✍🏾 70+ Venture Funds Come in Support of Fearless Fund
FemWealth Issue #123
Hi FemWealth Friends,
In the Spotlight ✍🏾
US Venture Capital investors Shila Burney (Zane Ventures), Kimberley Nixon (Open Venture Capital), and Tessa Flippin (Capitalize VC) organised an Open Letter denouncing the lawsuit against Fearless Fund, a Black Women-owned investment fund, by the American Alliance of Equal Rights, a conservative activist group.
Over 70 venture funds, many led by Black women GPs, including Arlan Hamilton (Backstage Capital), Monique Woodard (Cake Ventures), JoAnn Price (Fairview Capital), Tracy Gray (The 22nd Fund), Sydney Thomas (Symphonic Capital), Eunice Ajim (Ajim Capital), and Melissa Bradley (1863 Ventures) signed the letter in support of the Atlanta-based seed-stage venture capital fund and non-profit foundation.
“Black Women are grossly underrepresented as investors and underfunded as entrepreneurs. Over $288B of venture capital was deployed in 2022, with an estimated 0.41% share invested in Black Women founders. This approach to twist efforts to counter the impacts of racial and gender discrimination as harmful to women of color is not only transparent, unoriginal, and unconvincing, but it also unjustly targets Black Women while threatening the civil rights of all women. (…) We will fight and we will persist in doing this important work; anything to the contrary only perpetuates this attack and creates undue influence over our decision-making.” - extract from the Open Letter
Launched in 2018 by Black women executives and first-time fund managers Arian Simone and Ayana Parsons, Fearless Fund is on a mission to bridge the gap in venture capital funding for women of color founders. It raised $42 million from LPs including Mastercard, Costco, Bank of America, and PayPal.
Sign the Open Letter ✍🏾
The civil rights movement comes to venture capital (TechCrunch + $)
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Startups: AI startup Anthropic raises $100M from Korean telco giant SK Telecom - Co-founded by Daniela Amodei (President), Anthropic raised $100 million in strategic funding from one of the biggest mobile carriers in South Korea. The two companies plan to co-develop a multilingual large language model customized for global telco firms. Earlier this year, Anthropic raised $450 million in a Series C funding round led by Spark Capital.
FIGUR8, the market leader for measuring musculoskeletal (MSK) health and injury recovery, secures $25M Series A-1 financing - Founded and led by Nan-Wei Gong, Figur8, a Boston-based musculoskeletal health startup, raised $25 million in Series A-1 funding. First Spark Ventures led the round, joined by DigiTx Partners and Phoenix Venture Partners.
Highlight, now flush with $18M, helps CPG brands automate product testing - Co-founded by Dana Kim, Highlight is an in-home product testing company. It raised $18 million in Series A funding led by Acre Venture Partners and HearstLab and joined by Ingeborg Investments and GS Futures.
Hyper-Growth Dog Food Company, Jinx, Secures Series B Financing for Explosive Retail Business Expansion and Innovation Investments — The Los Angeles, California-based dog food brand, co-founded and led by CEO Terri Rockovich, raised $17.85 million in Series B funding to focus on continued growth and distribution in key retail channels. The Merchant Club and Align Ventures led the round, with participation from AF Ventures, ERA Ventures, and Range Group.
Dutch medtech firm Xeltis secures €12.5M from EIC Fund - Led by Eliane Schutte, Xeltis, secured €12.5 million from EIC Fund to advance trials of its innovative polymer implants that regenerate patients’ tissue.
Soil can store gigatons of carbon, and Yard Stick wants to measure it all - Co-founded by Cristine Morgan, Yard Stick recently closed a $10.6 million Series A round. Toyota Ventures led the round, with participation from the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, the Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, a.o.
Virtual-first women’s healthcare company Visana Health raises $10 million seed round
- Co-founded by Shelly Lanning, Visana Health is available through health plans and employer benefit plans in all 50 US states and provides whole-person, inclusive clinical care for women’s health conditions, including menopause, endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS, contraception, UTIs, and more. It raised $10.1 million in seed funding. Flare Capital Partners and Frist Cressey Ventures co-led the round, with additional support from InHealth Ventures, Oxeon Partners, Pixel Perfect Ventures, Venture Investors, and others.
“Most women’s health solutions focus narrowly on maternity and fertility, missing the mark for the 90% of women who aren’t actively building a family. We built Visana to provide women with in-depth care for all phases of life.” - Shelly Lanning, co-founder and president of Visana
Venteur raises $7 million to boost health insurance options (Axios Pro $) - Co-founded and led by Stacy Edgar, Venteur is a Berkeley, California-based startup that offers a marketplace for personalized employee health plans. It secured a $7.6 million seed round led by GSR and joined by Headwater VC, Revelry Venture Partners, Houghton Street Ventures, Plug and Play, Techstars, and CRCM Ventures.
Escala Medical secures €5.5M EIC funding to advance pelvic organ prolapse treatment - Led by Dr. Edit Goldberg, Escala Medical offers a non-invasive alternative for treating pelvic organ prolapse, a condition affecting roughly 50% of women globally. The company’s prolapse repair device has recently received clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
TikTok’s D’Amelio family expands into food with new investment - D’Amelio Brands, a Los Angeles startup co-founded by TikTok stars and sisters Charli and Dixie D’Amelio and their parents, raised a $5 million round to launch their new “Be Happy Snacks” brand. Fifth Growth Fund led the deal.
