Startup Pitch Deck Raised $2.1m and Won Over Serena Williams’ VC Fund

• Calico is a management tool to help businesses set up and maintain supply chains in soft industries.
• Kathleen Chan spent seven weeks fundraising during the pandemic and announced the raise in March.
• Chan raised $2.1 million from the likes of Serena Ventures and Ancestry.com’s CEO Deborah Lui.

Kathleen Chan raised $2.1 million for her fashion supply-chain-software company, Calico, during the pandemic. The company announced the round in March of this year.

Serena Ventures contributed the most, and Ancestry.com’s CEO, Deborah Lui, is an

angel investor

in the company. 

Before Calico, Chan had built two brands: one for direct-to-consumer jewelry and one for corporate apparel. While developing these brands, she noticed the tools she used to manage the supply chain were very fragmented and manual. 

As Chan turned to her network of business owners — both small and large — she was surprised to find they all used Excel to manage their supply chains. 

There were no tools like Shopify or Facebook Ads for supply-chain management. 

Chan describes Calico as an operating system targeting soft goods — like jewelry or apparel — that lets businesses perform all supply-chain functions in one place. Using Calico, businesses can quote, bring their suppliers on board, and place prototyping and production orders.

While Chan had bootstrapped her previous startups, she decided to go the venture route with Calico because she wanted to do it right and do it fast. 

“I strongly believe what we’re doing will shift just about every player in the supply chain, and to do that, you truly need the right partners and the right kind of funding,” she said.

Chan walked Insider through the pitch deck she used to close the $2.1 million seed round.