Growth Warrior Capital (GWC), an early-stage venture capital firm, today announced appointments to its investment team. GWC is cementing its trailblazing leadership team with the appointment of Rachel Baruch as Principal, along with the promotion of Alexa Payton, formerly Chief of Staff, to Head of Investor Relations. Baruch will drive the deal selection process for its future funds, collaborating closely with the leadership team to define deal theses and outcomes. Her role will involve raising capital from institutional investors and managing a growing pipeline of deals. Baruch, in tandem with Founder and Managing Partner Promise Phelon, will spearhead investment approaches by collecting market feedback and data, meeting industry luminaries and processing fund performance to determine where and how GWC can create the greatest alpha for its limited partners. In Payton’s new role, she will identify, research, vet and continuously nurture institutional investors that meet the economic and strategic objectives of GWC.
Prior to her role at the firm, Baruch served as an investor at Anthos Capital, where she played an integral role in deploying the firm’s three most recent funds, ranging from $300M to $1.5B. Throughout the course of her career, she has sourced hundreds of millions of dollars in investments across the fintech, healthcare and software sectors, including successful fintech companies Flutterwave, one of Africa’s first $1B+ unicorns, and Episode Six, which has raised more than $100M in funding to-date. She has nearly a decade of experience in finding high-performing entrepreneurs and structuring and optimizing phenomenal deals. Additionally, Baruch uses a proactive hunting approach when it comes to picking and backing companies; she aims to stay ahead of the curve by frequently connecting with industry visionaries and closely analyzing opportunities in the market. Kickstarting her venture career in Tel Aviv, Baruch connected startups and global investors and later expanded her horizons through working in events operations at TechCrunch Disrupt in London and NYC. Baruch is a graduate of the NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she is an active advisor to the Tory Burch Scholars and sits on the NYU Innovation Fund Venture Board. In addition to her role at GWC, Baruch will continue to serve as a founding advisor to early-stage VC firm and growth consultancy Fiat Growth.
As data shows that female leaders outperform their male counterparts in terms of generating value and that women-led startups are five times more likely to become billion-dollar companies compared to male-led businesses, Baruch and Payton’s appointments showcase the firm’s track record and devotion to growing and scaling dangerous and high-performing companies, particularly those founded by diverse and female individuals. Baruch’s hiring and Payton’s promotion are announced on the heels of GWC’s inaugural Warrior Summit, a conference for founders and investors that took place on Oct. 31 in Austin. The event—hosting conversations with investment leaders from Bank of America, Pivotal Ventures, Bessemer, Oracle Netsuite, A.Team, Gunderson Dettmer, All Places and TechStars, as well as Sherrell Dorsey of TED Tech and tech entrepreneur Autumn Manning—platformed ambitious founders, CEOs and venture capitalists to network and build relationships with reputable leaders in the space.
“Elevating founders by giving them an equal seat at the table has always been a passion of mine, and the Growth Warrior Capital team has inspired me to engineer long-term wealth and bold visions for both our founders and limited partners,” said Rachel Baruch, Principal at Growth Warrior Capital. “I have continued to be impressed and motivated by GWC’s determination, authenticity and operational grit to emerge as a leader in the venture industry. In this new role, I look forward to working alongside a talented technology-focused team—one who uses its operating expertise as a superpower—and taking our investments to the next level.”
“Rachel is a force in our industry and I couldn’t be more thrilled for her to join our team,” said Promise Phelon, Founder and Managing Partner of Growth Warrior Capital. “She is a crucial asset as we build our firm and bring to market a new, operator-focused investment model that supports founders on their path to CEO. Her insights, strategic oversight and expertise are needed to generate success for our own business, our partners and the industry at large. With these latest additions and positive changes to our team, we’re poised to capitalize the early-stage founders we work with, and today’s entrepreneurial ecosystem supports that vision.”
Later this year, GWC intends to launch its first product offering, Elevo, a GenAI-driven pitch deck builder utilizing artificial intelligence to help founders at any stage build funding decks that investors want to see.
To learn more about Growth Warrior Capital, please visit growthwarriorcapital.com.
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ABOUT GROWTH WARRIOR CAPITAL
Growth Warrior Capital (GWC) is a Seed and Series A venture capital firm founded by seasoned entrepreneur and operator Promise Phelon. Founded in 2021, the firm invests in dangerous technology companies led by diverse and female founders. With a proven track record of accelerating growth for its portfolio companies, GWC brings deep tech operator expertise and delivers outsized returns. For more information, please visit gwc.vc.
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