Joanna Rees
Leadership Seminar Moderator @ The Aspen Institute
San Francisco, United States
Joanna Rees is a Managing Partner at West and leads the firm's investments. She is based in San Francisco.In addition to her work at West, Joanna currently serves on the corporate board of FICO (NYSE: FICO), Care.com (NYSE: CRCM), Harvest Power, Prelude Fertility, Mursion and Hickies. Joanna is also a Senior Partner of the B Team(www.bteam.org). Most recently, Joanna led the formation and capital raise for Endeavor Catalyst, an impact investment fund supporting high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Joanna was a candidate for Mayor of San Francisco in November 2011. Joanna was the founder of VSP Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage companies combining technical innovation with market development.Joanna Rees has served on the board of more than 25 venture-backed companies across a broad range of industries She also served on the Board of the National Venture Capital Association ("NVCA), the Coppola Companies (Francis Ford Coppola), and as Chairman of the USA for Madrid-based FON, Joanna was the co-creator of the Build Brand Value CEO forum which she ran from 1997 to 2003 as part of VSP Capital. Joanna has significant experience in finance and investment banking including positions at BA Securities and a boutique merchant bank, Vrolyk & Co. Joanna held several senior marketing management positions with Groupe Danone, a $20+ billion global consumer products firm, and began her career at DMB&B.The World Economic Forum selected Joanna Rees as a Global Leader for Tomorrow (GLT). The Aspen Institute selected Joanna for its Henry Crown Fellows. Joanna serves on the non-profit board of Endeavor Global, Build.org and the Representation Project. She also spent more than a decade on the board of the New Schools Venture Fund and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. Joanna is a seminar moderator for the Aspen Institute. She is also a Senior Mentor for the Henry Crown Fellowship. She earned her MBA from Columbia University (beta gamma sigma) and a BS from Duke University where she was a member of the gymnastics team.
- Total investments:
- 6
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 17%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Joanna Rees invests in
Stages Joanna Rees invests in
Countries Joanna Rees invests in
Investment Focus
Industry
- Finance 2 (33%)
- Internet 2 (33%)
- Software 2 (33%)
- Enterprise Software 2 (33%)
- SaaS 1 (17%)
Stage
- Seed 3 (50%)
- Series A 1 (17%)
- Series B 1 (17%)
- Series D 1 (17%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Copia
|
Every day in America, they waste 3X more food than there are mouths to feed. It is not a lack of food that is the issue, but rather an ineffective distribution of that food. Hunger is not a scarcity problem, it's a logistics problem. For the first time ever, they can effectively donate prepared and highly perishable food to those who need itwhen they need it most. Copia is a for-profit company that has built technology allowing food donors (e.g., food management companies like corporate cafeterias, universities, hospitals, grocers, caterers etc.) to easily request pickups of their surplus food, have it matched, and safely delivered to non-profits in need. With Copia, partnering businesses can now seamlessly access significant tax savings, dramatically reduce food waste through data and analytics on surplus, and remove CO2 from the atmosphere, all while feeding the neediest in their community.We have saved nearly 5M pounds of edible food from ending up in the landfills and provided savings of over $14M for the businesses and nonprofits we serve. We operate nationwide and are on our way to feeding over 4 million people with great food that would have otherwise been wasted! | $1.5M / Seed / Jul 15, 2019 | |
Siftery
|
Siftery is a database of sorts where companies list their software stacks. Siftery compares companies with similar stacks and looks for differences to make some recommendations. | $4M / Seed / Feb 02, 2016 | |
Parlio
|
Parlio is a social network that connects global citizens to share and discuss perspectives on various subjects. It was founded in 2014 and is based in Palo Alto, California. | $1.7M / Seed / Jun 15, 2014 | |
AccountNow
|
AccountNow is a leading provider of prepaid card financial solutions for the 40 million US consumers who do not have established credit, credit cards, or traditional banking relationships. AccountNow’s money saving offers give consumers an alternative to "traditional" checking accounts and access to the financial and payment systems,including Visa prepaid cards, Pay Anyone Bill Payment and FDIC-insured deposits. AccountNow Prepaid Cards are issued by The Bancorp Bank or MetaBank pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. or MasterCard International Incorporated. Cards can be used everywhere Visa debit cards or Debit MasterCard is accepted. MasterCard is a registered trademark of MasterCard International Incorporated. The Bancorp Bank and MetaBank; Members FDIC. | $3.5M / Series A / Aug 09, 2004 | |
Danger
|
Danger provided the software platform and hardware behind On May 31, 2011, T-Mobile and Microsoft | $35M / Series D / Feb 01, 2003 | |
Sabrix
|
Sabrix, Inc. is a leading provider of transaction tax management for companies of all sizes, enabling finance, tax, and IT professionals to achieve accurate, timely, and cost-effective compliance for sales tax, use tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), excise tax and industry-specific taxes and fees. The Sabrix Application Suite serves global enterprisessuch as Amazon.com, BASF, Cisco, DTE Energy, IBM, QUALCOMM, Sportsman's Warehouse, and York International. The Sabrix Application Suite seamlessly connects to all financial applications requiring the determination, calculation, and recording of transaction taxes. The company also offers the Sabrix Managed Tax Service (MTS), an outsourced transaction tax compliance service that helps finance departments of small-and-medium-sized businesses eliminate the hassle, control their audit exposure, and reduce the total cost of sales tax, use tax, and VAT compliance. Sabrix MTS seamlessly integrates with a company's existing accounting and e-commerce systems, and, similar to outsourced payroll services, operates as a trusted extension of a company's finance department to address tax compliance from start to finish: address validation, tax rate maintenance, tax determination and calculation, returns preparation and filing as well as audit research and documentation. | $6.2M / Series B / Nov 15, 2002 |
Co-Investors
About The Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also maintainsoffices in New York City and has an international network of partners.
The Aspen Institute Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Dan Glickman
Vice President
|
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Elias Torres
Henry Crown Fellow
|
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J. Joseph Kim
Fellow
|
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Kim Vender Moffat
Executive Director
|
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Renske Lynde
Food Leaders Fellow
|
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FAQ
What does Joanna Rees invest in?
Joanna Rees invests primarily in Finance, Internet and Software startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 6 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
When did Joanna Rees last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Joanna Rees closed in Jul 2019. Shizune tracks 6 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.
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