Anu Duggal’s Journey to Raising $75 Million for Women in Tech

Female Founders Fund has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise $75 million for its fourth fund.

Female Founders Fund

Female Founders Fund was created in 2014, becoming the leading source of institutional capital for female, women of color, and LGBTQ+ founders, raising seed capital with over $3 billion in enterprise value.

Anu Duggal,  founding partner of the fund, has been praised for her impact in diversifying venture capital as she began her tech career as a co-founder of Exclusively. – a private sale e-commerce company in India.

Under Duggal’s guidance, the company grew to 150 employees and secured $20 million in funding.

However, through her time there, she learned that less than 2% of venture dollars went toward women-initiated companies, laying the foundation for the Female Founders Fund.

She then created FFF as a seed-stage venture fund that invests exclusively in female-founded companies.

“When I started the fund in 2014, I went to a tech event in New York City, and everyone pretty much looked the same. There was no diversity,” Duggal told CNBC Make It.

They invest in e-commerce, media, platforms, advertising, and web-enabled services businesses, with their portfolio including Minibar, ELOQUII, Viyet, WayUp, and many others.

Alongside Duggal is Adrianna Samaniego, who spent eight years in tech and created and led Google’s Global Supplier Diversity Program, creating over $1 billion in opportunities for women and minority-owned businesses.

Layla Alexander, Emily St. Denis, and Caroline McKechnie also comprise the FFF’s team.

The Fourth Fund

Since 2014, FFF has invested in more than 50 women-led companies and has closed three rounds of funding, bringing its total assets under management to more than $95 million.

Fund I was $6 million, Fund II was $25 million, and Fund III was $57 million.

The third fund was backed by institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs, Cambridge Associates, Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, Twitter, Plexo Capital, and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

TechCrunch said the third fund’s portfolio already had 70% invested in Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).

They have now filed with the SEC – an independent agency of the US federal government, to start raising $75 million for its fourth fund, the biggest one to date.