Designer Fund

Designer Fund is an early-stage investor in tech startups that are design leaders including Stripe, Gusto, and Omada Health. The Designer Fund is a venture capital and private equity firm specializing in start-ups and later stage companies post series A financing. The firm typically invests in companies co-founded by designers and also in education, energy, environment, food, health, creativity, and productivity sectors. The firm gives non-equity grants at a minimum of $5000, angel funding at a minimum of $5000 for 0.5% equity, and co-investments with partners in amounts between $0.05 million and $0.1 million for an equity stake between 5% and 10%. The firm invests between $100,000 and $1 million.

The Designer Fund was founded in 2011 by Ben Blumenfeld and Enrique Allen and is based in San Francisco, California.Designer Fund is a community of designers who invest in designer founders through mentorship, funding, and access to the network.

Designer Fund has made 32 investments. One of their investments was on Mar 1, 2019, when they invested $1M in Primer. Designer Fund has raised a total of $20M in a single venture fund, Designer Fund I. This fund was announced on May 2, 2016, and raised a total of $20M.

Designer Fund specializes in helping design products and scale design teams through their professional development programs Bridge and Designer Founder Guild. Their community includes exceptional designer founders and design leaders from companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, Airbnb, Pinterest, and Dropbox.