Kristina Montague is managing partner of the Jump Fund.Three years after launching one of the first female-led venture funds in the country, a Chattanooga venture capital fund is launching a second and bigger round of financing to back more female-owned or female-headed business startups.
The Jump Fund, which raised $2.5 million in 2013 and began making investments in businesses the next year, announced Friday that it plans to launch a second, larger fund to continue investments for female entrepreneurs.
The first fund has invested in 18 female-led companies across the Southeast and has reached the capacity of its initial funding.
“It’s exciting to see that what we intuitively felt was an opportunity has been validated on many fronts since we conceived of The JumpFund in 2013,” said Kristina Montague, managing partner for the Jump Fund. “We continue to see untapped investment opportunities of female-led growth ventures in our region which has led us to launch a second fund.”
For JumpFund II, Montague said organizers are reaching beyond the 50 initial female investors to include both men and women interested in backing high-growth, female-headed companies in the Southeast.