IMPACTASSETS 50™
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
ImpactAssets 50
An Annual Showcase of Impact Investment Fund Managers
True Wealth Ventures
Climate Change
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Health and WellbeingFirm Overview
True Wealth Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital fund for women with ideas to change the world. Led by two women GPs, Sara Brand and Kerry Rupp, the fund invests in women-led companies improving environmental and/or human health. Companies founded and led by women have consistently demonstrated stronger returns than the market but are still under-represented as a share of VC investments, and female founders are uniquely positioned to solve environmental and human health challenges given that women make 85% of all consumer purchasing and 80% of healthcare decisions. True Wealth Ventures is one of a few women-led early-stage VC funds in the country that is also focused on female entrepreneurs. True Wealth Ventures’ preferred investment strategy is to lead at the seed stage, take a board seat and help mitigate operational risk all the way to a successful acquisition exit. The fund invests across the US.
Years of Operation: 5 – 9 years
% of Capital from Top 3 Investors: Less than 25%
True Wealth Ventures invests in early-stage, women-led companies that are explicitly improving human and/or environmental health. Women-led companies financially outperform, yet are overlooked as 80% of VC capital goes to all-male teams. There is an advantage to women-led teams designing products for, selling to, and servicing women customers.
True Wealth Ventures invests in women-led companies whose core value is improving environmental and/or human health. Women-led is defined as at least one full-time woman on the founding team or in a C-suite role with strategic decision-making influence. The fund's investment thesis is that women-led companies perform better financially yet are an untapped market receiving less than 2% of venture dollars for all-female teams and about 18% for those with at least a woman founder on the team. With women making 85% of consumer purchase decisions and 80% of healthcare decisions, there’s an advantage for companies with gender-diverse management teams in designing products for, selling to, and servicing women customers. We invest across software, hardware, and CPG products in high-performing companies that have identified solutions for critical environmental and human health problems with a capital-efficient path to an acquisition exit to scale their solutions further.
True Wealth Ventures is a firm founded and led by two women GPs; we stand out in an industry where women represent less than 5% of Partners. Our gender lens investment focus is critical to closing the gap for female founders, who raise ~2% of VC in the US. At the close of Fund I in 2018, we were one of the largest women-run funds with a gender diversity strategy. With our focus on healthcare and environmental solutions, we partner with founders building and leveraging the power of business to drive positive change in areas of societal need. Our values go beyond our investment thesis to our LP base. We provide educational content focused on increasing female participation across the capital stack and have recruited an LP base of 80% women - an unprecedented number- representing a vital trend as women gain increasing control of wealth and amplifying our impact.
Investment Example
True Wealth Ventures led a $3.1M seed round early this year in Partum Health, providing maternal healthcare and improving support for families during pregnancy and postpartum. Partum takes a comprehensive, holistic approach to elevate the standard of care, addressing the maternal mortality crisis which currently ranks the US 55th, or the worst amongst developed nations. Rather than offering only clinical services, they are a one-stop shop – from lactation support to mental health, physical therapy, nutrition, and doula care. Partum meets families wherever they are, with virtual and in-person care options. This complementary model works alongside obstetricians and midwives to surround families with a team of experts.
Leadership and Team
 |
Sara T Brand – Founding General Partner More Info
Sara Brand is the Founding General Partner of True Wealth Ventures, an early-stage VC fund investing in women-led businesses improving environmental and/or human health. She is also the co-founder of (512) Brewing, the largest draught-only, self-distributing microbrewery in the U.S. before COVID. Sara was previously in venture capital and management consulting in the Bay Area as well as in a variety of strategic and operational roles in large tech companies. Sara holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in green design and manufacturing from UC Berkeley and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from UT Austin. |
 |
Kerry Rupp – General Partner More Info
Kerry Rupp is General Partner at True Wealth Ventures, an early-stage VC fund investing in women-led businesses improving environmental and/or human health. She also teaches for NSF’s I-Corps program. Kerry was previously CEO at DreamIt, a top-ten US startup accelerator and VC fund, with HealthTech, EdTech, Minority & Women-focused programs. She was the founder of Holiday Golightly, a group travel service for women, and held VP positions at AllRecipes, Jobster, Classmates and LexisNexis. Kerry holds an MBA from HBS and a BA from Duke. |
 |
Abbie Strabala – Associate More Info
Abbie joined the team in mid-2022 and helps with every aspect of running True Wealth Ventures. Abbie previously served as an Investment Analyst at RH Capital and Finance & Operations Manager at Rhia Ventures, driving innovation, access, and equity across the reproductive and maternal health landscape. |
Financial Performance
Impact Performance
|
Percentage of Total Assets Under
Management that are Impact Investments: |
100%
|
TWV exclusively invests in women-led companies whose core value proposition is improving environmental and/or human health. We have spent 9 years building our deal flow by attending conferences in the impact verticals, judging business plan competitions, and speaking at a myriad forums about what we invest in and why (https://truewealthvc.com/community-events/). We understand that women and ethnic minorities don’t always have the access to VC networks, so we review all deals that come to us through the contact page of our website. We do not require a warm intro like many other VC firms do. We also get back to every entrepreneur on why we may pass on their deal along with any helpful feedback we can provide. We’ve built a reputation and a pipeline of women entrepreneurs who know about us and come to us when they are ready for capital. We are founding members of the Diversity Pledge.
We require that the company's core value proposition is to improve environmental and/or human health, and the company must be able to show how they improve outcomes. We also require gender-diversity by having at least one full-time woman: -with significant decision-making authority, -on the founding or C-level executive team, -with significant equity ownership.
Impact Tracking and Monitoring
Learn More
PO Box 164042, Austin, TX 78716 USA
Apply for the IA 50 2022
The application period to become an ImpactAssets 50 2022 Fund Manager will open in September 2021!
To stay informed on the application process, sign up here.