Alante Capital

WHO WE ARE

Alante Capital is an early-stage VC fund investing to commercialize climate, circular and resilience-supporting technologies in design-driven consumer industries. We invest in exceptional founders developing innovation that can address systemic challenges across the value chains of apparel, textiles, footwear, home goods, and outdoor. Our differentiated insights and relationships with established corporations (brands, suppliers and retailers in apparel, footwear, home goods, etc.) inform our investment decision making process, and make us a value-added investor to founders in our portfolio. We are female-led, report on impact annually, and have an integrated DEI approach that has resulted in 11/12 of our Fund I portfolio companies having underrepresented founders or C-Suite executive(s), 8/12 female. We invest across materials science, enterprise and consumer software (no brands), and have an advisory board with deep operational expertise spanning our areas of interest.

50,000,000

TARGET SIZE OF FUNDS

Sector

B2B, Biotech, AI/ML, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Tech, Marketplace Apps

Stage

Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A

Region

North America, Europe

Countries

US, Canada, Germany, France, Europe, Finland, Europe, Switzerland, Europe, Sweden, Europe, Iceland, Europe, UK

Founder(s)

Karla Mora

Karla: Karla brings over 10 years of experience in venture capital and impact investing and another 7 years working in economic development in emerging markets. Prior to Alante, she was Interim Investment Director at VilCap Investments where she led initial investments in early-stage companies in Mexico, Ghana, Kenya, and the US. She supported a large portfolio of companies, cultivated new investor relationships and raised capital for the fund. She also prepared early-stage FinTech and HealthTech entrepreneurs to raise capital through Village Capital’s Mexico-based accelerator program. Prior to this, Karla was Associate Director of The Eleos Foundation, investing in social enterprises in emerging markets. She also worked at Building Markets in Afghanistan, supporting SMEs and strengthening regional supply chains in post-conflict areas, the World Affairs Council, and the United Nations Sustainable Commodity Initiative for the coffee sector. Karla holds a Master’s Degree in Development Economics from the University of Rome in Italy and a Certificate in Financial Management from Cornell University. Karla is on the Boards of Mango Materials, and on the Advisory Boards of Material Innovation Institute and the UCSB Master’s Program in Eco-Entrepreneurship at the Bren School. Karla has dedicated her career to using business as a force for positive social and environmental impact. Early on she developed a deep passion for reforming production practices across industries to improve working conditions and protect the environment. Her passion for supply chain reform, deep concern with the state of the apparel industry and her love of beautiful clothes, led her to create Alante Capital in an effort to spur innovations that can have lasting positive impacts on people and the planet.

Leslie Harwell

Leslie: Leslie has over 15 years experience in financial services. Prior to Alante, Leslie was Vice President of Sustainable Finance at JPMorgan Chase & Co. where she developed & led the Capital Strategies Initiative for Sustainable Finance in the Americas, and was involved in the management of and value creation in the Social Finance Principal Investing portfolio. Leslie began her career at Credit Suisse, where she spent 7 years primarily focused on the evaluation of Debt Capital Markets in Emerging Markets, including coverage of sovereign and corporate clients. She helped issuers in Latin America & the Caribbean raise funds in the international capital markets, managing transactions from pitch through due diligence, structuring and execution. She also was involved in strategic coverage for Multilateral Financial Institutions, which was her first exposure to then new field of Impact Investing. Her first role at the Bank was in Operations, where she managed the transition of legacy reference data systems and firm-wide integration of a new automated platform, training as a Six Sigma Green Belt in the process. Leslie holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University with a minor in Arab Studies. Alante combines Leslie’s lifelong passion for responsibly produced apparel, personal commitment to sustainable development and honed affinity for finding efficient solutions to complex challenges. Leslie grew up surrounded by entrepreneurs, with her mother in design and father a financial services entrepreneur for over 40 years. The apparel industry is a passion of Leslie’s that is practically inherited. Her grandfather’s family owned the general store and a clothing store in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and her grandfather began importing from Asia in the 1940s. Leslie’s mother spent her life in the apparel and interior design industries and ingrained the importance of vintage, quality and sustainable sourcing…and also taught Leslie everything she knows about connecting with humans across cultures through the lens of craft and design, shopping in souks, bazaars, and markets all around the world.