JumpFund To Launch Second Capital Fund For Female Entrepreneurs

  • Friday, October 21, 2016

The JumpFund announces it plans to launch a second, larger fund to continue enhancing access to capital for female entrepreneurs. The first fund now nurtures a portfolio of 18 women-led companies.  

Managing Partner Kristina Montague said, “It’s exciting to see that what we intuitively felt was an opportunity has been validated on many fronts since we conceived of The JumpFund in 2013. We now have 18 portfolio companies and have had to turn stellar women with great ideas away since we are at capacity with our first fund. We continue to see untapped investment opportunities of female-led growth ventures in our region which has led us to launch a second fund. We are actively working on raising JumpFund II and are meeting with both original and prospective new investors who share the passion for our mission and embrace the potential to realize solid returns by investing in women.” 

Representative companies of the first fund include: Feetz, Inc, founded by Lucy Beard, CEO, graduate of the GigTank accelerator in Chattanooga; SuperFanU, co-founded by Kayla Mount, COO, in Louisville, Ky.; NX Prenatal, based in Louisville, Ky.; EMRGY, Rimidi Diabetes, and Partpic based in Atlanta; Stony Creek Colors in Goodlettesville, Tn.; MomSource Network, Knoxville; and Torch and REZLI both based in Chattanooga. 

Courtney Jones, founder/CEO of MomSource Network, said, “The JumpFund as an investment partner adds tremendous value to any start-up team. More than providing capital, this highly motivated group of women have leveraged their network to provide advice, introductions, encouragement and constructive challenges that continue to propel my company toward high-scale and the national scene. Any female-led venture dramatically increases their chance for success with support from The JumpFund.” 

The JumpFund’s vision is to establish Chattanooga and the Southeast as the nation’s best place for a woman to invest in or start a business. By engaging an untapped market of angel investors, namely women, and investing in women-led start-ups, which by all measures receive significantly less capital than their male-led counterparts, the JumpFund is helping to change the gender equation in the start-up community, said officials.

The JumpFund is an affiliate of Golden Seeds, a New York-based angel investor network which has invested over $90 million in women-led companies. And over the past three years the JumpFund has grown its national network of like-minded angel groups to include Belle Michigan, Plum Alley, Pipeline Angels, 37 Angels, and Valor Ventures, all organized networks and funds investing in women and gender diverse teams. 

To apply for funding from the JumpFund, companies must by women-led with at least one or more women in “C” level positions with a significant equity stake in their company. The company must also demonstrate its potential to scale upwards of $20 million in revenues and have a clear exit strategy.

The JumpFund II will be led by six general partners -- Kristina Montague (managing partner), Cory Allison, Betsy Blunt Brown, Shelley Prevost, Tiffanie Robinson and Stefanie Crowe. 

For more information on the JumpFund visit: www.thejumpfund.com.

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