Gaingels is an American venture capital firm headquartered in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

. The firm focuses on investing in companies with diverse and underrepresented (including

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

QIA+) leadership as well as progressive social values.

Background

Gaingels was co-founded in 2014 by David Beatty and Paul Grossinger. The name Gaingels is a mix of "gay angels" and "gaining from angels". It started as a small

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital to a business or businesses, including startups, usually in exchange for convertible de ...

group syndicate made up of LGBTQIA+ investors that would invest in companies founded by those in the LGBTQIA+ community. in 2018, the founders recognized the lack of diversity in the venture capital scene and how investors would discriminate against company founders who did not fit the traditional mold such as being gay, female or being from a

minority group The term "minority group" has different meanings, depending on the context. According to common usage, it can be defined simply as a group in society with the least number of individuals, or less than half of a population. Usually a minority g ...

. The firm's mission was expanded to foster

social change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Sustained at a larger scale, it may lead to social transformation or societal transformat ...

through investing and to create a more diverse and inclusive environment in the venture capital scene. The firm which originally focused on just investing in LGBTQIA+ founded and led startups expanded its scope to invest in more companies to bring more diversity to its investments. It would also help its portfolio companies improve its diversity at leadership level. Gaingels' investments have grown from $5 million in 2018 to $50 million in the first eight months of 2020 as a result of its structural change. Gaingels also partnered with other investors allowing it to obtain more deals. In 2020, Gaingels launched its scholarship program to support LGBTQIA+ students. Outside the U.S., Gaingels has offices in Australia, London and Toronto.

Investments

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.US * BlockFi *

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* Grove Collaborative *

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References

External links

* {{authority control 2014 establishments in Vermont American companies established in 2014 Companies based in Burlington, Vermont Financial services companies established in 2014 LGBTQ business organizations Venture capital firms of the United States