Jul 19, 2023

Pure Ventures  (formerly Alpha Bridge Ventures), a San Francisco, CA-based early-stage venture capital firm dedicated to empowering founders’ personal and professional growth, closed Fund II, at $20m. Led by Howie Diamond, Managing Director and General Partner, Pure Ventures strategically invests in early-stage companies and has already built a diverse portfolio with companies such as Atomos, Juneshine, Oats Overnight, Zbiotics, and MUD/WTR, among others. The firm also provides portfolio companies access and subsidies to a wide range of personalized services through Pilea (formerly Atlas), an integrative leadership and wellness coaching platform co-founded by Dr. Kari Sulenes and Pure Ventures. Through comprehensive support, Pure and Pilea provide founders with dedicated teams to help them overcome challenges frequently associated with the entrepreneurial journey, such as burnout, stress, anxiety, co-founder conflict, financial hardship, and depression. Pure also expanded the team by hiring Alicia Zeng as their Director of Ops. With 10 years of strategic and operational experience with consumer brands, Zeng brings invaluable expertise in ads, analytics, team scaling, and building resilient global supply chains. She runs an ecommerce startup in the beauty space called Lilac St., and played a pivotal role as the second employee at YC-backed personal care startup L. Fem Care. Zeng previously held positions at Google and McKinsey. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Princeton University. FinSMEs