Female-only Forerunner Ventures Tops 3rd Quarter U.S. Venture Capital Earnings

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One firm that stood out in yesterday's venture capital third-quarter data released by the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters is San Francisco-based Forerunner Ventures. Forerunner raised more funds than any other venture capital firm for the quarter, $41.7 million.

What the press release didn't mention is that Forerunner Ventures is a female-only firm, comprising two partners and one analyst.

Established in 2010, Forerunner announced on July 26 that it had closed a $40 million deal to continue funding digital commerce start-ups. The company had already made a string of strategic investments in companies like Warby Parker, the chic yet economical eyewear start-up, and Hotel Tonight, which builds mobile apps for booking same-day hotel deals.

Venture Beat News attributes the firm's success to managing partner Kirsten Green. "I realized when I was in finance that it would be more interesting to identify early trends in retail, and young companies with big IPOs ahead of them," Green told Venture Beat News in July.

The focus is on consumer-faced companies that have a clear plan for making money, although the company has also started to expand to business-to-business ventures, Venture Beat reported.

So far Green has invested capital in excess of $25 million.

A graduate of UCLA with a B.A. in Business Economics, Green worked as an analyst focused on specialty retail in the equity research department of Banc of America Securities for three years before she was recruited to lead a consumer-focused investment team there managing $800 million, according to the Forerunner website.

U.S.-based venture capital funds raised $5 billion in 2012's third quarter according to Dow Jones, based on data compiled by Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA).

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