MBA Ventures Q3 2023 Update

Dear Friends of MBA Ventures,

We are thrilled to announce the official launch of Fund I; where we have made our first close and our initial investments.

MBA Ventures is a global early-stage VC fund and network committed to backing MBA student and alumni founders from top-tier schools. We invest in Pre-Seed and Seed alongside top funds.

In this issue you will find the following:

• 💸 Investments: summary of our recent deals

• 📈 NYC Q4 MBA Pitch Competition: details for our upcoming event

• 👩‍🎓🧑🏽‍🎓 Scout Program: find out how to work with us (for current MBA students)

Cheers,

Clark & Monica

👚 Laws of Motion, founded by Carly Bigi, Columbia MBA graduate, is a US-based company. It began as a DTC brand offering perfect-fitting clothes sized with AI and has since expanded to license its AI sizing technology as a SaaS B2B2C solution. Stage: seed. Notable co-investors: Sequoia, Lightspeed, General Catalyst, Dorm Room Fund, Jennifer Fleiss (co-founder of Rent The Runway).

💡 Sonar, co-founded by Drew Barvir and Gabriel Moynihan, both Stanford MBA graduates, is a US-based Software platform that enables proactive identification and support for adolescent mental health via passive analysis of online activity. Stage: pre-seed. Notable co-investors: Lightspeed, 500 Global.

🏦 Cascading, founded by Lukas Haffer, Stanford MBA graduate, and Isaiah Williams, is a US-based AI agent platform to automate manual banking processes, such as loan processing and customer onboarding. Stage: pre-seed. Notable co-investors: YC, Peterson Ventures, Wilson Sonsini. 

🌎 Rex, founded by Aliza Rosen, Stanford MBA, is a US-based consumer social app that allows users to find, track, and recommend places - like restaurants, bars, museums, and other businesses, even trails and parks. Stage: seed. Notable co-investors: Accel, Khosla, Biz Stone (co-founder of Twitter) via Future Positive.

🏨 Ponte, co-founded by Lorenza Velez and Stephanie Murra Nader, both Harvard MBA graduates, is a US-based recruiting and hiring platform for the hospitality industry, connecting companies in the US with qualified Latin workers. Stage: pre-seed. Notable co-investors: Better Tomorrow Ventures, NfX.

♻ Vertru, founded by Jag Gill, MIT MBA graduate, is a US-based AI-enabled data, insights, and analytics platform designed to deliver sustainability intelligence for supply chains. Stage: pre-seed. Notable co-investors: Norrsken VC. 

📝 Canveo, co-founded by David Buser and Rob Wegbrands, both INSEAD MBA graduates, is a UK-based contract negotiation platform for complex transactions, aiming to replace Word for negotiations and to become the Docusign of contract negotiation. Stage: pre-seed. Notable co-investors: Ascension, Startup Wise Guys.

📈 PE Cube, founded by Antoine SAGE, ESSEC MBA graduate, is a France-based SaaS solution for Private Equity funds that optimizes fund management efficiency, streamlining processes from portfolio management to LPs, including an investor relationship portal. Stage: pre-seed.

🎾 Hexagon, co-founded by Ricardo de las Heras, IESE MBA, Enrique Buenaventura, Alejandro Agag, and Simon Freer among others, is a UK-based company offering the world’s premier international tournament of padel, the fastest growing sport, featuring the world’s best players and launched by the founders of Formula E. Stage: pre-seed. Notable co-investors: Daily Mail’s VC arm dmg ventures.

On November 16th, we will be hosting an MBA Pitch Competition event in New York City with our partner the Orca Network. It will be hosted at Rise, created by Barclays.

The event will feature a panel to discuss entrepreneurship & VC topics alongside a pitch competition, where 5 top early-stage MBA startup teams will pitch live for a total of $100K investment from MBA Ventures. The audience will include talented entrepreneurs and investors, and there will be plenty of time for networking over food + drinks.

• Apply: MBA-founded startups, you can apply here (deadline is October 15th!)

• RSVP: VCs and early-stage investors looking to attend, you can RSVP here.

Lastly, if you are a current MBA student at a top program who is interested in VC and learning more about our Scout Program, click here.

P.S. to learn more about MBA Ventures, feel free to reach out to us directly at clark@mba-ventures.com or monica@mba-ventures.com.