Investor Profile: Cake Ventures - Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

San Francisco-based Cake Ventures is a pre-seed and seed venture capital firm with an unusual lens: it invests in companies shaped by demographic change. Founded by Monique Woodard, the firm's founding partner and managing director, Cake looks for technology products built for tomorrow's internet users rather than yesterday's. For founders building in ageing, women's health, or multicultural consumer markets, it is a specialist worth knowing.

Thesis

Cake Ventures invests in companies responding to three large demographic shifts: an ageing population and the longevity economy, the growing spending power of women, and the shift to a majority-minority nation. The firm argues that these changes create unsolved problems and unmet needs across categories such as care and ageing in place, preventative health, late-life financial services, women's health, and direct-to-consumer products. Its portfolio reflects that bet: about 40% of its early investments had a female founder or chief executive and about 40% had a Black founder or chief executive, figures the firm itself reported when it announced its first fund.

Sectors & Stages

Cake invests at the pre-seed and seed stages, in consumer businesses and in the business-to-business and enterprise companies that build the backbone of those businesses. Its application form lists industries including edtech, e-commerce, SaaS, fintech, manufacturing and supply chain, health, hardware, HR, and govtech. The firm is based in San Francisco and invests across the United States and Canada.

Fund & Cheque Size

Cake Ventures closed its first fund, Cake Ventures Fund I, at $17 million in late 2022, with backing from limited partners including Pivotal Ventures, Cendana Capital, Foundry Group, Screendoor, Plexo Capital, and Bank of America. The fund planned roughly 25 investments at a ballpark cheque of around $500,000. More than 25% of the fund's limited-partner capital came from female investors, many of them women of colour.

Notable Portfolio

Cake's early portfolio includes Guaranteed, a company focused on the needs of the ageing demographic, whose founder and chief executive Jessica McGlory has praised Woodard's guidance as the business scales. Other early investments named by the firm include Rares, Most Days, training startup Bright, household bills tracker Gerald, and disability and neuro-divergence support business Joshin. Woodard previously invested in or mentored companies including Blavity, Silvernest, and Mented Cosmetics during her time as a venture partner at 500 Startups.

Partners & Programs

Cake is led by founder Monique Woodard, who has spent more than 15 years in technology as an entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, operator, and investor, and previously co-founded Black Founders. The firm does not run a published accelerator programme; its support comes from hands-on guidance from Woodard and the firm's network. No credits or perks programme is published on the firm's site.

How to apply for funding

Founders can apply through the quick form on the firm's website at cake.vc/apply. The form asks for the company name, a representative's full name, email, company website, a description of the company, the round being raised, and the industry. Founders pitching Cake should explain clearly how their product serves one of the firm's demographic-change themes, since that thesis is the first filter.