Maria Toler Velissaris is an Atlanta-based entrepreneur and founder of the world’s largest venture capital fund focused on women’s healthcare. Velissaris started SteelSky as a way to uplift women-owned businesses. Her VC firm focuses on investing in fertility companies, maternal health companies, digital health, ePharmacy, and so on.
“I understand the mortality rates overall for the U.S. are the worst in the developed world, she added. “But for people of colour it’s even worse,” Velissaris told Wake Forest Magazine. “There were some big opportunities to make change and impact, but also big opportunities to make a lot of money by investing in these companies that can serve these big markets.”
The company just raised $72 million in total assets, making it the world’s largest venture capital fund devoted to women’s healthcare. Her firm has so far invested in more than 20 women-led businesses.
According to Becauseofthemwecan, the fund’s healthcare strategic partners include the American Hospital Association (AHA), Blue Shield of California, MultiCare Hospital System, Henry Ford Hospital System, and Essential Access Health.
SteelSky Ventures is named a top venture capital fund to watch by Forbes. She was also given the 2020 Business Alumni Changemaker award by the Stern School of Business, where she earned her MBA.
Velissaris stated that she was inspired to become an entrepreneur at a young age while traveling the world with her father, a military veteran. She grew up in Germany and Belgium before moving to Fairfax, Virginia, when she was nine years old.
She knew she had a ‘thing’ for doing artistic things from a young age. She started lemonade stands, garage cleaning companies, and babysitting services. Her grandmother Mary T. Christian, the first Black person on the Hampton City School Board in Virginia, also encouraged her. She was also the first Black person elected to the Georgia legislature since Reconstruction.
Velissaris founded Wakeboxes, a student storage company that was eventually renamed Collegeboxes, when she was a junior in college. Following the acquisition of Collegeboxes by Uhaul, she started SteelSky after seeing a funding gap for female-focused healthcare startups.
“I saw a lot of angel investors that were women wanted to invest in beauty or retail or food, but I saw this amazing group of founders that were innovating in women’s health care,” she said. “They were overlooked because a lot of people don’t understand health care. I thought that these companies could be groundbreaking, scalable and have a great impact.”