Two prominent Milwaukee business leaders recently left their positions to launch a new venture capital firm that they say will invest in startups founded by women and other entrepreneurs who historically have been undercapitalized in the industry.
Earlier this month, Jennifer Abele and Raquel Filmanowicz founded VC 414, a firm that intends to invest in early-stage companies across industries from around the country and in the Milwaukee area.
"We want to change the face of venture (capital)," said Filmanowicz, noting that there are few Latina-led venture firms in the U.S.
In addition to female founders, VC 414 intends to back startups led by people in the Black, LatinX and LGBTQ+ communities, as well as companies led by veterans and people with disabilities.
"Our firm is wanting to have a double bottom line," Abele said. "We want to have high returns for investors but we also want to have high returns in terms of impact."
Filmanowicz previously was director of the economic equity advisory group at BMO Harris Bank, a role that involved managing the bank's social impact fund that invests in venture firms with Black, LatinX and female fund managers. She left that role earlier this month.
Abele formerly was the chief partnership officer at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a role she left at the end of December. She has recently been an active angel investor, primarily backing female-founded startups, including Milwaukee-based women's work boot startup Xena Workwear Inc. and local battery technology firm COnovate Inc.
VC 414 may consider investing in some of the startups that Abele has personally funded, she said, but the new firm's mission is broader than that.
"We're building this out to be long term, not just focused on one fund," Abele said. "We really want to have a larger vision ... and contribute to the Milwaukee ecosystem growing and having a higher profile in the national venture investment ecosystem."
Abele and Filmanowicz met around two decades ago when they were both working for the city of Milwaukee. Abele held roles related to fiscal planning and intergovernmental relations, and Filmanowicz worked for the city's health department.
They conceived of the idea for VC 414 more than a year ago but it wasn't until the last few months that they were ready to take the plunge.
"I got to the point where I want to build something with a team that I believe in where I can work on my passion every single day," Filmanowicz said.
Abele said she realized she wanted to pursue venture capital full time after helping to negotiate the recent sale of Speakfully, an Eau Claire startup she backed as an angel investor.
"Experiencing that process and being a resource to the founder, it sort of opened my eyes to a whole other part of investing," Abele said. "It just felt really good and I thought, 'You know what? I want to do this all of the time.'"
Alongside Filmanowicz and Abele, who serve as VC 414's managing partners, the firm includes partner Scott Williams and associate Marisol Reyes.
In addition to investing in companies, VC 414 also intends to offer founders education, resources and networking opportunities as entrepreneurs look to establish early customers.
"When we do invest, we're going to go deep (and) really do all we can to expose them to our network, our resources (and) our industry experts to help them succeed," Filmanowicz said.
