💸 Aileen Lee's Cowboy Ventures Raises $260M Across Two Funds
FemWealth Issue #96
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
In the Spotlight 💸
Renowned investor Aileen Lee’s Cowboy Ventures, a Bay Area-based seed-stage focused VC firm, has raised $260 million in capital commitments across two funds, the largest in its 10-year history:
$140 million in commitments for its fourth flagship fund
$120 million for “Mustang Fund,” its first opportunity-type fund
Founded in 2013, the firm invests in US-based “pre-product” enterprise and consumer-focused startups in categories like vertical SaaS, enterprise infrastructure, developer tools, big data, security, fintech, AI-driven software, new consumer opportunities, and healthcare.
Its portfolio includes companies such as Guild Education ($4.4B valuation; co-founded by Rachel Carson), Drata ($2B valuation), Getaway, Byteboard, Tally, a.o.
Approximately half of the Cowboy-backed companies have either been founded or co-founded by a woman, and roughly one-third of them have been founded or co-founded by a person of color.
Jillian Williams and Amanda Robson are two of the firm’s partners.
Read more: Announcing $260M in new capital with Cowboy Fund IV & Mustang I, Yeehaw!
Cowboy Ventures goes bigger with $260M across two new funds, including an opportunity fund
FemWealth Special Edition
Founderland launches “Rise and Thrive,” the first intersectional, qualitative report on Women of Colour Entrepreneurs in Europe.
Read an interview with Stephanie von Behr, Deborah Choi, and Alina Bassi, Co-founders and Managing Directors of the Berlin-based organization, about their mission and what investors can do to offer Women of Colour equal access to funding.
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Startups: 💸 HR Company Deel, Now Valued At $12 Billion, Nears $300 Million Of Revenue - Co-founded by Shuo Wang (Chief Revenue Officer), Deel provides HR software for hiring international employees, functioning as the “employer of record.” The company formally announced its latest funding at a $12 billion valuation, raised in the second quarter of 2022 from Emerson Collective, the investment and philanthropic organization of Laurene Powell Jobs.
💸 Twinco Capital orders up $12 million to expand supply chain financing - Founded by Sandra Nolasco (CEO) and Carmen Marín (COO), Twinco Capital has secured $12 million ahead of a planned $100 million raise. Focusing on the fashion and retail industry, the Madrid-based startup offers working capital primarily for European and LatAm retailers.
💸 Emperia is helping brands like Bloomingdales build shopping experiences in VR - The London-based “immersive” retail startup, co-founded by Olga Dogadkina, has raised $10m (£8m) in a Series A funding round. Launched in 2019, the company created virtual stores for brands including Bloomingdales, Dior, Ralph Lauren, and Lacoste. Base10 Partners led the round, joined by Daphni, Sony Ventures, Background Capital, Stanford Capital Partners, and Concept Ventures.
💸 Elaborate raises $10 million seed round led by Tusk Venture Partners to take the panic out of lab results - Founded and led by Nicole Bocskocsky, Elaborate helps health practitioners share and contextualize lab results with patients.
💸 Journey Clinical raises $9M to support psychedelic therapy - The New York-based psychedelic medicine infrastructure startup, co-founded by Myriam Barthes (COO), raised $8.5m in Series A funding. USV led the round, joined by AlleyCorp, Fifty Years, Able Partners, Gaingels, Palo Santo, PsyMed Ventures, Coalition Partners, Mystic Ventures, Colibri, and Satori Capital.
💸 Share Creators Raises $5M Series A Round to Accelerate Online Game Development, E-commerce Sales and Industrial Product Design - Founded and led by Ada Liu, the California-based startup makes it easier for game developers, ecommerce marketers, and product designers to collaborate online and manage massive digital files. It raised a $5M Series A round led by 5Y Capital.
💸 European banks struggle with AI, while US banks lead the field, according to a new index - Evident, a benchmarking and intelligence company, co-founded by Alexandra Mousavizadeh (CEO) and Annabel Ayles, raised $3 million in funding from VCs and angel investors.
💸 Bluedot’s debit card for EV owners offers cheaper charging, cash back - Co-founded by Selinay Filiz Parlak (COO), Bluedot is a banking and rewards platform for EV owners that aims to enhance the after-sales experience. It recently closed a $2 million pre-seed and will join Y Combinator’s winter 2023 cohort.
💸 LEIA Health raises €1.4M in pre-seed funding to reinvent post-pregnancy care for the digital age - The Swedish startup co-founded by Sandra Wirström and Astrid Gyllenkrok Kristensen supports new parents during the Forth Trimester. It raised €1.4M in pre-seed funding in a round led by People Ventures with participation from Norsken, Unconventional Ventures, The Case for Her, and Octaquest.
