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

Chingona Ventures is a Chicago pre-seed venture firm founded on a bold idea: the most overlooked founders are often building in the largest, fastest growing markets. If you are asking how to get funding from Chingona Ventures, the short answer is to pitch early, pitch directly, and show the grit behind the idea. The firm likes to be the first cheque in, the first yes, for founders whose backgrounds uniquely position them to serve customers that other investors misunderstand or ignore.

The firm was founded in 2019 by Samara Mejia Hernandez, its founding partner and sole general partner. Born in Mexico and raised in the United States, Hernandez trained as an engineer, worked at Goldman Sachs, and then invested at MATH Venture Partners before launching her own fund. The name Chingona is Mexican Spanish slang for a badass woman, a deliberate signal to founders who do not fit venture capital's usual pattern.

Thesis: overlooked founders, massive markets

Chingona Ventures invests in technology and technology enabled companies at the pre-seed stage across the United States, with a particular strength in the Midwest, where founders often receive advice rather than capital. Its stated sectors are fintech, the future of learning, and health and wellness, alongside the future of work and food technology.

The investment logic is demographic as much as it is technological.

Fund size and cheque size

Chingona Ventures raised a $6 million debut fund and then closed a $52 million Fund II in May 2022, described at the time as the largest ever fundraise by a sole Latina general partner. Its backers for Fund II included PayPal Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Pivotal Ventures, Foundry Group and the Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund. With Fund I the firm invested $100,000 to $250,000 in 27 companies, and Fund II allowed it to write bigger cheques and lead more deals. Any fund raised after Fund II is not publicly disclosed.

Notable portfolio companies

The portfolio shows the breadth of the thesis. Career Karma connects workers to vocational training programmes. Suma Wealth, also known as SUMA Wealth, is a financial wellness platform for the Latino population. Certiverse works on exam development, EarlyBird on family gifting and investing for children, and Dapta, a Colombian AI sales automation company, raised a $6 million seed round led by Chingona Ventures in October 2026, with its AI agents automating sales over WhatsApp and phone calls.

What the firm looks for

Hernandez describes a no fear mentality: the firm will go into ideas that seem risky or unusual to other investors if the founder and the market logic are compelling. She advises founders to bring a detailed business plan, a clear use for the capital raised, and a vision of a future that is genuinely differentiating, backed by numbers.

How to apply for funding

Founders can apply through the pitch submission page on the firm's official website, chingonaventures.com, which Hernandez has long linked even in her email signature so that cold outreach is welcomed rather than filtered out. Prepare a clear plan, a precise use of funds, and a story that explains why your background lets you see this market before others do.