Arlington EV startup ElectroTempo just raised $4M - The US-based company co-founded and led by Yanzhi (Ann) Xu, develops planning and intelligence software for electric vehicle charging stations and infrastructure. It raised a $4 million seed round led by Buoyant Ventures, with additional support from Schematic Ventures and Zebox Ventures.
Metabase Q bags $3m funding to bolster cybersecurity in Latin America - Co-founded by Louise Ireland, President and COO, Metabase Q, a San Francisco-based cybersecurity startup that focuses on protecting multi-national corporations in Latin America, secured $3 million in Series A funding. Existing investor SYN Ventures led the round.
BDD secures £2M to fuel expansion in early phase clinical trials following record year - Led by CEO Dr Carol Thomson, BDD is a Scotland-based integrated drug formulation and clinical trials company. It raised £2 million from the British Business Bank, and existing investors Archangels and Scottish Enterprise.
In-Seam, a Sourcing Platform That Supports Personal Shoppers and Stylists, Raises $2 Million (WWD $) - Founded and led by Ann McNeill Wehren, the New York startup provides a sourcing platform for personal shoppers, stylists, and fashion sales personnel. It raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by Far Out VC.
Whitebalance raises $1.5 million for AI-powered audio tool to solve content copyright issues - Co-founded and led by Lorraine Ma, the Washington, D.C.-based copyright issues platform for live entertainment, raised $1.5 million in funding. Dundee Venture Capital led the round, with participation from Bread and Butter Ventures and Techstars.
Finnish startup Carbo Culture opens one of Europe’s largest carbon removal plants - The Finnish startup, co-founded and led by Henrietta Moon, opened its new biochar production plant aiming to remove 3,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere a year. Located near Helsinki, the new plant was funded by a €2.2 million grant from the European Innovation Council.
M&A: The ‘internet’s favorite underwear’ goes mainstream: Gen Z brand Parade agrees to be bought - Parade, an online, inclusive underwear brand founded by Cami Téllez in 2019, has been acquired by Ariela and Associates International, an intimates manufacturer led by Ariela Esquenazi. Financial terms were not disclosed.
VC: D.C.’s Accolade Partners raises at least $440M for new funds (Washington Business Journal $) - According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the Washington-based VC firm, co-led by Managing Partner Joelle Kayden, secured $440 million in capital commitments for three new funds: $186.2 million earmarked for its third growth equity fund, with an additional $85.7 million set aside for the feeder fund; $66.8 million for its third cryptocurrency-focused fund; and $101.5 million for a new fund to invest in healthcare and technology startups between seed and Series A stages.
Armed with second fund, Brewer Lane Ventures on the hunt for fintech, insurtech startups (BOSTINNO $) - Co-founded Martha Notaras in 2020, the Boston, Massachusetts-based VC firm Brewer Lane raised a second fund of $203 million, per SEC filings seen by Business Journal.
Assembly Ventures Announces Inaugural $76 Million Mobility Fund Focused on the Physical and Digital Movement of People, Goods, Data and Energy - Co-founded by Jessica Robinson, aims to back seed to Series B-stage startups working on technology solutions in the mobility sector, in Europe and the US.
Women’s sports investment deserves the same consideration tech receives
“Amid volatility in some of business’ most high-profile sectors, facing ongoing economic uncertainty, investing in women’s sports this year is the most stabilizing investment one can make to create that balance. You just have to afford women’s sports the faith they’ve consistently, rightfully earned.” - Destiny Washington, The Collective
Women-led firms are a bright spot in 2023’s fundraising slump (TechCrunch+ $)
How Y Combinator’s only health care partner decides which startups are worth a shot (STAT+ $) - Features Surbhi Sarna, the first and only healthcare partner at Y Combinator
Politics: ‘I have enough ovaries to apply the law.’ The language of gender enters the Mexican presidential race - Xóchitl Gálvez (Senator) and Claudia Sheinbaum (former Mexico City mayor) are the front-runners in Mexico’s upcoming presidential elections.
Sports: How England Women became the Lionesses: Building British football’s most powerful brand
“(…) with the rise of the women’s game, increased coverage, investment, and attendances, little girls can definitely dream of becoming a professional footballer, dream of being a Lioness, of being part of that mentality.” - Sissel Gynnild Hartley, ex English FA
What I’m Reflecting On 💭
These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI - Features AI researchers, scientists and academics Timnit Gebru, Rumman Chowdhury, Safiya Noble, Seeta Peña Gangadharan, and Joy Buolamwini, who have warned about the harm automated systems have on marginalized communities and people of color, and called for regulations.
Eclipsed genius: Despite modest progress, sexism and racism persist in science
‘Better martyrs’: the growing role of women in the far-right movement [US focus]
‘The pipeline from mommy blogger to Tradwife to book-banner is an important aspect of the extreme right wing in the US’
Founder of VC firm DN Capital accused of sexual harassment by former employees — allegations he denies - According to a Sifted investigation, Nenad Marovac, founder of VC firm DN Capital, has been accused of workplace misconduct and sexual harassment by seven former employees. DN Capital opened an investigation.
Thank you for reading FemWealth! 🥰
Until next Sunday,
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth