CTalk
"Female founders return as good or better than their male counterparts"
Joy Marcus, Co-Founder and General Partner at The 98, spoke to CTech at Mind the Tech about female-led businesses and more opportunities for women in Israeli tech.
Joy Marcus, Co-Founder and General Partner at The 98,
(Photo: Tomariko - Live Focus)
“The 98 is a venture fund that invests at the late seed and early A stage in technology-focused, women-led companies,” explained Joy Marcus, its Co-Founder and General Partner. “We look at mostly SaaS B2B businesses in the stage where they’re just hitting product-market fit.”
At Calcalist’s Mind the Tech conference in New York, Marcus emphasized her firm’s commitment to investing in women-led technology companies— even hinting at an upcoming expansion into Israel.
“Maybe there’s a 98 in Israel,” she continued. “We are an impact fund, incidentally, but we are a returns-focused fund. And we know that female founders return as good or better than their male counterparts. They deserve our money.”
The 98 currently has 10 portfolio companies, with plans to get to 14 or 15 before launching a second fund. While the firm has yet to invest in Israeli startups, Marcus sees a strong opportunity in the market. “I spent a lot of time with female founders in Israel,” she concluded. “The feedback I get is the support system is not really there.”
You can watch the entire exchange in the video above.
