Former marketing executive Roi Carthy left corporate life to found Intimate Capital, an investment company focusing on "sexual wellness" startups. Carthy told Business Insider that his new venture is structured more like a private investments company rather than a traditional venture capital firm, in part to test his investment thesis but also to get large investors comfortable with the idea of investing in vice-adjacent startups like sex toy hardware makers or lingerie companies. Carthy said he is following the examples of several similarly structured firms that have invested in cannabis startups, another industry that sometimes falls under traditional vice clauses.