Mother Ventures raised €9.2M ($10 million) in a growth round to close its debut early-stage fund. The round was led by Tony James, the former president and COO of Blackstone. Other participants include Jessica Rolph, founder of Lovevery, alongside various executives from Netflix, Rent the Runway, and Sesame Street.
Based in the UK, Mother Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests specifically in the "mother" as a primary consumer. The fund targets startups across commerce, fintech, and digital health that address the spending power and household needs of millennial and Gen Z mothers. The firm has already deployed a portion of its capital into portfolio companies including pediatric specialist booking platform Coral Care and hardware startup Tin Can.
Founder Allison Stern previously co-founded social video analytics firm Tubular Labs and served as an operating partner at The Chernin Group. Her investment thesis rests on the data that mothers control roughly 85% of household purchases in the US, representing a multi-trillion euro market that remains underserved by traditional consumer categories.
The successful close of this debut fund highlights a growing trend of specialised European investment vehicles targeting deep vertical expertise over broad horizontal reach.
Originally reported by TechCrunch.