Barbara Clarke

Fund(s): Rising Tide Fund, Enterprise Fund, FirstStep Fund
Location: Boston

Barbara Clarke is a lead investor in Portfolia's Rising Tide Fund, Portfolia Enterprise Fund, and Portfolia's FirstStep Fund. Barbara led the Rising Tide’s investments in RenovoRX and co-led investments in Tenacity and Poshly. Barbara is a prolific early stage investor in Boston and the Northeast US, exclusively backing women-led, POC and LGBTQ-led companies. She was also an early investor in Portfolia Inc.

Barbara is a founding member of Astia Angels NYC, and serves on the national investment board for Astia.  She was an early Pipeline Fellow, an investing education program for women. Barbara is an economist and entrepreneur with over ten years of corporate and nonprofit executive experience. She was a Senior Managing Member at PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG. She holds a BA in Quantitative Economics from Tufts University and an MA in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University’s Lemberg-International Business School. She is currently the Chair of the Board of Trustees for Schools for Children, a network of independent schools serving children of all ages and abilities from pre-school through high school. Previously, Barbara served as the President of Tufts University’s Alumni Association, the National Director for the National Alliance for Grieving Children, CFO for Cradles to Crayons. 

Barbara is known as an insightful and generous mentor to Portfolia’s new investors.  A highlight of her practice is her highly perceptive evaluation of founding teams, and her ability to hold a mental model of the founders’ development capacity and assist them in growing with their company.