A member of the top 100 from the Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist
Susan Lyne took charge of a new AOL investment fund backing female founders in September 2014.
The $10m-$12m Build Fund focused on finding early-stage consumer internet and mobile companies with at least one female founder. BBG Ventures grew out of AOL’s #BuiltByGirls initiative, founded by Nisha Dua, also now a partner at BBG, which “aims to inspire and support women and girls to claim their place in the tech-enabled economy by imagining and building the great products of the future or by tapping technology to power their work, play and passions”. Lyne was previously chief executive of AOL’s brands group.
Prior to joining AOL in 2013, she was chairman at online shopping website Gilt Groupe and stepped down from Gilt’s board in February after department store chain Hudson’s Bay Company agreed to acquire Gilt for $250m. Despite being one of the largest exits of the year, the exit came less than five years after Gilt raised $138m at a $1bn valuation and had total funding of about $290m.
Founded in 2007, Gilt was one of the first flash sales companies to launch in the US, specialising in fashion. It currently has more than 9 million members, and more than half of its transactions take place on mobile phones.
Before Gilt, Lyne ran Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, a media and merchandising company founded by Martha Stewart.
