💌 A Visionary Founder Set to Redefine Female Reproductive Longevity
FemWealth Issue #43
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
What if menopause becomes optional in our lifetimes?
Ovaries age up to five times faster than other organs in the human body! Yet “ovarian aging” continues to be an underresearched and underfunded phase in the lives of women and people who menstruate that results in infertility, menopause, and an increased number of years spent in poor health. The good news is this might soon change.
One of the pioneers in female reproductive longevity, Dr. Dina Radenkovic - a medical doctor, bioinformatics researcher, and co-founder and CEO of GametoGen - is on a mission to delay or even eliminate menopause and to improve women's fertility with reprogrammed ovarian cells.
“When ovaries are termed ‘geriatric’ by many traditional medical criteria, the rest of the body is certainly not and this creates conflict for people pushing them to make compromises they may not wish to make.” - Dr. Dina Radenkovic, CEO of Gameto
“Transformative innovations in women’s and family health not only advance health equity, but can also improve individual family finances and contribute more broadly to economic productivity.” - Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital & Investor in Gameto
Gameto aims to synchronize the pace of ovarian aging to the rate of aging in other organs such as the liver, brain or skin. It has already begun testing whether ovarian supporting cells could help mature eggs and reduce the number of IVF cycles.
The startup has recently raised $20 million in funding led by Future Ventures, co-founded by Maryanna Saenko. Other investors include Bold Capital Partners, Lux Capital, Plum Alley, Overwater Ventures, and 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki.
Read more about Dr. Dina Radenkovic and female reproductive longevity:
With funding from top investors, Gameto is aiming to delay — even eradicate — menopause
Nature Is Sexist. Can Advances In Longevity Biotechnology Help Restore Reproductive Equality?
FemWealth Favorites ❤️
VC: 💸 Women-Led VC Firm TMV Raises $64 Million To Back ‘Triple Bottom-Line’ Startups Benefiting The Planet - Founded by Marina Hadjipateras and Soraya Darabi the TMV, now at its second fund, invests in the care economy, sustainable solutions, transportation, financial inclusion, and the future of work. It is also helping to launch a community for women VCs, Transact Global, that includes more than 200 women-led funds. One in three businesses in TMV’s portfolio are female co-founded, and a majority is co-founded by a founder from an underestimated background.
“With our limited partners and with our founders, we are just quietly trying to under-promise and over-deliver. If we get that bit right, then we get to stay in business.” - Soraya Darabi
💸🌍 Ajim Capital Launches $10M Fund For African Companies In The Tech Space - founded by Eunice Ajim, the firm invests in pre-seed to seed tech-enabled companies across the continent
🙌 Big week for women in VC: Sarah Wang was promoted to General Partner at a16z, Annie Case was promoted as Partner at Kleiner Perkins, and Amy Wu is set to lead FTX’s new $2B venture capital fund
🌱 What the alphabet soup of funding round labels means for founders - by Annalise Dragic, Partner at Sapphire Ventures
“By focusing less on the funding round nomenclature and instead empowering startups to find the right VC for them, we can give the European startup ecosystem the clarity it needs to continue its incredible trajectory of growth.” - Annalise Dragic
Startups & Creator Economy: 💸 Proof of Learn, a Web3 “learn-to-earn” platform raised $15M - co-founded by Filipino-American entrepreneur Sheila Lirio Marcelo
👗 I sold my wardrobe to fund my startup instead of taking VC cash - by Trinny Woodall, founder of TRINNY LONDON
📚 Democratizing Knowledge How to Build a Startup, Raise Money, Run a VC Firm, and Everything in Between, co-authored by Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund
🤑 Top-Earning TikTok-ers 2022: Charli And Dixie D’Amelio And Addison Rae Expand Fame—And Paydays - the platform’s highest-paid celebrities collectively hauled in $55.5 million in 2021, a 200% increase from a year earlier
Leadership: 👏 Fobes 50 Over 50: Asia 2022 - Forbes lists the top founders, business and political leaders and scientists, in the Asia-Pacific region. It includes Falguni Nayar, the richest self-made woman in India, and Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama
Climate Action & Climate Tech: 👩🏾💻 ‘I Know What the End of the World Looks Like’ - featuring Sara Menker, founder of Gro Intelligence, and AI-powered decision engine across climate, agriculture, and the economy that has raised more than $125 million in funding. (New York Times $)
🎧 Tackling Climate Change with Carbon Capture ft. Henrietta Moon (Carbo Culture) and Talal Hasan
Culture: 👸🏾British Vogue hails new era with nine African models on cover - The cover challenges ‘the historically Eurocentric fashion gaze’, and features models Nyagua Ruea, Adut Akech, Anok Yai, Majesty Amare, Amar Akway, Janet Jumbo, Maty Fall, Abény Nhial and Akon Changkou.
