💸 Female-led VC firm Pact Launches Its First £30M Fund to Back Early-Stage Startups in Europe
FemWealth Issue #88
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
In the Spotlight 💸
Founded by Reem Mobassaleh Wyndham, Tong Gu, and Monik Pham, Pact VC has launched its debut £30 million ($36M) fund to invest in purpose-driven, early-stage tech startups in Europe. All three founders have impressive track records in the investment ecosystem - Pham was a founding team member at Fuel Ventures; Gu worked as an investment banker and founder; and Mobassaleh-Wyndham, is a former VP of technology at Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala.
The London-based VC firm aims to lead or co-lead investments in purpose-driven startups - with investment tickets ranging from around £1M to 1.5M. It focuses on three main “ABC” themes: Access (economic inclusion), Betterment (personal and professional well-being), and Climate. The founding partners have all independently worked and invested individually and collectively within these themes before launching Pact.
“We believe that capitalism should and can be inclusive while still producing huge results. And we really want it to be able to back companies at the early stage that are really positively shaping the future. We’ve all built our careers with that Northstar as a guide for us. It’s a value that we’ve always espoused, but it’s only now at this point that the market is really coming around to it. There shouldn’t be a trade off between socially sustainable, environmentally sustainable and commercially sustainable outcomes. You have to think about both. And that’s a value that all three of us came together on.” - Reem Mobassaleh Wyndham (via TechCrunch)
“We’ve built a firm where high performance and flexibility are part of its foundation. We’re inclusive by design - necessary as all three of us had our first children while raising the fund. We have considered how to deliver at every level, from our investment themes to policies and support provided to the portfolio, including a founder well-being programme.” - Monik Pham
In addition to capital, Pact will support founders in its portfolio with access to a global collective of former founders, operators, and investors. The collective includes Ronny Shibley, former CTO and Co-Founder of Gorillas, Guarav Dhar, CEO of Marshall and MENA FinTech Association Board Member, Murali Akella, Head of Growth Drivewealth and Amy Rennison, Impact advisor. Furthermore, Pact’s team has strong ties to MENA, Southeast Asia, and China, thus enabling startups to test and validate new markets and fundraise from strategic investors.
Pact’s first portfolio company is Growth Kitchen, a London-based startup that launches sustainable food brands driven by data insights.
Oscar-winning actress and UN Woman Goodwill Ambassador Anne Hathaway backed Pact VC alongside a high-caliber roster of LPs, including anchor investor Campden Hill Capital, Jeff Dean (Head of AI at Google), Keith Teare (founding shareholder of TechCrunch), Yeming Wang (former head of EMEA of Alibaba), Fahd Beg (COO of Naspers), Todd Ruppert, Tilo Bonow, a.o.
Extraordinary feat: The three founding partners were pregnant and had babies during the fundraising process.
Send your pitch deck to hello@pactvc.com.
For more information, visit pactvc.com.
Read more: Anne Hathaway backs Pact, an all-women-led VC for mission-driven startups, from West to East
FemWealth Springboard 🏄🏾♀️
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Startups: 💸 Munich’s Temedica adds €25 million in Series B round, now at €42 million - Gloria Seibert is the founder and CEO of the Munich-based health tech startup. Pelvina, an online course for women to train the pelvic floor, is part of the company’s offering.
💸 Helping organisations upskill and retrain staff through adaptive learning, Obrizum raises $11.5 million - Sarra Achouri is a co-founder and Chief Delivery Officer of the Cambridge, UK-based startup. Guinness Ventures led the series A round.
💸 Qunomedical: Sophie Chung’s HealthTech Raises €10 Million (in German) - Founded and led by Dr. Sophie Chung, Berlin-based Quonomedical offers a B2B Software-as-a-Service solution for doctors, clinics, and hospitals.
💸 Almond launches full-service OB-GYN care to rebuild patient experience - Co-founded by Tara Raffi and Carly Allen, Almond aims to modernize obstetrical-gynecological (OB-GYN) care for birthing people. The YC-backed company has announced a $7 million seed round led by True Ventures.
💸 Surfboard takes in $5 million to bring its teamwork software to the customer support industry - Founded and led by Natasha Ratanshi-Stein, Surfboard offers a collaborative planning tool for customer support teams. The London-based startup raised $5 million in seed funding from Speedinvest, Seedcamp, and Fly Ventures. (For more, read FemWealth Springboard above)
💸 Placed App banks £4 million to bring quizzes into the job application process - The London-based startup, founded and led by Jennifer Johannson, offers bespoke matchmaking to pair candidates to suited roles automatically.
💸 Bank engagement startup Flourish Fi leans into concept of ‘banks aren’t going anywhere’ - Co-founded by Jessica Eting, the San Francisco-based startup licenses technology to banks and fintechs to enable them to provide better customer engagement and loyalty while helping customers increase their financial education. It has raised $2.3 million in new seed funding led by Magma Partners with participation from Remarkable Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners Scout Fund, Canary, Seedstars, Kadmotek VC, I Am the Fund, and impact investors, including Potencia Ventures, Amplifica Capital, Cap Table Coalition a.o.
