In 2001, Cynthia Pharr and Valerie Freeman, along with two other co-founders, conceived the idea of creating a venture capital fund to invest in women-led businesses in Texas.

 Naming the initiative Texas Women Ventures Fund (TWVF), they succeeded in creating a limited partnership and raising a first round of $3 million in September 2002 from Charter Investors, a majority of whom are women.  TWVF is now working on a second institutional round of fundraising and has a goal of raising $10 million in private equity.

 In 2001, only six percent of venture capital invested in the U. S. went to businesses led by women.  California, with the most women-led companies, received over half the total invested in such businesses.  Even though Texas ranks second in women-led firms in number, employment and revenue, the funding to California-based, women-led businesses was six times that of investment received by similar Texas-based businesses.

 Despite severe inaccessibility of growth capital, from 1997-2002 the number of women-owned firms in the U.S. grew at twice the rate of all U.S. firms, employment grew at 1.5 the national average and sales rose at the same amount.

 TWVF views the dynamic, but overlooked and under-funded segment of women-led businesses as a tremendous opportunity for investors who have expertise in this area.

 TWVF is the first fund of its kind and seeks to raise $10 million in private equity, secure a license to become an SBIC, then be able to leverage private equity with SBIC funds.  Doing so would make possible the delivery of $30 million+ in growth capital to women-led businesses in Texas.