Investment firm Golden Seeds aiming to support female entrepreneurs
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From left, Stephanie Hanbury-Brown, Peggy Wallace and Joann Corkran.
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Following a 15-year stint with J.P. Morgan during which she managed several global businesses for the financial services company, Stephanie Hanbury-Brown decided her second career would focus on supporting women entrepreneurs.
In 2004, she launched Golden Seeds, an investment firm that targets companies founded or led by women.
"We wanted to support women entrepreneurs with a view of having women at the top of companies from the very beginning, to create a culture for women to get to the top, and for them to have a sustainable career at the top," she said.
The New York-based firm closed on its first fund with $3.8 million invested, and is raising money for its second fund, which currently totals $15 million.
Its portfolio includes three investments in the Pittsburgh region: Carnegie Speech, a Downtown company that develops artificial intelligence software for learning different languages; TowerCare Technologies of Wexford, which develops fundraising software for nonprofits; and Cognition Therapeutics, a South Side firm that develops therapeutics to target Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases.
Through her personal portfolio, Ms. Hanbury-Brown also holds a stake in RedPath Integrated Pathologies, a cancer diagnostic company in the Strip District.
All the local companies Golden Seeds invested in were either founded or co-founded by women and have women in top executive positions. "We don't negatively discriminate against men but we positively discriminate toward women," said Ms. Hanbury-Brown.
During a presentation Thursday to potential investors held at the Borelli-Edwards galleries in Lawrenceville, Golden Seeds officials said they are opening a local office at the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Campus on the South Side.
The office will not be staffed full-time, said Ms. Hanbury-Brown, but will serve as a base for Golden Seeds members who travel regularly to Pittsburgh to attend board meetings for their investment companies.
"We've always had a strong relationship with Pittsburgh," she said. "And it took us by surprise. But we realized Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh in particular is extremely strong for entrepreneurs because of the Life Sciences Greenhouse, Ben Franklin Technology Partners and Innovation Works" -- all programs that invest in and nurture startups.
Elsewhere in the state, Golden Seeds has invested in Saladax Biomedical, a Bethlehem company that produces diagnostic tests. And Ms. Hanbury-Brown said it is working on a closing date for financing for AboutOne, a firm in Malvern that makes a Web-based system to organize family information and records.
First Published September 9, 2011 12:11 am
