About This Fund
Dria Ventures Fund I is an $8 million pre-seed and seed-stage venture fund launched in 2025 by Dria Ventures, a Black-woman-owned investment firm founded by Megan Maloney. The fund concentrates on backing early-stage founders building solutions to address the root causes of high costs in American healthcare and main street productivity — two sectors that Maloney identifies as underserved by traditional venture capital despite their economic significance. Maloney brings over a decade of investing experience across early- and growth-stage companies, having begun her career at Morgan Stanley, earned her MBA from Harvard Business School, and previously served as an investor at General Catalyst.
The fund employs an intimate, high-conviction partnership model, targeting a select portfolio of companies rather than a broad spray-and-pray approach. Dria Ventures provides not only capital — typically $225,000 at the pre-seed or seed stage — but hands-on operational support in two critical areas: leveraging an extensive network to accelerate customer acquisition, and building the relationships and metrics foundations required for successful Series A fundraising. The advisory network includes healthcare executives and former leaders from companies such as Livongo and Samsara, offering portfolio companies deep domain expertise alongside capital access.
Dria Ventures Fund I achieved its final close on September 16, 2025, raising $8 million from a distinguished group of institutional and individual limited partners, including Next Legacy Partners, Global Endowment Management, Spring Point Partners, Stardust, General Catalyst, and Handmade Capital. Individual backers include prominent angel investors and operators such as Elad Gil, Katherine Boyle, Glen Tullman, Lee Shapiro, Diogo Monica, and Jules Maltz. The fund had already deployed capital into eight portfolio companies at the time of close, including PitPro — a robotics startup applying automation to tire inspection, brake inspection, and tire rotations — demonstrating early deployment velocity aligned with Maloney's thesis of backing tangible productivity solutions for America's core industries.