Mental Wellness

11 Tribes Ventures Fund II is a $46 million early-stage venture capital fund headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, managed by 11 Tribes Ventures. The firm was founded by Managing Partner Mark Phillips and General Partner Kristina Chapple with a philosophy called Radical Relational Investment — a founder-first approach that treats founders as whole people rather than merely business operators. The name '11 Tribes' reflects the firm's ethos of community-building, cross-sector collaboration, and inclusive investment across diverse industries throughout the United States. Fund II marks an evolution for the firm, transitioning from a follow-on investor to a lead investor, stepping into the majority of its funding rounds and taking a more active role in shaping portfolio outcomes. Fund II targets early-stage companies pursuing a clear path to profitability and comfortable with exit values in the $75 million to $250 million range — a segment the team believes is systematically underserved by larger venture funds chasing unicorn outcomes. The portfolio reflects a generalist mandate spanning legal technology, real estate services, food and nutrition brands, waste management, insurance, and childcare, with a strong emphasis on founder-market fit and broader societal impact. A defining differentiator is the Handshake Agreement, which formalizes the human relationship between investor and founder, and an allocation of 2% of invested capital as non-dilutive grants to portfolio founders for coaching, counseling, therapy, and organizational health support. Fund II closed at its final target of $46 million in April 2025. At close, the firm had already selected nine portfolio companies — NuTrād, NQS, Legal Karma, Lease Up, GoNanas, Evercycle, Circadian Risk, Kidsy, and Alloy — with a goal of backing 30 companies over the following 36 months. The fund's emphasis on founder wellness, values alignment, and sub-unicorn exit targets positions 11 Tribes Ventures within a growing cohort of human-centered venture strategies differentiating from traditional Silicon Valley models.

The Calm / Storm 2 fund is a dedicated early‑stage venture capital vehicle established by Calm/Storm Ventures out of Austria, designed to invest across the health‑tech and wellbeing space in Europe. With a final close around €30 million, the fund seeks to partner with startup founders driving meaningful innovation in prevention, diagnostics, digital health tools and infrastructure for large healthcare systems. Unlike many health‑tech investors who wait until later stages, this fund is committed to getting in very early—pre‑seed, seed and occasionally post‑seed—taking meaningful stakes and often leading rounds alongside a strong network of co‑investors. It emphasises partnership, mentorship and ecosystem building as much as capital. Diversity and purpose are core to its philosophy: Calm/Storm emphasises founding teams from under‑represented backgrounds, and invests in areas often overlooked (e.g., fertility, mental health, sexual wellness, chronic conditions) where innovation can have disproportionate impact. The fund thus aims for both financial return and societal benefit. The fund will deploy capital across primarily European companies (with at least ~75% of investees registered in Europe at the time of investment) and aims for average ticket sizes of around €500 k, roughly double that of its predecessor fund. It expects to lead or co‑lead 30‑40 investments, leveraging its community of founders and ecosystem of LPs to create access, scale and value.