At the start of her career, Jane Mosbacher Morris was working in counterterrorism for the U.S. Department of State, where she focused on helping women fight Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was there where she learned that in order for women to have more influence they needed more resources, namely, money. Morris began studying developing world economies to understand what major industries were the primary employers of women, eventually recognizing both agriculture and retail manufacturing fit that bill.
But unlike the agriculture sector, Morris noticed there hadn't been much investment into a sustainable, ethical supply chain for retail manufacturing. She set out to change that in late 2016, developing a tech-enabled solution to connect retailers with a syndicated network of apparel, accessories, home goods and personal protective equipment suppliers from around the world.
"All of that information led me to start To the Market with the vision of changing retail manufacturing to empower people and protect the planet," Morris said. "We, as Americans in particular, have so much purchasing power. We could be a lot more thoughtful about where we send this purchasing power to make sure it's going towards suppliers that are treating people with dignity and looking towards sustainability in their practices."
With a curated network of more than 200 suppliers in over 50 countries, To the Market has attracted big-name clients, such as Target, Bloomingdale's, TJ Maxx and Nordstrom Rack. Morris said demand for To the Market's services has grown as more and more people become aware of the need to be connected to who made their product and whether the values of that process are the values they support.
"A lot of that dialogue has accelerated over the last two years during Covid-19," she said. "There's more focus on supply chains right now than I've ever seen in my entire life. I mean, it is a headline every single day and people are fully understanding how critical supply chains are to our existence, as well as the need to diversify."
That increased demand spurred the need for a fundraising round, Morris added. The certified B-Corp recently secured a $5 million investment led by Curate Capital, a venture fund dedicated to accelerating the success of companies by women for women.
The round included participation from other investors including, but not limited to, Working Capital Fund, Spouting Rock and Forward Ventures, as well as follow-on investment from Belle Fund, Knightsgate Ventures and a number of strategic angels.
After reading that women-led startups only received 2.3% of all venture capital funding last year, Morris said she felt fortunate she and her team could overcome the odds that were stacked against the company.
"To me, it's such a testament to the strength of our value proposition," she said. "I feel tremendous gratitude and pride in my team and in our business model that despite such a difficult environment for female founders that we were able to successfully raise."
The $5 million Series A round will be hyper-focused on fueling growth, Morris said, meaning an increase in To the Market's tech spend for new products and an expansion of its marketing efforts, as the company has mostly grown through inbound marketing thus far.
Prior to the recent capital investment, To the Market raised a pre-seed round with Techstars in 2018 after Morris bootstrapped the company for a year.
Kentucky ties
Now I know what you're thinking: That's great and all, but what does this have to do with Kentucky?
As it turns out, Morris, both founder and chief executive of the startup, is now based in Lexington, Kentucky, full time. To the Market is also dissolving its New York City headquarters, effectively allowing the Bluegrass State to lay claim to the fast-growing company that has a dispersed team of employees.
Notably, Morris is married to Rubicon founder and CEO Nate Morris, a native Kentuckian. As I previously reported, Rubicon — a software platform that provides smart waste and recycling solutions to businesses and governments worldwide — moved its global headquarters to Lexington earlier this year.
The couple has always had a home base in Lexington, but as their companies were mostly doing work outside of the commonwealth, they were always on the go. Now, it's nice to be grounded, Morris said.
"The environment [in Kentucky] is ripe. It's really exciting to see so many incredible organizations like Endeavor, Awesome Inc. and Techstars that are helping entrepreneurs thrive and scale," she said. "I think there's always more opportunity to look at how we can make Kentucky an even better environment for business and how to continue to attract really top talent.
"Nate and I are both really passionate about continuing to be a part of the dialogue around making Kentucky as attractive as possible for innovators to come and build and ultimately create jobs here."
