Scoop: VC firm Lerer Hippeau names four women partners

Lerer Hippeau has promoted four women to partner, the New York City venture capital firm tells Axios.

Why it matters: The move reflects a deal activity surge that's causing firms to expand their partnerships and shows the VC industry's ongoing efforts to remedy its extreme gender imbalance.

Details: The new partners are: Andrea Hippeau (joined in 2014 from Bark & Co. and The Dodo), Caitlin Strandberg (joined in 2018 from FirstMark Capital), Isabelle Phelps (first joined as a summer intern in 2017, previously at Dorm Room Fund), and platform director Stephanie Manning Cohen (joined in 2017 from Work-Bench).

• Investing partners at Lerer Hippeau source, diligence and negotiate deals.
• The firm's three managing partners have veto power, but they've never exercised it in the firm's 11-year history.

Big picture: Venture capital firms typically used to raise new funds once every four years. That timeframe has now been condensed to two years (or less), due to the rapid deal pace, with firms like Lerer Hippeau raising several different types of funds to meet the opportunity (plus a SPAC).

Note: Lerer Hippeau is an investor in Axios.