With $9 million in second-round VC bucks from Venus and friends on the books, Ellevest’s AUM remains ground bound

The recent $9-million round of funding for Sallie Krawcheck’s women-oriented robo-advisor, Ellevest, proves, if nothing else, that the former chief of the stockbrokerage units at Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney has perfected the art of raising venture capital from high-powered women.

But attracting a critical mass of workaday women investors to make the new venture a going concern? That’s another matter altogether. See: As a self-aware Sallie Krawcheck launches at TechCrunch Disrupt, Ellevest embraces the peril of selling algorithms to women

The high-wattage roster of accomplished and monied women onboard for this round, announced in September, include tennis great Venus Williams; Mellody Hobson, co-founder of Ariel Investments; Theresia Gouw, leader of Aspect Ventures; and Sonja Perkins, founder of  Broadway Angels, an all-woman angel investment group.