🏆 What Happened At This Year's Untelevised Golden Globes? - Highlights: The Pose star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, awarded for Best Actress in a TV Drama - the first trans actress to win a Golden Globe; Jane Campion, a New Zealand director won Best Director and Best Drama for The Power of the Dog, only the third woman to win in the prestigious category (after Barbara Streisand for Yentl in 1984 and Chloé Zhao for Nomadland in 2021).
Sports: 🎾 Naomi Osaka has found her joy in tennis in time for the Australian Open
🎿 Lindsey Vonn: The World Deemed Me 'Dramatic' for My Injuries. A Man Would've Been Called Resilient
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish the drama and doubt weren’t part of my story at the time it was all unfolding. But just as I learned from every mistake I made on the slopes, I also learned from these experiences. At a certain point I stopped letting the skeptics and the naysayers bother me so much. That’s not to say I became completely immune—I’m still human—but I found power in this: I know the truth about what I’ve been through, and the only person I can control is myself.” - Lindsey Vonn, Olympic Skier & Founder of the Lindsey Vonn Foundation
⛸️ A speedskater’s generous gesture gave her friend a spot on the U.S. Olympic team - Brittany Bowe, who finished first in the women’s 500 m at the U.S. long-track speedskating trials, gave up her spot to Erin Jackson, (ranked No. 1 in the world in the discipline) after Jackson had slipped during the trials and finished third, one spot short of the available berths on Team USA.
Career: 🤓 New job? Here’s how to manage the change - ‘Leaders and employees need to accept uncertainty and failures as part of every workplace transition’
“Recognising the opportunity for new possibilities and personal development in times of uncertainty can motivate individuals to face change. Seeking help, finding the courage to experiment and allowing for failures are crucial. Most difficult is tolerating the uncomfortable feelings that will arise.” - Naomi Shragai, business psychotherapist
🙋🏻♀️ Can four-day workweeks help women? More companies are trying it out.
Things to Ponder On
Pregnant People Are Still Not Getting Vaccinated Against Covid - vaccination coverage among pregnant people remains low due to misinformation and muddled public health messaging, putting both carriers and babies at risk
Global heating linked to early birth and damage to babies’ health, scientists find - Six new studies have found that the climate crisis is damaging the health of foetuses, babies, and infants across the world
“From the very beginning, from preconception, through early childhood into adolescence, we’re starting to see important impacts of climate hazards on health.”
“This is a problem that affects everybody, everywhere. These extreme events are going to become even more likely and more severe with continued climate change [and this research shows] why they’re important to us, not in the future, but today.” - Prof Gregory Wellenius
Portraits of fear and loss. Taliban rule through the eyes of four women in Afghanistan
“I go to university because I do not want the rights of these students to be lost. Otherwise I would not be able to wake up every day from the despair and depression.”— Aliya
An exceptional year for female founders still means a sliver of VC funding - Of the record $330 Billion raised by US startups in 2021, only 2% went to women-founded startups, the lowest % since 2016. Mixed teams received 15.6% of the funding. Startups founded solely by women raised ~$6.4B —83% higher than the total raised in 2020.
“It doesn't mean that [Holmes] shouldn't be held accountable. I just think we need to hold more men accountable. But the reaction where people felt so threatened by this callout of sexism in the industry, it makes me feel that for some, it's going to be an excuse to continue to avoid investing in women. They already don't invest in women, so that's not going to be a big change.” - Ellen Pao, co-founder and CEO of Project Include, ex-CEO of Reddit
When the Web3 bubble pops, real world assets will survive - by Rana Foroohar
Thank you for reading FemWealth! Wish you a lovely Sunday and an exciting week ahead!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth