Another Houston-area fund targeting early-stage technology companies has landed new investments.
The Artemis Fund closed its $36 million second fund in March, with investors including Bank of America, Toronto-based BMO, Dallas-based Texas Capital and Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc.’s venture fund Amazon Catalytic Capital.
Following a tough year for venture capital, this is another positive sign for Houston’s funding scene, as local firms close funds targeting different types of early-stage technology companies.
TechCrunch reported the second Artemis fund will target around 20 companies, and investments have already been made in at least three companies: Payverse, an alternative payments processor; Max Retail, a platform for retailers offloading unsold inventory, and Halo Divorce, which is an online divorce platform.
Artemis targets companies both in and out of Houston, but its primary focus is on female-founded and female-led companies — anywhere a woman has decision-making power with equity.
Murakhovskaya co-founded Artemis with Leslie Goldman and Stephanie Campbell in 2019. The firm closed its first fund in the first quarter of 2021 with over 90 different capital partners. Some of the companies Artemis has backed include college savings app UNest and Houston-based companies Upgrade Boutique and Work & Mother.
According to Crunchbase, Artemis has made over 30 investments to date, with the bulk of those in e-commerce. Crunchbase also reported that two Artemis portfolio companies have landed exits to date, with Suma Wealth acquiring California-based e-commerce platform Reel and Monument acquiring New York-based digital recovery platform Tempest.
“At the age of seven, I immigrated as a child from the Ukraine. Watching my family make the hard choices to leave their home to make a better life for their daughter cemented my resilience and work ethic,” Artemis co-founder and General Partner Diana Murakhovskaya wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing the second fund. “As a founder of Artemis I feel honored every day to build an impactful community and enduring financial institution for diverse women, girls and immigrants.”
Women investors across the country face uphill battles when it comes to funding. Pitchbook found that in 2023, technology companies with all-women founding teams secured $3.2 billion from venture capital investors, compared with $114.8 billion directed to all-male founding teams.
The problem is not new and is one of the reasons The Artemis Fund was created. Other Houston-area organizations that have highlighted the gap in investment for female founders in recent years include Carrie Colbert’s Curate Capital, the fund-of-funds HX Venture Fund, and Austin-based nonprofit DivInc, which expanded to Houston in 2021.
On the technology investment side, Artemis joins Houston-based Fathom Fund and Mercury Fund in receiving recent investor interest.
Fathom Fund closed its first fund with over $100 million in commitments in February. The newly established fund is led by Houston entrepreneurs Paul Sheng and Eric Bielke and is targeting early-stage deep tech companies. Deep tech is an industry term for products based on scientific discoveries and engineering.
Meanwhile, Mercury Fund, which targets software-focused startups, closed its $160 million fifth fund last September. Mercury invests in companies based in regions that may struggle to attract investors based on the coasts.
