🦄 Women's Leadership Network Chief Joins the Unicorn Club
FemWealth Issue #54
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
Chief, a private network of executive women founded by Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan in 2019, has gained unicorn status this week after raising $100 million in a Series B round at a $1.1B valuation.
Alphabet’s CapitalG led the round with participation from existing investors General Catalyst, GGV Capital, Inspired Capital, Primary Ventures, and Flybridge. Laela Sturdy, General Partner at CapitalG, will join Chief’s Board of Directors.
“Women have always been powerful, and our goal is to magnify and cross-pollinate that influence so women executives have a global network to support them.” - Carolyn Childers, co-founder and CEO of Chief
The New York-based career development and networking platform is on a mission to change the face of leadership by empowering women to advance to higher leadership positions in their respective organizations. Its offering includes networking events, workshops, and peer support groups.
Chief membership includes over 12,000 senior executives representing over 8,500 companies, notably American Express, Goldman Sachs, Nike, Google, Apple, NASA, Pfizer, and other high-caliber organizations. Approximately 60,000 more women from around the world are on the waitlist.
The new funding will be used to further develop the platform, with a focus on community and personalization features that better connect members.
Chief will also allocate $1M per year to nonprofits that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in executive leadership.
FemWealth Favorites ❤️
Startups: 💸 KKR Values Behavioral-Health Startup Brightline at $705 Million - The provider of virtual behavioral-health services to children and their families, founded by Naomi Allen, has raised $105 million from investors led by KKR & Co.
💸 Sequoia leads $80 million funding round for Swiss expense management start-up Yokoy - The company co-founded by Melanie Gabriel (CMO) plans to further expand in Europe.
💸 a16z, NFX back Latitud’s effort to become ‘the operating system for every venture-backed company in LatAm’ - The startup co-founded by DuoLingo’s former VP of growth Gina Gotthilf, aims to help Latin American-based entrepreneurs with company formation, access to funding, cap table management, and access to advice from “accomplished” operators and tech leaders. It has raised an $11.5 million seed funding round.
💸 Fashion Tech Firm Devoted to Avatar Creation Bods Gets $5.6M in Funding - Bods, an LA-based fashion tech company founded by former model and computer graphics enthusiast Christine Marzano, develops avatars and offers avatar-dependent digital styling and virtual try-on experiences. Model Karlie Kloss and Rent the Runway’s cofounder Jenny Fleiss are among the investors.
VC: 💸 Bond raises $2.5 billion for third growth equity fund - The growth equity firm was co-founded by Mary Meeker and Juliet de Baubigny, as a spinout from VC firm Kleiner Perkins.
Women’s Health: 👩🏽⚕️ Changing The Landscape Of Women’s Health: Founders And CEOs Sound Off - Features Jessica Bell van der Wal, co-founder and CEO of Frame Fertility, Carolyn Witte, co-founder and CEO of Tia, Anna Lindow, cofounder and CEO, Brave Health and more.
Career: 💸 Younger women now earn at least as much as or more than men in 22 metro areas - In the US, women younger than 30, on average, earn at least as much as or more than men in D.C., New York, Los Angeles and 19 other major metro areas. Nevertheless, wage gaps grow as working women age, corresponding to life events such as child-rearing.
👩🏻💻 2021 Study Of Gender Diversity On Private Company Boards - A study produced by Him For Her and Crunchbase found that women hold 14 percent of board seats among the companies studied, up from 11 percent in 2020.
Culture: 🎥 Jane Campion is now the third woman to win the best director Oscar - Jane Campion, a New Zealand director, screenwriter, and producer, has won the 2022 best director Oscar for helming the Western drama The Power of the Dog. She became the third female director to win an Oscar, following Kathryn Bigelow (in 2010 for The Hurt Locker) and Chloé Zhao (in 2021 for Nomadland).
🎥 West Side Story’s Ariana DeBose Makes History With Her Oscar Win - She is the second Latina to win an acting Oscar
“You see a queer, openly queer woman of color, an Afro-Latina who found her strength in life through art. And that’s what I believe we’re here to celebrate.” - Ariana DeBose
👏🏽 10 women who have made history so far in 2022 - Features Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, Hondura’s first female president Xiomara Castro, Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Chole Kim and more.
Things to Ponder
Women Face a Double Disadvantage in the Hybrid Workplace - In hybrid workplaces (where some employees are remote full-time and others in-person full-time), women working remotely full-time may have “double disadvantages” in areas where they already face challenges, including access to networking and sponsorship opportunities, assumptions about commitment, and the ability to speak up in meetings.
The Price of Being Invited to the Party - The Oscars have a long history of disrespecting Black women.
An insightful Twitter thread on the impact of war on women:
Thank you for reading FemWealth. Wish you an exciting week ahead!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth