Female-led venture fund focuses on startups that are moving the needle on gender equality.
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Coyote Ventures, a venture firm focused on early-stage women’s health and wellness startups, announced an LP investment from Bank of America today.
Led by General Partner Jessica Karr, the firm has already invested in six startups, all of which are focused on catalyzing change by helping the health and wellness industry move towards gender equity.
“According to data from Pitchbook, of the $105B invested in health and wellness startups in the US in 2021, only 2% was invested in solutions that serve women. This is a massively underserved market that we estimate is valued at over $1T globally,” Karr says. “We are beyond excited that Bank of America has committed as a partner in driving more early-stage funding in this critical space!”
As an early employee and biochemist at Impossible Foods, Karr is intimately familiar with what it takes to launch novel products. After working with startups internationally as an innovation consultant, she recognized venture capital as a gateway for launching and scaling new products – and saw gender equality as a key issue largely missing from venture investing. She founded Coyote Ventures in 2021, which now boasts an all-female deal team and advisor network of doctors, scientists, and healthtech executives.
Coyote Ventures wrote the first venture check into Wile, who has since launched their plant-based hormonal wellness products at Whole Foods Market and Walgreens nationwide. Coyote Ventures was also the first fund to commit to Hera Biotech’s oversubscribed seed round to advance clinical trials of their novel endometriosis diagnostic. All CEOs in Coyote Ventures portfolio companies are female, and many of the co-founders are BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+.
Bank of America is the largest institutional investor in Coyote Ventures Fund I and follows previous investments from The Case for Her and Tripple Family Office.
“The health crisis has impacted all of us but disproportionately minority women,” says Gioia McCarthy, president, Bank of America San Francisco-East Bay. “At Bank of America, we want to facilitate more equitable opportunities for underrepresented entrepreneurs and address the challenges that women entrepreneurs face, especially when it comes to securing funds to start or grow their business.”
About Coyote Ventures
Coyote Ventures is a venture capital fund investing in women’s health and wellness, founded by General Partner Jessica Karr. Coyote Ventures specializes in early-stage innovative consumer and digital health products. The firm’s name is inspired by Women Who Run with the Wolves, a book of myths and archetypes of the wild woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Fund investors include Bank of America, The Case for Her, and Tripple Family Office.
Learn more at coyote.ventures or connect with us on LinkedIn.
About Bank of America
At Bank of America, we’re guided by a common purpose to help make financial lives better, through the power of every connection. We’re delivering on this through responsible growth with a focus on our environmental, social and governance (ESG) leadership. ESG is embedded across our eight lines of business and reflects how we help fuel the global economy, build trust and credibility, and represent a company that people want to work for, invest in and do business with. It’s demonstrated in the inclusive and supportive workplace we create for our employees, the responsible products and services we offer our clients, and the impact we make around the world in helping local economies thrive.
Learn more at about.bankofamerica.com and connect with us on Twitter.
Contacts
