Kindred is an NYC-based events startup focused on accelerating sustainable, purpose-led business transformation. It was co-founded by Deep Focus founder Ian Schafer and Shoptalk founder Anil Aggarwal. The company secured an additional $5.2M in seed funding led by Primary Venture Partners with participation from Lerer Hippeau, NextView Ventures, Human Ventures, Able Partners, founders of Warby Parker, Harry’s, and Allbirds, founders of Casper (Neil Parikh and Philip Krim), and NFL player Ndamukong Suh. Kindred is staging its inaugural flagship event, Kindred 2020, at the San Diego Convention Center on May 11–14, 2020. The event will gather more than 2,000 business, nonprofit, and cultural leaders and feature over 150 speakers from companies including Acorns, Andreesen Horowitz, B-Labs, Ben & Jerry’s, Bombas, Bravely, Diane von Furstenberg, Dole, eBay, Good Money, HBO, Procter & Gamble, Publicis Groupe, TOMS, WarnerMedia, and WW. Featured nonprofits will include Comic Relief, St. Jude, and UNICEF, and attendees will also hear from cultural leaders including Chance the Rapper. Kindred brings together influential creators, platforms, experts and purpose-driven brands to identify and develop opportunities that accelerate social movements. It plans to run regular events called Quests beginning in Spring 2019, which convene small groups to tackle issues such as mental health, global warming and sustainability, diversity and inclusion, gun violence, criminal justice reform and voting rights. Its first annual flagship event is scheduled for May 11–13, 2020 in San Diego and intends to gather more than 2,500 Kindred community members. Early partners named in the article include Twitter, S'Well, the Ad Council, HBO and the WarnerMedia Innovation Lab. The organization has a founding advisory council that includes Luvvie Ajayi, Akilah Hughes, Anthony Rapp, Michael Angelakos and other creators and industry leaders. Leadership listed in the article includes co-founder and CEO Ian Schafer, chairman Anil D. Aggarwal, Natasha Mulla, Ting Wang, Eileen Carty and Kevin Hu.

Total raised

$8M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Jan 2020