Inc. Magazine Feature: On a Mission to Make a Lasting Impact
Nov 8, 2022
Helping people tend to their mental and physical health is big business. The global wellness industry is expected to become a $7 trillion industry by 2025, according to the Global Wellness Institute. For Relevance Ventures, a Native American-owned venture capital (VC) firm based in Nashville, this fastgrowing category represents something more: a tremendous opportunity to make a difference in people's lives.
Managing Partner Cameron Newton founded Relevance Ventures in 2011 to help bring technology and software companies to Tennessee. The firm has since expanded its reach and its mission, investing in companies that promote wellness and positively impact the social determinants of health. More than half of its portfolio companies are based in the Southeast. "In New York, I would have looked out the window to see 25 other folks trying to do the same thing," Newton says. "One of the reasons we founded the firm here is we wanted to be part of this movement--this expansion in access to venture throughout the country, not just from the coastal areas."
Offering the best of both worlds
Relevance's lean investment team includes a venture capital veteran, a former edtech CEO, a corporate lawyer, and an award winning financial analyst, each of whom have decades of experience and robust networks, so management teams get the resources of a larger firm without the red tape. "I think founders like working with us because they get a lot more access to the people who run the firm and make funding decisions. We want to be involved, and we want to be a resource," says Dean Newton, general partner.
"We had really strong investor support from Relevance from the beginning," explains Adam Zbar, co-founder of Sunbasket, a healthy meal delivery service company. Relevance helped Sunbasket navigate multiple pivots to become a leading brand. "They trusted us to find the North Star and stood behind us as we turned the ship." Sunbasket is one of more than 20 businesses that Relevance has quietly shaped. Other portfolio companies include Talkiatry, The Good Patch, Easyvet, Passport, and Rootine.
Building trust by making founders’ jobs easier
Relevance does whatever it can to help a business grow, whether that means providing bridge financing or guidance. "It's those small things that I think founders truly appreciate," Cameron explains. "Founders spend so much time on capitalization and fundraising. Anything we can do to help smooth out that process, despite us being a relatively small firm, builds a lot of goodwill between us and the management team." Before investing in the parking app company Passport, Relevance provided mentorship and backstopped the company's largest rollout. The firm went on to co-lead Passport's Series A funding round. Businesses often ask Relevance to lead rounds when other venture firms are involved, Dean says, because of the firm's expertise, accessibility, and willingness to respond to founders' priorities.
With just a handful of hires, Relevance has the capacity to grow its fund to be four to five times bigger than its current size of $75 million. In doing so, it can further support inspired founders who share the firm's mission of promoting health and wellness. "Our goal from the very beginning was to be the preeminent venture capital firm in the Southeast United States," Cameron says, "the kind of place you go for true venture funding and advice."