Latinx MBA Association, a 1,000+ member organization dedicated to advancing Latinx business leadership.
“Nancy and Kathy have quickly integrated into the team at Ulu over the past several months and each has brought insightful new perspectives to our data-driven investment process. As Partners, they will not only improve our capabilities in traditional Ulu areas of focus, but also allow our team to explore newer markets such as sustainability, healthcare, fintech, and consumer businesses,” said Ulu Co-Founder and Managing Director Clint Korver.
Currently only 1% of VC investment partners are Latinas and 3% are Asian-American and Pacific Islanders. Ulu now boasts three diverse women in top investment leadership roles.
The recent hiring of George Sanchez and Serena Rivera-Korver as analysts continues to increase Ulu’s own internal diversity metrics, while also expanding support for greater numbers of Latinx founders as well as those based in New York, where Sanchez and Rivera-Korver are located.
“Nancy and Kathy are wonderfully aligned with Ulu’s mission to champion diverse entrepreneurial teams who rise to the challenge of the biggest problems and opportunities. Clint and I couldn’t be happier with the intellectual curiosity, rigor, integrity, and empathy they bring to the Ulu community,” said CEO and Co-Founder Miriam Rivera. “Along with our analysts Serena Rivera-Korver and George Sanchez, ‘Ulu: The Next Generation’ has reached escape velocity!”
About Ulu Ventures
Ulu Ventures is a top seed-stage venture firm and the first Latina-led venture fund in Silicon Valley. Initially focused on enterprise IT startups, with a history of timely expansion to other critical sectors, Ulu generates great financial results using a disciplined, repeatable decision-making process that analyzes risk-reward tradeoffs and also reduces cognitive bias. More than three-quarters of entrepreneurs across all three funds are diverse. Ulu’s investment thesis is based on the proven concept that diversity is profitable. The firm has more than $200M AUM and 10 unicorns in the portfolio.
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Rusty Dornin
Director of Marketing and Communications
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