Exclusive: Bank of America anchors new Human Ventures fund

Driving the news: The company is in the process of raising roughly $50 million, according to an SEC filing, though sources with knowledge of the matter tell Axios that the firm may seek to raise $100 million.

Details: Should the fund eventually raise $100 million, that would double the amount of Human Ventures' first fund.

• Like the last fund, this one will focus on pre-seed and seed stage companies, with Human Ventures also taking some board seats (Fund II has already begun deploying capital, leading a $7 million seed round in Adelaide, an adtech business).
• Though it has invested in fintechs, Human Ventures is not focused solely on the sector, having made bets across health care, the future of work, and on the attention economy.
• Similarly, while CEO Heather Hartnett says about 50% of its portfolio's founders are women, that is not a mandate.
• "By nature of the opportunities we are seeing in women's health care, child care, reskilling and upskilling — it happens to attract more female founders," Hartnett says. "These are areas that are completely underinvested in."

Of note: Human Ventures co-founder Joe Marchese — former president of ad revenue at Fox — is coming back as a GP in this fund.

The Bottom line: Yes, corporate pledges are no doubt in part about branding. But, at a time when some are wondering whether rocky markets could boot diversity and inclusion to the back of venture capital's list of priorities, multi-year corporate pledges will at the very least be one known source of capital.

• Bank of America managing director Omar Eissa says he doesn't yet see a turn away from underrepresented founders.