💸 German Fintech Beatvest raises €1.3M in seed funding (in German) - Co-founded by Julia Kruslin and Sophie Thurner, the fintech aims to facilitate long-term investments in Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) for retail investors.
💸 Black women-led femtech secures $1.3M to design performance wear scientifically engineered for females - Mitchella Gilbert’s Oya Femtech Apparel, raised $1.3M in an oversubscribed pre-seed round led by Sixers Innovation Lab, with participation from REI Path Ahead Ventures, R/GA Ventures, an SPV managed by Union Heritage Venture Partners and Techstars Sports.
“As a collegiate female athlete, I found myself struggling with recurrent vaginal health hurdles and in the dark about why. Then, many years later, I discovered the leggings I had been wearing were the culprit. Unfortunately, most performance wear is made with spandex blends, which trap moisture and do not breathe. This is not good for women athletes who need ventilation and moisture control. I took it upon myself to solve the issue by creating a line of performance wear designed with women’s health in mind.” - Mitchella Gilbert, co-founder and CEO of Oya Femtech Apparel.
💸 HubSpot co-founder Shah backs Peerlist for a new take on professional networking - Co-founded by Yogini Bende, Peerlist aims to provide a space for professionals to find and connect with one another based on their expertise and qualifications. The startup raised $1.1 million in a seed funding round led by HubSpot co-founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah.
🤰🏽 What it’s like to fundraise while pregnant — six founders share their stories
“For women, building a successful company and starting a family often happen at around the same point in life, and we need to broaden what we expect a startup founder to look like to tackle existing bias towards pregnant women and mothers.” - Mikela Druckman, founder of waste analytics platform Greyparrot
M&A: 👶 Babylist makes an even bigger bet on baby products with Expectful acquisition - baby registry and product discovery platform Babylist - co-founded and led by Natalie Gordon - has acquired health and wellness tool Expectful - led by Nathalie Walton - for an undisclosed price.
VC: 👏 Atomico’s Hillary Ball is promoted to Partner - As Partner in the Growth Stage team at Atomico, Hillary Ball will invest across both European and US-based consumer internet and enterprise companies from the Series B round upwards. She sits on the boards of Gympass and Framer and played a key role in the firm’s partnerships with Sorare and MasterClass, a.o.
Women’s Health: 💸 Despite 2022’s headwinds, women’s health startups did better than ever before (TechCrunch+ $)- In 2022, Femtech’s share of digital health funding rose substantially from previous years, attaining 13.26%, compared to 8.75% in 2021, 7.6% in 2020, and 11.8% in 2019.
“We still have a very long way to go in changing opinions about the importance of investing in women’s health. We are not a niche market as 50% of the population.” - Oriana Papin-Zoghbi, CEO and co-founder of early ovarian cancer detection company AOA
💸 Money flows into fertility technology - Funding for US fertility technology companies reached more than $850 million in 2022.
“Addressing infertility requires innovations that drive toward more inclusive — and ultimately more effective — family care.” - Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital
👩🏽⚕️ Vaginal Health Startup Goes Beyond Testing To Treat Women As Well - Co-founded by Priyanka Jain and Laine Bruzek, Evvy, a startup initially offering diagnostic testing for vaginal infections, has launched a full-service vaginal healthcare platform.
In the Know: Ovarian Aging 101 👇
Beauty Industry: 💄 Is beauty overlooking its biggest sustainability challenge?
“There is growing consumer demand for organic and natural ingredients. However, natural ingredients do not always translate to climate benefits. Amidst this market pressure, beauty and personal care companies should commit to operating their business models within planetary boundaries and assess how they will achieve this going forward.”
Gender Equity: 🇸🇱 Women in Sierra Leone can finally own land - Sierra Leone’s president Julius Maada Bio assented into law the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment 2021 bill, which will be implemented alongside the Customary Land Rights Act 2022, allowing women equal rights as men to own, lease, or buy land in the country. The new legislation puts an end to six decades of customary laws that prevented women from owning land.
What I’m Reflecting On 💭
When Men Dominate Startups, Women Take A Pass, According To New Research - When women make up less than 15% of an organization’s workforce, female applicants are almost 30% less likely to apply than their male counterparts.
Big Tech Layoffs Are Hitting Diversity and Inclusion Jobs Hard (Bloomberg $)
Gynaecological Violence Is More Common Than You Think
Thank you for reading FemWealth! 🥰 If you enjoyed reading this issue, please share it with a friend!
Until next Sunday!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth