We’re excited to announce the promotion of our colleague Lauren Weston to Senior Associate. Lauren joined our team in August 2020 from Morgan Stanley, where she had been covering both financial institutions as an Investment Banking Analyst and later covered residential and commercial real estate companies as part of their Equity Research group.
With the pandemic, Lauren was our first remote hire and spent her initial time with the firm based in New York; these days, she is bucking the trend and has moved to San Francisco to be closer to the team and to many of the entrepreneurs we work with. Lauren’s focus has been on two of our three primary investing verticals, FinTech and PropTech, and she has been instrumental in our research efforts in these areas: she led the research on new sub-sectors including publishing a seminal Construction Market Map and leading our ongoing research into embedded lending.
Lauren joined our group for what has turned out to be a historic moment both in venture and for Thomvest: against the backdrop of record increases in venture dollars invested, 2021 was a record year for Thomvest in terms of dollars invested in both new and existing relationships. In her time with us, Lauren has supported a number of new investments including Mynd, Obie, Ocrolus, Sequin, and several others that have yet to be publicly announced. Lauren has also been a key part of the investment team supporting our work with existing portfolio companies, including our decision to lead the Series D financing for Ladder and follow-on investments in several other companies.
In the time that we’ve worked together, we’ve been impressed by Lauren’s intellect, her analytical ability and insights, and the genuine warmth that she brings to any discussion with entrepreneurs and her peers. Her work has also been recognized externally as well: in 2021, Lauren was recognized as an Emerging Leader in Venture Capital by HBCUvc. She was also a fellow in the inaugural On Deck Fintech fellowship program and is an active member of All Raise, where she co-leads initiatives for women who are early in their venture capital careers.
In her free time, Lauren is a mentor and Board member of HEAF Inc., a non-profit dedicated to working with underserved young people beginning in middle school. Lauren enjoys contributing to HEAF’s high-impact programming that includes rigorous year-round academic enrichment, personal development as well as college prep and career exposure.
We’re thrilled to have found such a talented friend and colleague and look forward to continuing to build our firm together with Lauren in her new capacity as a Senior Associate!
