Kathryn Finney

Investment Stage

Focus Areas

About Investor

Kathryn Finney is Founder and Managing General Partner of Genius Guild, a Chicago-based venture studio and fund investing in Black entrepreneurs building scalable businesses that serve Black communities and beyond, with a focus on health, work, and untapped markets. She is also a limited partner in several other funds, including Capitalize VC (a commerce-focused fund backing Black and Latinx founders in the Midwest with $50K-$250K checks), RareBreed Ventures, and Refashiond Ventures. Her direct investments include Backpack Healthcare, Stimulus, Health In Her Hue, QuirkChat, and The Labz. She previously founded and led digitalundivided, the social enterprise behind ProjectDiane research on funding disparities for Black women founders, and earlier founded The Budget Fashionista, one of the first successful fashion blogs, which she sold in 2013. She is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author of "Build the Damn Thing" and holds a Master's in Epidemiology from Yale University. She is based in Chicago, Illinois.