In 2020, the Hypepotamus team wrote that it would be a good idea to keep an eye on Sevetri Wilson, a New Orleans tech entrepreneur and founder of nonprofit business intelligence platform Resilia.
All eyes are certainly on Wilson this week as she makes history. Resilia’s new $35 million Series B marks the largest single VC raise ever by a solo Black female-founded tech company.
Atlanta-based Panoramic Ventures and Vancouver-based Framework Venture Partners co-led the round. Additional investors in the round include Mucker Capital, Callais Capital, Cultivation Capital, Engage Ventures, SoftBank Group’s SB Opportunity Fund, Kimble Ventures, The Jump Fund, Fearless Fund, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Fund, Chloe Capital, Gaingels, Mana Ventures, and others.
You’ll notice quite a few Southeast firms on the list for this round.
“It’s never easy to fundraise but it’s even harder when the market is volatile. However, because of Resilia’s continued growth since the pandemic we were successful in receiving several term sheets. I’m based in New Orleans, so I’m very close in proximity to investors in the Southeast though for many we are our Southeast investors’ first New Orleans check,” Wilson told Hypepotamus. “Nonetheless, I feel we work well with Southeast investors because they not only believe but have witnessed and worked with companies that can scale from essentially anywhere—especially this region.”
Paul Judge, Panoramic’s Managing Partner, added that his team was investing in Resilia because the platform is a “true game-changer” in the nonprofit sector.
For Wilson, that game-changing platform is about “democratizing philanthropy.” New nonprofits use Resilia to streamline the 501c3 setup process. Those more established nonprofits can use the platform to search for grant makers and use custom dashboards to track outcomes.
The platform also helps with 1:1 nonprofit coaching, peer-to-peer learning opportunities, and various tools to help a nonprofit share its mission and vision with more people.
The harsh realities
Any way that you slice the numbers, the VC world hasn’t been welcoming to female founders from underrepresented backgrounds. That is despite the fact that Black women represent the fastest growing demographic of entrepreneurs, according to research from the Harvard Business Review and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.
Only 1% of all VC dollars deployed in 2021 went to Black and Latina female founders. Early aggregate numbers from 2022 suggest that needle hasn’t moved significantly over the last year.
That makes Resilia’s Series B one of the bigger headlines in 2022.
But this isn’t the first time Wilson has made headlines in the tech scene. When she raised Resilia’s $8 million Series A in 2020, it was the largest VC investment secured by a female founder in Louisiana to date.
What’s Next Following Resilia’s Funding
This year, the company reported over 300% annual revenue growth while growing net revenue retention by over 150%. The team has already attracted big names in the nonprofit space already, including Oxfam America, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Goldman Sachs’s One Million Black Women Initiative.
The Series B will be a new chapter for the startup, which is headquartered in New Orleans with a growing office in New York.
Now, product growth is Resilia’s focus.
“We’ll be doubling down on our user experience and enhancing existing features where we have heard feedback from our customers. But I’m also equally excited about our fintech vertical as we move into payments and donations over the coming months. We also plan to expand internationally into Canada where we already have existing customers,” Wilson told Hypepotamus.