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Key people at We Capital.
WE Capital is a consortium of leading businesswomen deploying capital to empower female entrepreneurs. The organization invests in female leadership, pursuing social impact and financial returns. It offers investors opportunities and provides entrepreneurs support to enhance value and drive growth, notably via investments in firms like Rethink Impact.
Founded by Sachiko Kuno, Ph.D., and Sheila C. Johnson, WE Capital emerged from recognizing systemic underfunding of female-led ventures. Dr. Kuno, a biotech executive, and Ms. Johnson, a hospitality CEO and Black Entertainment Television co-founder, leveraged their experience to underscore the critical need for a platform ensuring female talent secures equitable capital.
WE Capital serves female investors and entrepreneurs scaling businesses. The consortium’s vision is to redefine investment culture, making talent and innovative ideas sole criteria for funding. They aim to empower future female leaders and foster enduring societal change through strategic capital deployment.
Key people at We Capital.
WE Capital is a consortium of leading businesswomen that deploys capital to empower female entrepreneurs, with a mission to advocate for female leadership while generating social impact and financial returns.[1][5] It provides female investors opportunities to meet investment goals and supports female-founded companies to drive transformational change, addressing stark gender disparities in venture capital—such as only 3% of VC dollars going to companies with female CEOs and less than 6% of investment decision-makers being women.[1]
The firm invests through a female-founded venture capital entity, Rethink Impact, led by Managing Partner Jenny Abramson (D.C.-based) and Partner Heidi Patel (San Francisco-based).[1][5] Its investment philosophy emphasizes talent and ideas over traditional barriers, focusing on sectors that promote female-led innovation and profitability gains from diverse leadership (e.g., 15% net revenue increase with 30% female leaders).[1] WE Capital significantly impacts the startup ecosystem by increasing funding access for women, challenging VC gender imbalances, and fostering a culture shift toward inclusive investing.
WE Capital emerged to address underrepresentation of women in venture capital, both as investors and recipients, with a vision that funding should prioritize talent and ideas.[1][5] It was founded as a consortium led by key figures Sachiko Kuno and Sheila C. Johnson, who rallied prominent businesswomen to pool resources and strategic networks.[1][5]
The group channels investments into Rethink Impact, a dedicated female-founded VC firm managed by Jenny Abramson and Heidi Patel, marking a pivotal evolution from informal advocacy to structured venture deployment.[1][5] This backstory humanizes the firm through iconic female figures featured on its site (e.g., Maya Angelou, Amelia Earhart), symbolizing empowerment and trailblazing in business and beyond.[1]
(Note: Search results highlight a primary U.S.-focused entity; other "We Capital" names (e.g., Beijing VC, Japanese platform, Brazilian wealth manager) appear distinct and unrelated based on domains and descriptions.[2][3][4])
WE Capital rides the wave of gender diversity in VC and tech, capitalizing on trends like rising demand for inclusive investing amid evidence that female-led teams yield higher returns.[1] Timing is critical as VC faces scrutiny over imbalances—only 3% funding to female CEOs—while profitable firms see revenue gains from women in leadership, aligning with broader ESG (environmental, social, governance) pressures on investors.[1]
Market forces favoring it include growing female entrepreneurship, corporate diversity mandates, and impact investing's surge, which amplify its influence.[1] By funding through Rethink Impact, it shapes the ecosystem, normalizing women as VC decision-makers and recipients, potentially accelerating innovation in tech sectors like software and internet where female founders are underrepresented.[1][2]
WE Capital is poised to expand its consortium model, potentially scaling investments via Rethink Impact into high-growth female-led tech startups amid sustained VC gender gaps.[1][5] Trends like AI-driven personalization in impact investing and global pushes for boardroom diversity will propel it, evolving its influence from niche advocacy to mainstream VC shaper—empowering the next wave of entrepreneurs much like its iconic figures pioneered their fields.[1] This positions it to deliver compounding returns, both financial and societal, redefining capital access from the ground up.
