Cherryrock Capital closes debut fund to back overlooked founders

Stacy Brown-Philpot, the former CEO of TaskRabbit and a veteran of Google, has officially launched Cherryrock Capital. The firm closed its debut fund in February 2025, establishing an investment strategy dedicated to backing underinvested entrepreneurs. Brown-Philpot, who first arrived in the Bay Area 25 years ago, established the firm to address a persistent gap in access to capital for these founders. The launch follows her previous role on the investment committee of the SoftBank Opportunity Fund, a $100 million vehicle established in 2020 to support underserved entrepreneurs. SoftBank subsequently sold the Opportunity Fund to its leadership team in late 2023, prompting Brown-Philpot to double down on her strategy by launching Cherryrock Capital.

Cherryrock Capital is targeting 12 to 15 investments from its first fund, focusing on software companies at the Series A and B stages—the early-growth phases of startup funding. This concentrated approach stands in contrast to larger venture funds that write massive checks or seed funds that make dozens of smaller bets. The firm is maintaining a measured pace; a year after announcing the fund, Brown-Philpot and co-founder Saydeah Howard, who spent nine years at the venture firm IVP, have backed just five companies. This puts them about a third of the way toward their target, despite having evaluated more than 2,000 companies in their pipeline. Portfolio companies include Coactive AI, which provides multimodal AI infrastructure, and Vitable Health, a Philadelphia-based company providing primary care-based health insurance to employers and hourly workers. As the firm deploys capital, it is looking for companies that have achieved product-market fit—a startup milestone where a product satisfies a strong market demand—at scale.

The firm is navigating its strategy amid a shifting political climate and a new regulatory environment in California. A new diversity reporting law in California requires venture capital firms with a state nexus to report demographic data on their portfolio companies’ founding teams, with the first deadline set for April. While some institutional investors—including some of Cherryrock’s own Limited Partners (LPs), the external investors who provide capital to venture funds—have stepped back from explicit diversity pledges, Brown-Philpot remains focused on transparency. Cherryrock’s LP roster includes financial institutions such as JPMorgan, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, MassMutual, Top Tier Capital Partners, and Pivotal Ventures. Regarding the regulatory requirements, Brown-Philpot noted, “You accomplish what you measure.”

Why it matters

Cherryrock Capital is positioning itself as a counter-trend to the broader venture capital market’s focus on mega-rounds and AI hype by focusing on Series A and B investments for underinvested founders.