Rogue Venture Partners Research
Overview
Rogue Venture Partners (RVP) is a venture capital firm based in the Portland, Oregon area (an April 2022 Oregon Business profile describes it as Lake Oswego-based). The firm invests in seed-stage, early-stage and later-stage companies, with a historical focus on the Northwest and on local relationships. Its website, roguevp.com, is a splash page with two buttons, "Go Rogue" and "Go Rogue Women". The second button leads to roguewmn.com, the site for Rogue Women's Fund. The first button did not expose a readable page or link when read, so almost everything public from the firm itself describes the Women's Fund.
Investment Thesis
Rogue Women's Fund (RWF) launched in 2019 under the RVP umbrella after about a year of research by Tom Sperry, Caroline Lewis and Adam Stoll. The thesis is that women founders are overlooked, so the opportunity is large. The site cites that 42% of US businesses are founded by women while only 2.8% of venture funding goes to women-led startups, and that women-led companies are 30.6x more likely to reach a $1B+ valuation per $1M invested. RWF describes itself as hands-on, willing to lead or join a round, and focused on companies outside the major hubs.
Stage Focus
Early seed. The site says RWF targets seed-stage companies with first or second iterations of technology, early revenue and valuations under $10M, incorporated in the US.
Check Size
The site states an average check of $500K. A third-party profile (OpenVC) lists $350K to $500K.
Lead Tendency
RWF says it can lead or join a round, and that it "leads". Marked as both.
Sector Focus
Women-led B2B SaaS, enterprise and B2B2C software. Named sectors are women's health, the care economy, experience tech and foundational industries. The portfolio spans HR and employee relations, healthcare marketplaces and maternal health, fertility and parenting, wealth management, AI tooling, construction procurement, marketing analytics, and a few consumer brands and media companies.
Fund Structure and Recent Activity
- Rogue Women's Fund I (2019) and Fund II (2022). The Fund II close was reported at over $13M in a May 2024 San Antonio Business Journal piece.
- RWF's LinkedIn page says the two funds invested in 40 women-led tech companies from 2019 to 2026 and are currently fully deployed.
- The partners claim about 3x net returns on at least two funds, and say over 50% of LPs are women or women-led institutions.
- Founder-friendly structure: every founder RWF invests in shares in a part of the GP carry, and founders get paid executive coaching, financial coaching, subsidized childcare through a KinderCare partnership, and assistant support.
- A Venture Fellows program runs cohorts of about 30 fellows.
Portfolio Highlights
The roguewmn.com portfolio lists about 33 companies, including Ellevest, AllVoices, Source, Slumberkins, Clickvoyant, Beginly Health, Magpie, Wellthi, Cercle, Empromptu, Joy, Kidsy, Winx Health and Lovu. Two carry an "Acquired" banner on the site: Caregiven and PacStar. The page gives no round dates or stages.
Third-party aggregators report a larger RVP portfolio (Tracxn counts 53 companies, naming names such as Cloudability, Earnest and Opal). None of those are on the firm's own site, so they are not included here.
Team
- Caroline Lewis: Managing Partner and founder of Rogue Women's Fund. Previously in strategy and operations at Nike and in management consulting. Joined RVP in 2017 at Tom Sperry's invitation.
- Tom Sperry: Partner and co-founder, described as the founder of RVP.
- Adam Stoll: Partner and co-founder.
- Kerri Leathers joined RWF in 2022 from fintech and biotech finance roles (Oregon Business). She does not appear on the current team page.
Decision Process
Partnership with three partners. The firm describes a personal, relationship-first approach to founders.
Founder Preferences
Women-led US startups, incorporated in the US, with early revenue and technology that is in its first or second iteration. B2B-first.
Geographic Focus
United States, deliberately outside the major venture hubs. Historically RVP has had a Northwest emphasis.
Gaps
- The general RVP fund (not the Women's Fund) has no public portfolio or thesis page that could be read.
- AUM is not stated by the firm.
- Check size and stage are taken from the Women's Fund pages and apply to that fund.
- Portfolio rounds, stages and dates are not on the site.