Five35 Ventures: Investing in Women-Led Innovation
Hema Vallabh H’22 and Janade du Plessis H’18 lead Five35 Ventures, a venture capital fund that supports early-stage, tech-enabled startups focused on empowering women. These companies are either female co-owned, co-led, have a largely female workforce, or cater to women as intentional consumers. The fund is rooted in Vallabh’s work with WomEng and WomHub.
“When we look at early-stage investments in general, we look at a company that has a great product or service and a good opportunity in the market. But really, at the early stage we’re backing the founder, and in our case, backing really strong female founders,” says Vallabh.
Empowering Harambean Women Founders
Five35 Ventures has supported several Harambean women entrepreneurs, including:
- Africa Foresight Group: Founded by Yasmin Kumi H’16, this tech talent company connects businesses with skilled professionals. “Yasmin is a strong founder, with an extensive background in the HR tech space. Given her international, yet African exposure, she was very focused on what she wanted to achieve with AFG. With Africa being the youngest continent in terms of its workforce and given the international talent scarcity, she saw the opportunity to create a talent platform to help companies find, recruit, and use talent in a better way. Essentially an Uber for talent,” says Vallabh.
- Shuttlers: Founded by Damilola Olokesusi H’18, this mass transport solution in Lagos offers safe, affordable travel while reducing environmental impact. “Innovation is not always developing something new, but can be taking something that works and putting it in the right context for the first time in an innovative way, which is what Damilola is doing with Shuttlers,” says Vallabh. Olokesusi also emphasizes commuter health and safety, particularly for vulnerable groups like women and children. “Shuttlers is also a climate tech player. By reducing traffic and the number of vehicles on the road, it offers environmental benefits too and is a great example of how a single company and solution can address a multitude of problems,” she adds.
- Zoie Health: Co-founded by Thato Schermer H’22, this health-focused initiative grew from WomEng programs. “This investment was special for us as we met Thato through one of our WomEng talent/fellowship programs while she was still an engineering student,” says Vallabh. Schermer has evolved from participant to advisor and mentor within WomHub. “WomHub wrote her a cheque as an initial investment, and we are now grooming her for potential investment in the Five35 pipeline,” Vallabh explains.
A Gender-Lens Ecosystem & Women Investors Club
The WomHub ecosystem, co-created by Vallabh and Naadiya Moosajee H’15, has grown over two decades into the largest gender-lens initiative in Africa. This group of companies focuses on talent, entrepreneurship, spaces, and capital.
“We work with high-caliber female founders and do the work to get them more investor-ready. Post our investment, we also think about their subsequent raises,” says Vallabh.
Through the 35’er Club, Five35 Ventures has created opportunities for women investors, including first-time investors in Africa. “We’ve called this the 35’er Club and are building a community of women investors who are excited about the opportunities on the continent and who are also giving their time, resources, and expertise and will mentor and provide advice to our portfolio companies,” says Vallabh. Members include Sneha Shah, an Executive Vice President at SEI, and Amanda Pullinger, the Chief Executive Officer of 100 Women in Finance.
A Vision for the Future
“Five35 is a young fund, and we see Harambeans as a fruitful source of investments for the future. A golden thread that runs throughout our organization is that of community. When women are working with women, we really see the commercial and economic value when the playing field is level. Women have the absolute power to create a paradigm shift in not only how the continent grows and prospers, but also how we re-think investment and the power of community,” concludes Vallabh.