7 Women Who Move Money

There are women who move mountains, and there are women who move money. And in today’s day and age where women are profoundly underfunded, those two groups are pretty much synonymous. Here I’ve gathered the names and social enterprises of seven incredible women who are moving the needle toward gender equity in entrepreneurship. 

Kesha Cash
Founder & General Partner of Impact America Fund

In her own words, Kesha Cash created Impact America Fund from her experience straddling two worlds: “the world of Section 8 housing, working-class parents, and public assistance where I grew up, and the world of Wall Street and big business that I came to inhabit.” Impact America Fund bridges the financial and cultural divides that have kept low- and moderate-income people of color on the sidelines of the modern economy. The company achieves this mission by making early-stage investments in tech-driven businesses that create new frameworks of ownership and opportunity within marginalized communities.  

Deborah Jackson
Founder & CEO of Plum Alley

After retiring from Wall Street, Deborah Jackson became an early-stage investor in women entrepreneurs in a variety of industries. Ready to take her impact to the next level, Deborah founded Plum Alley, a platform that invests in next-generation technology and health care companies at the Series A and B stages. Plum Alley’s mission is to advance the economics of gender-diverse teams and women innovators and entrepreneurs. As of May 2020, the company has invested more than $25 million — 100 percent in STEM fields with at least one female founder, 70 percent in technology, and 30 percent in health care.

Holly Ruxin
Founder and CEO of Montcalm

Holly Ruxin left Wall Street to bring new perspectives to the finance industry. In 2012 she founded Montcalm, a suite of finance companies whose mission is to use capital markets to spiral humanity upward and help create a natural, regenerative financial system by investing in positive-impact sectors such as clean energy, water, food, women, and health. Montcalm TCR manages hundreds of millions of dollars in assets, with women comprising a large portion of clients. Montcalm Capital creates opportunities to invest in private companies through funds using convertible notes, and the foundation Montcalm Trevor has made hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, with a focus on programs advancing inclusion and belonging. 

Jessica Norwood
Founder of The Runway Project

After already making a significant impact in traditionally marginalized communities through politics and the creation of Emerging ChangeMakers Network, Jessica Norwood founded The Runway Project in 2017. The organization helps Black entrepreneurs and their businesses take flight by bridging the “friends and family seed-funding gap” — the $19,000 difference between the net worth of the average Black household and the $30,000 needed to start a business from the ground up.

Kristin Hull
Founder & CEO of Nia Global Impact

In 2010, Kristin Hull founded Nia Community Investments, a 100 percent mission-aligned investment fund focused on social justice and environmental sustainability in Oakland, California. Three years later, she founded Nia Impact Capital — “Nia” is of Swahili origin and translates to “purpose” — to bring activism and impact investing into the public markets. As a women-led team of activist investors, Nia Impact Capital makes investment decisions through a gender lens as well as a commitment to racial equity. 

Natalia Oberti Noguera
Founder & CEO of Pipeline Angels 

Natalia Oberti Noguera is the founder and CEO of Pipeline Angels, an organization that’s changing the face of angel investing by creating capital for women social entrepreneurs. Since Pipeline Angels launched in April 2011, close to 400 members have graduated from its angel investing program and have invested more than $6 million in more than 70 companies through its pitch summit process. Members serve as the friends and family round for entrepreneurs who may not already have support at that critical stage.

Vicki Saunders
Founder of SheEO

In 2015, Vicki Saunders founded SheEO, a global initiative to “radically transform how we support, finance, and celebrate women entrepreneurs.” The company gathers groups of 500 women, called “Activators,” into cohorts, and each Activator contributes $1,100 as an “Act of Radical Generosity.” The money is pooled and loaned out at low interest to five women-led ventures selected by the Activators. All ventures are revenue-generating with export potential and are creating a better world through their business model or product/service. The loans are paid back in five years and then loaned out again, creating a perpetual fund that will pass on to future generations of women entrepreneurs.