Tina Bhojwani is comfortable being a contrarian.
In fact, Bhojwani, the co-founder and CEO of luxury vegan footwear company Aera, loves to do things differently. Besides taking the road less traveled to building an elevated shoe brand, Bhojwani went a step further late last year when she was looking for investors.
“Traditional early-stage fundraising does not typically serve companies committed to steady, thoughtful growth,” Bhojwani told FN. “We knew we needed to think differently and wanted to align with investors who embodied our same ethos. That’s why we’re pioneering something new.”
What resulted was the establishment of The Aera Family, a collective of 11 influential and impact-focused women funders with shared values and a long-term approach to growth who actively work to amplify the brand’s mission.
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Together this impressive group of women bring varied backgrounds and careers, diverse experiences and perspectives, and hail from all over the world from places like Dubai, London, Milan and New York City.
“These diverse perspectives are really helpful at this stage of my company,” Bhojwani said. “The most important thing to me was being around like-minded people, so that they understand the materials I use and what it means to be a B Corp. When one traditionally raises money, investors don’t typically have that level of involvement and passion for the business. So this group of women allows me to grow the brand in a supportive way.”
Elizabeth Novogratz, founder and president of Species Unite (a nonprofit media project to help people transition off of animal products), was Aera’s first investor. In a phone interview with FN, Novogratz told the story of how the idea came about.
“I met Tina at an event for the nonprofit Materials Innovation Initiative and noticed her shoes,” Novogratz said. “I was in love with her shoes and what she’s doing with Aera. So, after that initial meeting we started talking and going through ideas about who would be interesting in getting behind in Aera. We were interested in making this more of a movement and community versus just a group of investors.”
Novogratz added that she brought on her sisters to join the investment round as well. With the addition of Amy and Jacqueline Novogratz, the other women leaders in the “Aera Family” include Aditi Shah, Claudia Parzani, Shafali Jashanmal, Linn Hansen, Amrita Bhandari, Martha Berry, Kyra Barry and Francesca Colombo.
“I’m committed to thoughtful business development and growth,” Bhojwani said. “And I think we have assembled a really beautiful community. It was the right thing for us to do, and it’s proven to be really great.”
