(from left to right) Leslie Goldman, Stephanie Campbell and Diana Murakhovskaya are the general partners and co-founders of The Artemis Fund.

The Artemis Fund, a female-founded and female-focused venture capital fund based in Houston, recently announced it closed a $15 million funding round in the first quarter this year. The firm said it reviewed over 500 companies founded or co-founded by women across the U.S. in the first quarter alone. Artemis has added four new portfolio companies: Work and Mother, Reel, Paloma and DressX. 

General Partner and co-founder Diana Murakhovskaya said the firm is especially focused on backing companies with diverse perspectives, noting that two-thirds of The Artemis Funds' portfolio companies are led by women of color and immigrants. 

"The Artemis Fund invests in the most brazen female founders across the U.S., including those innovators here in our hometown of Houston," said Murakhovskaya. "We’re excited to continue to be part of the growth and change happening here by continuing to invest in founders like Britney Winters of Upgrade and Abbey Donnell of Work & Mother. Both understand the problem of their large, fast-growing and underserved markets and their technology will empower more women to care for themselves, their families and their communities."

The Artemis Fund's success comes on the heels of some record-breaking VC numbers for Houston. Recent Partnership analysis of PitchBook data revealed Houston companies raised $433.5 million in VC funding in Q1. That's up 95.5% from the same period last year. The four-quarter total ending in Q1 of 2021 was $1.035 billion, an all-time high. 

Houston companies closed 33 deals in the first quarter, including biotech firm NuProbe ($42 million), Fair Fintech ($20 million) and biotech company Coya Therapeutics ($10 million). The largest deal of Q1 this year was raised by the financial software firm HighRadius at $300 million in Series C funding. The massive deal was a record for Houston. 

Houston's tech ecosystem is undergoing massive growth as backed by a recent report that found venture capital investment has nearly tripled in Houston over the last five years to $753 million in 2020, a new record high for the region. The region's top three sectors for venture capital funding are health care, information technology and energy. 

“Houston is a city that has been leading the way for decades, with breakthrough innovations that have truly changed the world,” said Bob Harvey, President and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership. “Over the past few years, we have been working to transform an already incredible economy into one that competes as a leading digital tech city.”
 

See the Q1/2021 update on venture capital. Read the tech report produced by the Greater Houston Partnership and Houston Exponential. Watch our interview with The Artemis Fund about the challenges women founders face and how their fund helps those entrepreneurs thrive.