💸 Mathilde Collin’s Front Secures $65M Series D at $1.7B Valuation

FemWealth Issue #67

Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!

In the Spotlight ✨

Front, a customer communication hub co-founded and led by Mathilde Collin, has raised $65 million in a Series D round led by Salesforce Ventures and Battery Ventures, with participation from Threshold Ventures, Uncork Capital and Sequoia Capital. PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada is also among the investors.

Valued at $1.7B, the San Francisco-based company joined the list of only 10 other SaaS unicorns founded and led by women. Alongside co-founder and CEO Mathilde Collin, 80% of the executive team is female, and 50% of Front’s managers are women.

“When it comes to customer communication, technology rarely improves the relationships it's designed to manage. Efficiencies tend to come at the cost of quality of service: the so called smart bots, the deflection techniques, the cold ticket numbers and impersonal processes. In the long run, both customers and businesses lose out. Front has taken a contrarian approach: we’re building technology that scales customer relationships without losing that human touch.” - Mathilde Collin

Mathilde Collin, Co-founder and CEO of Front ©

Front’s customer base includes over 8,000 organizations, including Airbnb, Shopify, Hulu, and Lyft a.o.

With the fresh funding, Front plans to accelerate product development, establish new strategic partnerships, and drive global expansion beginning with the EMEA region. The startup is hiring for go-to-market, technical, and other roles in San Francisco, Chicago, Paris, Dublin, and remotely. 

Check out Front’s Series D pitch deck here.

Follow Mathilde Collin on Twitter here.

Mathilde Collin @collinmathilde

Front is co-founded and led by a woman (👋), with 80% women in executive roles, 50% in management, and now an incredible investor in @jenntejada. Sadly, that makes us only the 11th “unicorn” (out of 1360) to be co-founded and led by a woman (2/3)

Read more: Salesforce-Backed Front Valued at $1.7 Billion in Funding Round

---

FemWealth Favorites ❤️

Startups: 💸 Entrepreneur First raises $158M at a $560M valuation, adding Stripe’s Collison brothers to its list of backers - Co-founded by Alice Bentinck, Entrepreneur First - an entrepreneurship platform, community and atypical investor run like a startup - has raised $158 million in a Series C round. Its portfolio includes over 500 companies worth around $10 billion.

💸 Kaiko nabs $53 million to enhance cryptocurrency market data platform - The Paris-based digital assets data provider Kaiko - led by Ambre Soubiran - has secured a Series B funding round led by Eight Roads, with participation from Revaia and existing investors Alven, Point9, Anthemis, and Underscore.

💸 AlgiKnit’s seaweed-sourced materials could mend the textile industry’s toxic habits - Founded by Tessa Callaghan, AlgiKnit aims to provide designers and brands with the tools and materials necessary to create a sustainable future for people and the planet. It has raised a $13 million Series A led by Collaborative Fund.

“Giant kelp doesn’t rely on harmful fertilizers and pesticides to grow, does not necessitate the use of arable land or fresh water and efficiently sequesters CO2 from the ocean.” - Tessa Callaghan

💸 Jasmine Crowe's Goodr Raises $8M To Continue Its Mission Of Fighting Hunger With The Help Of Technology - The Series A round was led by Precursor Ventures, with participation from Collab Capital, Gratitude Railroad, Emerson Collective, Backstage Capital, Innovations For Impact, the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, Hockey Stick Investments, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, and a host of angel investors. Jewel Burks Solomon of Collab Capital and Goodr’s first angel investor has joined the startup’s board. Read more here.

“[Goodr] uses technology to solve hunger — that’s our big focus. I think we are taking a radically different approach to how this country solves hunger and food waste. A lot of times people say to me, ‘How is this a business? How can this be profitable?’ But, the main thing is people have to understand that billions of dollars get spent every year on food insecurity and trying to make sure people have access to food. But, it typically only goes to the same organizations.” - Jasmine Crowe, Founder and CEO of Goodr

Jewel Burks Solomon and Jasmine Crowe, Goodr ©

💸 Kukua, creators of ‘Super Sema,’ raises $6 million, led by Alchimia and Tencent - Founded and led by Lucrezia Bisignani, Kukua, a Nairobi- and London-based educational entertainment company and the creators of “Super Sema,” the first African animated superhero franchise, has raised $6 million in its latest round of investment.

“When I started this, we saw there were no African characters, and very few that were just Black. So, we thought this was a much-needed space, not only for kids in Africa but globally. It’s for kids to feel represented and to grow up with cartoons that are not only white but also to understand different cultures and themes.” - Lucrezia Bisignani

The Kukua team ©

👩🏾‍💻 150+ women CPOs across Europe: The complete list - Features Amandine Durr of Back Market, Georgie Smallwood of Tier, Anushree Sharma of Nuw, Rhiannon White of Clue, and many more.

VC: MAYA Capital closes second fund with $100M for early-stage Latin American startups - The Sao Paulo–based MAYA Capital is founded and led by Lara Lemann and Monica Saggioro.

Co-founders and managing partners Monica Saggioro and Lara Lemann, MAYA Capital ©

💸 Austin-based True Wealth Ventures raises second fund to back women-led startups - Co-founded and led by Sara Brand and Kerry Rupp, True Wealth Ventures has closed on $35 million in new capital for their firm’s second fund. More than 80% of the LPs in both funds are women.

💸 Coalition wants to make more women operators and investors at the same damn time- Founded by Glossier VP of Communications Ashley Mayer, Cityblock Health co-founder Toyin Ajayi, Umbrella co-founder Lindsay Ullman, and Tribe AI co-founder Jackie Nelson, Coalition, a fund and operator network designed to increase diversity on cap tables and help founders access some of the top minds in tech has launched a $12.5 million investment vehicle. Investors include the founders of Zola, Box, Glossier, and senior executives at startups including Stripe, Chime, Airtable, and Maven. Coalition has been actively investing for over six months and has already backed dozen startups, including Mos, MicroAcquire, Zaya Care and Aunt Flow.

💸 JourneyOne harvests a dope $10M fund to invest in cannabis tech - The fund led by solo manager Helene Servillon focused on pre-seed to Series A startups.

💸 Venture studio Adanian Labs fuels startup growth in Africa - Irene Kiwia is one of the co-founders of Adanian Labs.

💸 One to watch: Debut Capital’s Pilar Johnson works to augment funding for overlooked founders (TechCrunch + $)

“If anybody is interested in being an investor and doesn’t think they have the skills, I would say, don’t believe that. You can completely become an investor, and it’s needed.” - Pilar Johnson

🎧 Accel’s Sonali De Rycker on Building a Generational Defining Venture Firm - Follow Sonali De Rycker here.

☕ Brunch with Sifted: Sophia Bendz — angel investor, VC partner and ex-Spotify gatekeeper - Follow Sophia Bendz here.

Sustainability: 🌍 With Benioff backing, Sustainable Ocean Alliance aims to be the rising tide that lifts all ‘ecopreneurs’ - With $15 million in new funding, the nonprofit founded and led by Daniela Fernandez, aims to expand its scope and more tangibly support the class of climate-motivated founders.

Web3: 🌐 Web3 artist Latashá on educating creators about crypto’s ebbs and flows

Fashion: 👗 Life after Yeezy Gap: Mowalola's big Paris entry - The Nigerian-born fashion designer Mowalola Ogunlesi will stage her debut solo show for Spring/Summer 2023 in Paris.

---

Thank you for reading FemWealth! 🥰 Wish you a fun Sunday and an exciting week ahead!

Anamaria

Founder & Writer of FemWealth