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MBA Ventures
MBA Ventures was founded in New York in 2023 by Monica Aznar and Clark Winter, both alumni of global VC firm Antler. The firm occupies a narrow,...
MBA Ventures
MBA Ventures was founded in New York in 2023 by Monica Aznar and Clark Winter, both alumni of global VC firm Antler. The firm occupies a narrow, credential-defined lane: it will only back startups with an MBA student or alumnus on the founding team, sourcing primarily from programs such as INSEAD, Wharton, and Columbia Business School. Aznar previously founded an alternative MBA program (Glocal) and served as COO at venture builder Anima Ventures, while Winter was COO of travel marketplace Heli and Director of Growth at Vettery before its acquisition by Adecco. The firm's investment strategy spans pre-seed and seed-stage direct commitments across geography and sector. MBA Ventures also maintains an invite-only AngelList syndicate, allowing external investors to participate in later-stage follow-on rounds on a deal-by-deal basis. Publicly visible portfolio companies include Laws of Motion, a women's fashion brand using AI for sizing; Mentium, a digital health platform; Hexagon, a data analytics tool; and Just Enough Wines, a direct-to-consumer wine label. Co-investors that have backed overlapping deals include top-tier venture capital firms, though specific fund names are not systematically disclosed. Team scale and total committed capital remain undisclosed. The firm lists open roles for MBA on-campus scouts and summer analysts, suggesting a distributed sourcing model rather than a large central investment team. The firm's platform—branded as 'The Valley'—provides founders with access to a global network for co-founder matching and knowledge sharing, complemented by an annual Summit event. No public record of a philanthropic foundation, real-asset arm, or external club membership is attached to the firm. What distinguishes MBA Ventures is its structural play: the firm operates as a credential-gated fund where the selection filter is not a sector thesis but a degree signal. Both founding partners hold elite MBAs and their prior roles at Antler gave them direct exposure to the venture-building model. The tandem of a fund for early-stage checks and a syndicate for follow-ons allows MBA Ventures to capture allocation without raising successive blind-pool vehicles, while the campus-scout program creates a proprietary sourcing pipeline inside business schools.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
2023
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, NY, United States
Principals
Monica Aznar
Founding Partner
Clark Winter
Founding Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at MBA Ventures?
Founding Partners Monica Aznar and Clark Winter jointly oversee investments. Both came from Antler VC, where Aznar was a Senior Investment Associate and Winter an Investment Director. Their respective operating backgrounds—Aznar in strategy consulting and venture building, Winter in growth-stage marketplaces—inform the decision process, though the firm has not disclosed a formal investment committee structure.
Does MBA Ventures only invest in founders from certain MBA programs?
The firm states on its website that it backs founders primarily from top-tier MBA programs, citing INSEAD, Wharton, and Columbia Business School as examples. The mandate is open to any MBA student or alumnus globally, but the sourcing apparatus relies on campus scouts at elite programs, which likely concentrates deal flow from a handful of institutions.
How does the MBA Ventures syndicate work?
The firm runs an invite-only syndicate on AngelList for later-stage rounds where external investors can commit capital alongside the fund on a deal-by-deal basis. This structure lets MBA Ventures follow on beyond its initial check size without raising a larger blind-pool vehicle, and offers co-investors curated access to MBA-founded startups.
What is the relationship between MBA Ventures and Antler VC?
Both founding partners previously worked at Antler VC—Monica Aznar as a Senior Investment Associate and Clark Winter as Investment Director—before leaving to start MBA Ventures in 2023. There is no public evidence of an ongoing formal affiliation, investment partnership, or shared vehicle between the two firms.
What investment stages does MBA Ventures target?
MBA Ventures writes pre-seed and seed checks for startups with an MBA student or alumnus on the founding team. The AngelList syndicate is used for later-stage follow-on deals, giving the firm a continuum from earliest-stage capital to expansion rounds without a dedicated growth fund.
Does the firm have any geographic or sector constraints?
According to its website, MBA Ventures is sector and geography agnostic. The portfolio confirms this: named companies span fashion (Laws of Motion), digital health (Mentium), enterprise software (Hexagon), and consumer packaged goods (Just Enough Wines), with founders drawn from multiple continents.
Is MBA Ventures a single family office, a venture firm, or something else?
MBA Ventures is a traditional venture firm structured as a private equity manager. It is not a family office. The firm raises external capital for its core fund and its AngelList syndicate, and lists open roles for on-campus scouts and interns, signaling a standard institutional startup model rather than an advice-led or proprietary-capital vehicle.
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