💸 Female-Founded Early-Stage VC Firm Springbank Closes Its Debut Fund
FemWealth Issue #116
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
In the Spotlight 💸
Founded by Courtney Leimkuhler (General Partner), Elana Berkowitz (General Partner), and Jen Lee Koss (Founding Partner), Springbank, a New York-based all-women-founded early-stage venture firm, closed its debut fund with $35 million in capital commitments.
On a mission to build the infrastructure to support women and working families, Springbank focuses on the care economy, including women’s and family health, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), flexible work, household productivity, and financial services. The firm’s portfolio includes Wellthy, Guaranteed, Little Otter, Summer Health, and more.
“[Using technology,] we could build infrastructure that helps close the gender gap, properly value the role of women in society and the work of caregiving that women and many others do. Many things are invisible in our economy, but there is a huge opportunity to build and invest against.” - Courtney Leimkuhler, General Partner at Springbank (via Forbes)
Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, Bank of America, AIG, Investinor, and JP Morgan, are among the fund’s backers.
Read more: $1 Trillion Market Tapped By Female VCs Focused On Women’s Work
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Startups: Tagworks Pharmaceuticals Announces $65 Million in Series A Financing to Advance Click-to-Release Therapeutics - Raffaella Rossin, PhD is a co-founder and Head of Discovery at Tagworks Pharmaceuticals, a Dutch precision therapy company developing antibody-drug conjugates. Ysios Capital and Gilde Healthcare led the company’s Series A round, with participation from Novartis Venture Fund, New Enterprise Associates, and Lightstone Ventures.
Render raises $50M series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners - Co-founded by Michelle He, PhD, CFA (COO), Render, a US-based Cloud platform startup that aims to offer flexible, cheaper, and simpler infrastructure, closed a $50 million Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Existing investors General Catalyst, South Park Common Fund, and Addition also participated in the round.
Game on for version 2.0 as Drest (cat)walks off with £15 million to bring fashion gaming product to the metaverse - Founded by Lucy Yeomans (Co-Chair and Chief Brand & Product Officer), and led by CEO Lisa Bridgett, the London-based luxury fashion gaming company brings the world of fashion to gamers in the metaverse.
PayGo solar startup Yellow raises $14 million to scale in Africa - Co-founded by Maya Stewart, Malawi-based Yellow is an asset financier for solar energy and digital devices in Africa. It raised a $14 million Series B funding round led by Convergence Partners with participation from the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund and Platform Investment Partners.
GoodBuy Gear Gets $14M to Scale its Marketplace for Used Baby and Kid’s Items - Co-founded and led by Kristin Langenfeld, the US-based online resale marketplace for baby and kid gear raised $14 million in funding. Interlock Partners and Revolution Ventures co-led the round, with participation from Crawley Ventures, Mana Ventures, Access Ventures, Relay Ventures, and Denver Angels.
Supercritical, a carbon removal marketplace aimed at tech firms, raises $13M Series A led by Lightspeed - Co-founded and led by Michelle You, Supercritical is a carbon removal marketplace aimed at tech companies that want to hit “net zero.” It raised a $13 million Series A funding round, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from RTP Global, Greencode Ventures, MMC Ventures, and others.
Caraway collects $11M seed for women-focused virtual care - The digital health startup, co-founded and led by Lori Evans Bernstein, provides mental, physical, and reproductive health services to college women. It raised $16.75M in Series A funding from lead investors Maveron and GV, joined by 7wireVentures, Hopelab Ventures, Wellington Partners, Ingeborg Investments, and The Venture Collective.
TreaTech secures CHF 9 million in Series A Funding to revolutionize waste treatment and renewable gas production - The Lausanne, Switzerland-based company, co-founded by Raquel Zambrano (COO), converts waste streams into fresh water for industrial and consumer use. It raised a $10 million Series A round co-led by Engie New Venture and Montrose Environmental Group, with contributions from EIC Fund, Sipchem, CMA-CGM, and Holdigaz.
Hyfé Raises $9 Million to Create Future Feedstocks for Biomanufacturing - Co-founded and led by Michelle Ruiz, the company is transforming food processing wastewater into feedstocks for biomanufacturing and clean water. It raised an oversubscribed $9 million seed investment led by Synthesis Capital, with participation from The Engine, Refactor Capital, Supply Change Capital, Overwater Ventures, X Factor Ventures, and Alumni Ventures.
Goodbuy adds $6.3 million seed funding round - Co-founded by Cara Oppenheimer and Cary Fortin, the US-based startup is on a mission to scale visibility for small businesses through behavior-disrupting shopping tools. It raised a $6.3 million seed round led by StageDotO Ventures.
BetterBrand’s new dough raises company’s valuation to over $170M - Founded by Aimee Yang, BetterBrand, a foodtech company that developed a proprietary “grain-changing” technology combining non-GMO and clean label ingredients to create a line of healthier baked goods, raised $6 million of Series A capital at a pre-money valuation of $170 million. Verso Capital led the new round, joined by existing investors Gaingels Fund, Seven Seven Six, Craft Lane, and a group of individual investors.
Clinical trials startup Macro Trials raises $6M - Led by Iana Dimkova, Los Angeles-based Macro Trials raised a $6 million seed round led by MBX Capital with participation from Initiate Ventures, Healthy VC, Inflect Health, and Village Global.
BrainTale raises €4.5M to develop solutions for diagnosis, monitoring, prediction of Neurological disorders - Co-founded and led by Julie Rachline, BrainTale develops and distributes diagnosis and prognosis tools that decipher white matter to enable better brain care. The Paris-based company raised a $4.9 million round from investors including Capital Grand Est and MACSF.
