Golden Seeds Opens Chicago Chapter, Extends $200 Million Women-Led Bet

Golden Seeds has invested more than $200 million in 279 women-led companies since 2004 — and it has now opened its ninth chapter, in Chicago, to push that number higher across the Midwest.

The New York-based network is the largest angel investment group to invest exclusively in U.S.-based, women-led startups. Managing Directors Susan Abrams and Angela Allen will lead the Chicago chapter, which joins nearly 300 active Golden Seeds members nationwide. More than 25 of them are already in Chicago.

The group's portfolio companies have landed an additional $2.5 billion in follow-on capital — a multiplier that Golden Seeds argues vindicates its thesis that women founders are systematically underfunded.

Why does the funding gap persist?

A widely circulated statistic claims only 2 percent of venture capital funding goes to all-female founding teams. The early-stage picture has improved: as Golden Seeds co-CEOs Loretta McCarthy and Jo Ann Corkran wrote in a recent Fast Company essay, angel funding to women-led startups has risen from 3 percent to 30 percent over the past 20 years.

But the upper end of the market remains skewed. Between 75 and 80 percent of all later-stage VC funding still goes to companies with all-male founding teams. On the investor side, women hold just 15 percent of partner or decision-making roles at VC firms, according to a 2025 study by Founders Forum Group.

Those numbers persist despite research showing that companies founded or co-founded by women generate more revenue per dollar raised than all-male founding teams.

What changed for Allen and Abrams?

For Allen, an executive coach and seasoned corporate and nonprofit board member, the systemic bias is personal. She served on an all-female executive team at a company that achieved a 10x exit, and saw firsthand how women fare when raising capital.

"We had to forgo being considered a women-owned business, even though 100 percent of our executive team running the business were women, in order to play at the level that we wanted to play," Allen says, describing how her company lost its women-owned status after taking a majority investment from a male-led venture capital firm.

"There are amazing things being done out there, and if we allow the bias of thinking 'women really can't do that' to get in the way, we're missing out on great things," she says.

Abrams, previously CEO of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center and a board member of the Illinois Finance Authority, frames the chapter launch in builder's terms.

"It's very much an entrepreneurial endeavor," Abrams says. "I think a lot of our colleagues who are drawn to this work are also builders and want to be part of something that feels very exciting here in Chicago right now. We're learning every second and contributing to how people are thinking about solving pain points for consumers or innovating to make humanity healthier."

How rigorous is the diligence?

Ask Trish Thomas, co-founder of Evanston-based healthy snack company Every Body Eat. At her first meeting with Golden Seeds, she recalls, "There were 7 people in the room." In 2025, after growing into a new factory kitchen in Evanston, her company sought a capital infusion from the network. Every Body Eat products are now available in 5,500 retail locations.

"Their diligence was more intense than Bain or KPMG," Thomas points out.

Allen says that rigor is central to the model. "There are amazing solutions to real problems that people are coming up with. But that alone is not a guarantee for success," she explains. "We're really drilling into understanding how well they understand what it's going to take to take an amazing idea and bring it to fruition."

Abrams adds that deal decisions turn on the team, not the pitch deck or a revenue target. "We're looking for a leadership team that really exhibits grit and resilience," she says. "A team that has the ability to take input, to pivot, and to build."

What is the portfolio's range?

Golden Seeds members are doctors, Ph.D.s, accountants, bankers, attorneys, entrepreneurs, marketers, product specialists and engineers — and investing membership is not limited to women. Abrams argues that depth is a competitive edge in vetting deals.

"On almost any deal that we look at, we can put together a really interesting team," Abrams says.

The range of companies reflects it: healthy snacks, biomedical engineering, fintech and artificial intelligence. EliseAI is a major Golden Seeds success story with a recent valuation of $2.2 billion. Those same member teams become mentors and advisors to the founders they back.

For Thomas, the relationship is ongoing rather than transactional. "Golden Seeds is a very friendly way to learn about investing and to build investing muscle," she says. "And to connect to women doing interesting things." She notes that many women shy away from investing despite controlling significant capital and household spending — what they lack is access to deal flow.

"Golden Seeds is not traditional venture. They back only companies led by women, which have been traditionally underfunded," Thomas says. "And their support and networks have helped us bring in new customers."

What comes next?

Thomas has a decade-long scorecard in mind. "Ten years from now," she says, "we'll have proved together that woman-owned businesses deliver outsize returns. Period."

Allen goes further, defining success as eventual obsolescence. "We would love our work here to put us out of business in a sense, because it's obvious that the smartest people could be any gender. They can have any skin color. It doesn't matter. We shouldn't care. We should be able to invest in and support the best people wherever they are."