# James Gutierrez

> James Gutierrez is a Series A investor at Insikt Ventures backing Retail and Children. See 1 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Insikt Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/insikt-ventures-f003)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 1
- Last investment: Mar 2011
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgutierrez
- X (Twitter): http://www.twitter.com/1jamesgutierrez

James Gutierrez is a leading social entrepreneur and innovator in lending and financial technology. Prior to Insikt, James founded and was CEO of Oportun (formerly Progreso Financiero), the leading provider of responsible, unsecured loans to Hispanics in the US that recently surpassed $1.5 billion in loans and over half a million borrowers sinceits founding. As CEO from 2005-2012, James led Oportun from its development as a nascent start-up to a market leader in the lending industry and raised over $250 million of debt and equity to fund its growth. Under James’ leadership, the company scaled its loan originations to over 200,000 per year with revenues of $65 million, 85 retail stores in California and Texas, and 600 employees.James Gutierrez has served on Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council and the Centennial Advisory Committee, and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences on financial services innovation. James also co-authored and helped pass two federal and state laws to help increase the availability of safe and affordable small dollar loans. In 2010, BusinessWeek selected James as one of America’s most promising social entrepreneurs and in 2012, Goldman Sachs named James one of America’s top 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs.In addition to Insikt, James also serves on the boards of Talent Inc., Listo!, SEO-SF, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. James is a founding partner of Insikt Ventures, an early stage fund with investments in OnDeck Capital, Listo!, and Blend Labs. James was also an early investor in many leading technology companies including Trulia, OkCupid, StubHub, and Symphony Commerce. James graduated with a BA in Economics from Yale University and a MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Retail | 1 | 100% |
| Children | 1 | 100% |
| E-Commerce | 1 | 100% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BabyBoom | BABYBOOM.ru is baby and kid's goods online retailer in Russia. | $900K | Series A | Mar 25, 2011 |  |

1 of 1 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Embarcadero Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/embarcadero-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Index Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/index-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Team Global](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/team-europe-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Insikt Ventures

VC Fund



1 contacts available at Insikt Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| James Gutierrez | Founding Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/james-gutierrez |

## Similar investors

### Similar industry
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Everywhere Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/everywhere-ventures) — VC Fund
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

### Similar country
- [Moscow Seed Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/moscow-seed-fund) — VC Fund
- [PULSAR](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pulsar-venture-capital) — VC Fund
- [Softline Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/softline-venture-partners) — VC Fund

## Featured in investor lists
- [Community Investors in Russian Federation](https://shizune.co/investors/community-investors-russian-federation)
- [Community Angel Investors in Russian Federation](https://shizune.co/investors/community-angel-investors-russian-federation)
- [Retail Investors in Russian Federation](https://shizune.co/investors/retail-investors-russian-federation)
- [Retail Angel Investors in Russian Federation](https://shizune.co/investors/retail-angel-investors-russian-federation)
- [All Angel Investors in Russian Federation](https://shizune.co/investors/angel-investors-russian-federation)

## FAQ

### What does James Gutierrez invest in?

James Gutierrez invests primarily in Retail, Children and E-Commerce startups, most often at Series A stage. Most of the 1 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Russian Federation. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did James Gutierrez last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for James Gutierrez closed in Mar 2011. Shizune tracks 1 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co