Clearco, the largest e-commerce investor revolutionizing the way founders grow their businesses, recently announced the launch of the Clearco Founders Fund. The fund’s goal is to empower Clearco’s community of industry leaders to fund the next generation of online businesses.
Traditional VC scout programs remain exclusive to investors with the right network and connections. However, the Clearco Founders Fund aims to level the playing field of investing by empowering its partners to multiply their impact and fund underrepresented founders. It also simultaneously provides the resources for portfolio growth and networking.
Increasing visibility and creating opportunities
Over the past five years, Clearco has funded 6,500+ online businesses without taking equity. It has done this by democratizing access to capital and backing founders based on merit, not connections. Clearco’s portfolio looks totally different from the typical VC. In 2021, 35 percent of Clearco’s funding went to BIPOC founders, compared to 28 percent for traditional VCs. Fifty percent of the companies in Clearco’s portfolio have female founders – that’s 25X more than the VC industry average. Through this new initiative, Clearco will provide even more visibility and opportunities for these overlooked companies to grow.
“The Clearco Founders Fund is another major step in Clearco’s mission to create diversity in what businesses receive funding,” said Co-founder and President of Clearco, Michele Romanow. “We know that innovation exists in all corners of the world and with the Clearco Founders Fund, it not only provides a window for founders who are typically overlooked by traditional VC, but it gives opportunities for industry leaders of all backgrounds to support the entrepreneurs they believe can make a difference in their industries and beyond.”
Platform benefits
Some of the platform benefits VC scouts receive by enrolling in the Clearco Founders Fund include:
- Engaging in thoughtfully designed community experiences
- Learning about trends and best practices from top industry leaders, entrepreneurs and investors
- Participating in Clearco’s revenue sharing program and earning up to 1 percent on any funding given the brands they’ve scouted
- Receiving access to growth metrics and insights for the companies on their radar and funding them when they’re ready
“As a lifelong brand builder and founder, there is no better platform than the Clearco Founders Fund to unite the best in the industry to invest in and scale online brands,” said Eric Schnell, Founder & CEO, Beyond Brands.
The fund’s launch partners include female founders like Melanie Travis from Andie Swim, Xiomara Rosa-Tedla from UnoEth and tastemakers like Jada Sezer, in addition to advisors from LAUNCH, Vendo, and Beyond Brands. Michelle Finizio, Co-founder of FounderMade, has partnered with Clearco to launch the fund with a goal of funding 1M founders. The fund’s venture scout program remains open for community leaders, investors, retailers, influencers and editors supporting online businesses to apply.
“My whole career, including Co-founding FounderMade, has been dedicated to partnering with the best in the industry to scale the missions they believe in and I couldn’t be more excited to scale this mission globally with Clearco,” says Michelle Finizio, Co-founder, FounderMade & Managing Partner, Clearco Founders Fund.
To learn more and apply, visit https://clear.co/landing/founders-fund/.
About Clearco
Co-founded as Clearbanc in 2015 by Michele Romanow from Dragon’s Den (Canada’s Shark Tank), Andrew D’Souza, Ivan Gritsiniak, Charlie Feng, and Tanay Delima, Clearco offers the most founder-friendly capital solutions for e-commerce, mobile apps and SaaS founders as well as a full suite of products and access to a powerful global network, insights and data and recommendations. Clearco has financed over 6,500+ companies to date, including Leesa Sleep, fashion-rental service Le Tote, home goods company Public Goods, shirtmaker UNTUCKit, online speech therapy practice Expressible and digital real estate marketplace SetSchedule. For more information visit clear.co.
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