Bitewell, the Country’s First Food Health Benefit, Closes Oversubscribed $4M Seed Round - The US-based startup co-founded by Samantha Citro Alexander, operates a healthy food marketplace that works directly with employers to provide food health benefits and reduce insurance premiums. It raised a $4.1 million seed round co-led by Lake Nona Sports, Health Tech Fund, and Refinery Ventures, with Trybe Ventures, Mudita Venture Partners, Harvest Ridge Capital, and BDMI providing additional funding.
Plastic upcycling startup Kubik closes $3.34M seed to scale production in Ethiopia - Co-founded by Penda Marre (Chief Production Officer), Kubik is an upcycling startup with operations in Kenya and Ethiopia, that turns hard-to-recycle plastic waste (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene) into affordable building materials. Plug & Play, Bestseller Foundation, GIIG Africa Fund, Satgana, Unruly Capital, Savannah Fund, African Renaissance Partners, Kazana Fund, Princeton Alumni Angels, and Andav Capital participated in the round.
Child Gut Health Startup Alba Health Secures $2 Million In Pre-Seed Funding - The Danish-Swedish startup, co-founded by Eleonora Cavani, provides digital gut health support for children. It raised a $2 million pre-seed funding round led by Voima Ventures, with participation from Octopus Ventures, Noaber, Bust VC, Joyance Partners, and the cofounders of Oura.
FundMiner Raises $1.725M in Funding - Chelsea Lamego is a co-founder and CEO of the Texas, US-based startup, that aims to automate fundraising for universities and community foundations. Sonoran Founders Fund led the funding round, with Techstars and Cascade Seed Fund also contributing.
Chexy Raises $1.3 Million for Platform That Lets Tenants Pay Rent With Credit Cards - Founded and led by Lizaveta Akhvledziani, the Toronto, Canada-based startup offers a rewards platform for renters. It raised a $1.3 million pre-seed round led by Crossbeam Ventures, joined by Groundbreak Ventures and Ferst Capital Partners.
Philippines startup Shoppable Business smooths bumps in the business procurement process - Sam Blanquera is a co-founder and CEO of Shoppable Business, a company that facilities how businesses in the Philippines source and procure branded products and other inventory. The startup announced an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round of $1.15 million, co-led by Foxmont Capital Partners and Seedstars International Ventures, alongside angel investors.
Indonesian Based Apparel Startup Claude Sewn the Seed in Funding - Co-founded by Christie Johana (Creative Director), Claude, an Indonesian direct-to-consumer apparel company raised an undisclosed seed funding round to enhance its current product offerings.
VC: Women-led BrainTrust Founders Studio launches $25M fund to invest in beauty and wellness brands by Black founders - Led by General Partners Kendra Bracken-Ferguson and Lisa Stone, BrainTrust Founders Studio, a platform dedicated to Black founders in the beauty and wellness sector, launched the BrainTrust Fund to invest exclusively in early-stage companies identified via its studio.
“We designed the BrainTrust Fund as a ‘blue ocean’ investment opportunity to capitalize on innovation by Black entrepreneurs in beauty and wellness, whom we expect to continue to outperform as leaders of culture and creativity. The BrainTrust Fund exists so that as the massive, multi-trillion-dollar beauty and wellness marketplace grows, Black founders, supported by Black funders and allies, may participate in creating and selling what shoppers want.” - General Partners Kendra Bracken-Ferguson and Lisa Stone via Femtech Insider
Seedstars, Fondation Botnar launch new fund to back African startups focused on youth wellbeing - Alisée de Tonnac’s Seedstars Capital and Swiss philanthropic foundation Fondation Botnar launched Seedstars Youth Wellbeing Ventures, a $20 million investment mandate targeting early-stage startups in Africa that are focused on improving the wellbeing of people below 30 years. It will back pre-seed to Series A startups in areas such as health services, environmental sustainability and ecological resilience, local food security, water and sanitation, waste management, affordable housing, access to employment, and safe and sustainable transportation in Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco, and Egypt.
20SALES closes $5M inaugural fund to invest in early-stage B2B SaaS startups - Founded by Jessica Arnold, Stevie Case, Kelly Bray, Liat Bycel, Kim Graves, Renu Gupta, Maggie Hott, and Lauren Schwartz, 20SALES, closed its $5 million inaugural fund to invest in early-stage, B2B SaaS companies. The fund will write cheques of $100,000 and above for pre-seed, seed, and Series A companies. It also aims to build a founder community for women.
Fearless Fund raises multimillion-dollar follow-on round from Bank of America, Costco and Mastercard - Launched in 2019 by Arian Simone, Keshia Knight Pulliam, and Ayana Parsons, Fearless Fund announced it received a multimillion-dollar follow-on investment from Bank of America, Costco, and MasterCard for its second fund. The firm invests in early-stage consumer and technology startups founded by women of color. Its portfolio includes Partake Foods, Slutty Vegan, and Bread Beauty.
Planeteer launches new pre-seed and seed-stage climate fund - Experienced early-stage climate investor Sophie Purdom announced Planeteer Capital, a US-based VC fund aimed to back pre-seed and seed-stage climate founders.
Kaitlyn Glancy, long Flexport’s VP of North America, just joined the world of VC - Former Flexport executive Kaitlyn Glancy joined Eclipse VC as a partner.
Women’s Health: Capital IP and Ghost Tree Provide $40MM to Israel-based Women Health focused ConTIPI Medical - The Israeli women’s health-focused biotech startup secured a $40M structured financing to develop its non-surgical and disposable vaginal solutions for women with various Pelvic Floor Disorders.
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See you next Sunday,
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth