Karen Sheffield is the Founder and Managing Partner of Pachamama Ventures. Pachamama Ventures is a San Francisco venture capital firm investing in early-stage climate technology companies. Karen invests in founders building solutions to climate change. She brings 16 years of finance leadership experience to her investing. She also spent four years as an active angel investor before launching her firm. Karen spoke at a past InsurTechNY event.
Karen founded Pachamama Ventures in 2024. She invests through the firm’s first fund. Her focus is partnering with early-stage founders tackling climate challenges. She sources and evaluates climate technology companies for investment.
Before founding Pachamama, Karen spent 16 years in finance executive leadership. She held roles across several industries and at Fortune 100 companies. That experience built her foundation in finance and strategy.
Karen is active across the venture capital community. She is a member of the National Venture Capital Association. She participated in the All Raise emerging manager cohort. She also mentors startups through the Alchemist Accelerator.
Karen earned an MBA from the University of Texas McCombs School of Business. She also holds degrees in finance, accounting, and economics from TCU. She studied economics in Lima, Peru, earlier in her education.
