- Kindred, an events startup focused on accelerating sustainable and purpose-led business transformation, announced recently it raised $5.2 million
Kindred is an events startup focused on accelerating sustainable and purpose-led business transformation co-founded by Deep Focus founder Ian Schafer and Shoptalk founder Anil Aggarwal that announced it raised $5.2 million in a seed round of funding led by Primary Venture Partners recently. Lerer Hippeau, NextView Ventures, Human Ventures, Able Partners, the founders of Warby Parker, Harry’s, and Allbirds, the founders of Casper (Neil Parikh and Philip Krim), and NFL player Ndamukong Suh also joined the round.
The company’s inaugural flagship event will be Kindred 2020 — which will be held at the San Diego Convention Center on May 11–14, 2020. That event will gather over 2,000 business, nonprofit, and cultural leaders to take action, transform, and grow businesses and relationships for a world that is demanding more responsibility and accountability.
Kindred 2020 is going to feature a line up of more than 150 prominent speakers from companies, including Acorns, Andreesen Horowitz, B-Labs, Ben & Jerry’s, Bombas, Bravely, Diane von Furstenberg, Dole, eBay, Good Money, HBO, Procter & Gamble, Publicis Groupe, TOMS, WarnerMedia, and WW. And featured nonprofits will include Comic Relief, St. Jude, and UNICEF. Plus attendees will also hear from cultural leaders including Chance the Rapper.
“As business leaders continue to emphasize their commitments to their stakeholders (employees, customers, and communities), the time is right for what we are building. We couldn’t have asked for a more dedicated, more strategic group of investors to be with us on this journey. Each of them brings a commitment to social impact and to doing business with purpose. With their help, we’ll be able to bring communities of leaders together in productive environments that move all of us forward, in even bigger, bolder ways,” said Kindred co-founder and CEO Ian Schafer.
Lerer Hippeau managing partner Ben Lerer pointed out that “Kindred is well-positioned and perfectly timed to help businesses and brands meet a new bar for consumer expectations around purpose and impact.”
Primary Venture Partners general partner Ben Sun explained that his firm is “beyond pleased to support Ian and Anil as they build an impactful way for these leaders to learn, collaborate and transform their companies to be more purpose-led.”
Human Ventures CEO and founding partner Heather Hartnett said that her firm invests in “people who see the world as it will be in five to 10 years. They don’t look at what is in front of them this quarter or next, but rather skate where the puck is going. That is where you can find the Kindred team.”
And NFL star Ndamukong Suh stated that as he learned more about Kindred, he learned that it could “truly change the world by changing the way the world does business—and I knew that was something I needed to be a part of.”