“We work with a lot of individuals who are new to the financial system. In Latin America, we also saw a lot more people open a banking account when they became digitized, especially given the government assistance programs being started.” - Jessica Eting
💸 Pivo powers up Nigerian freight carriers with a bespoke digital bank, gets $2M seed funding - Founded by Nkiru Amadi-Emina and Ijeoma Akwiwu, the startup helps freight carriers get paid faster by providing a bank account, a debit card, and digital invoicing tools that track payments.
💸 Guaranteed Raises $6.5M Seed Round to Modernize End-of-Life Care - Founded and led by Jessica McGlory, the company has raised $9.25M for the tech-enabled hospice care startup. The round led BrandProject, with participation from Precursor Ventures, Springbank Ventures, Lakehouse Ventures, and Cake Ventures marks one of the largest pre-Series A rounds for a Black female solo founder in the US.
💸 Japanese ARCH Raises $1.65M for Its Fertility Focused, Tech-enabled ‘Torch Clinic’ - Yukiko Nakai is the co-founder & CEO of the Tokyo-based startup offering digital health services focused on reproductive and gynecological health.
💸 Faircado lands €500K for its AI-powered second-hand shopping alternative to Amazon - Evoléna de Wilde d’Estmael is the co-founder and CEO of the Berlin-based startup providing the first AI-powered second-hand shopping assistance.
👩💻 Female Invest acquires sustainability-focused investment platform Gaia Investments - Female Invest, a Copenhagen-based women-led startup, acquired fellow Danish fintech Gaia Investments, planning to integrate the sustainability-focused trading platform into its app.
👩🏻💻 Divorce Registry: Celebration or Necessity? - Features Fresh Starts co-founders and sisters Olivia Howell and Genvieve Dreizen. The US-based startup aims to change the negative stigma and narrative around divorce and support those who are going through life changes.
📣 Shout-out to Niyo, a group of brands dedicated to economically empowering Black women in high-impact industries through fully funded tech bootcamps and other initiatives. Since 2020, they have upskilled over 500 women to either start a career in tech, launch their own tech business, or progress further in their tech career. They are on a mission to upskill and empower 5000 Black women in the UK and beyond by the end of 2023.
VC: 💸 Deep Tech Singapore Venture Firm Targets New $200 Million Fund - Led by Koh Soo Boon and a team of mostly women, iGlobe Partners is raising a new $200 million fund to back deep technology startups.
🇩🇰 Untapped potential: VC BackingMinds expands its second €50 million fund across the Nordics and doubles down on Denmark - Founded in 2016 by Sara Wimmercranz and Susanne Najafi, the all-women-led VC BackingMinds aims to expand across the Nordics, in regions beyond the capital cities.
🌊 A new wave of Solo GP VCs is coming to Europe and Hypernova hopes to power it - Features Tugce Ergul, founder of Hypernova, the first female-led solo GP fund in Europe and the first female-led solo GP fund-of-funds in the US.
👏 Marjut Falkstedt appointed as Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund - Marjut Falkstedt will assume the leadership of EIF, Europe’s largest venture capital and private equity financier, on 1st January 2023.
Women’s & Family Health: 👶 Giving equal chances for everyone to become a parent | Interview with Jenny Saft, Co-founder, Apryl - Features Jenny Saft, co-founder of Apryl, a Berlin-based employee fertility benefits platform.
👩🏽🦳 The growing menopause-at-work market - The global menopause market is expected to reach $24.4 billion by 2030.
Culture & Entertainment: 🎤 Alexis Gay left a career in tech to be a comedy creator. Perfect timing - Features Alexis Gay, a social video star, podcaster, and stand-up comedian.
👏 Tár, Women Talking, and Everything Everywhere All at Once Dominate Spirit Award Nominations - Eight of the 10 lead-performance nominees are women.
🎥 The way we tell #MeToo stories is changing - Features filmmaker Joyce Chopra, author of the Hollywood memoir ‘Lady Director.’
🧑🏿🎨 In Paris, artist Mickalene Thomas takes on Monet, and art history itself - Features American artist Mickalene Thomas. “Mickalene Thomas: Avec Monet,” which opened in October at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, is her first exhibition at a museum in France.
🎶 Angela Álvarez crowned best new artist at Latin Grammys – aged 95 - The Cuban American musician Angela Álvarez started her recording career at the age of 90. She is the music award show’s eldest winner ever.
✍🏿 The Spectacular Life of Octavia Butler. The girl who grew up in Pasadena, took the bus, loved her mom, and wrote herself into the world. - An excellent profile of Octavia Estelle Butler, the first published Black female science-fiction writer and one of the forebears of Afrofuturism.
“As a female and as an African-American, I wrote myself into the world. I wrote myself into the present, the future, and the past.” - Octavia Estelle Butler
Sports: 🎾 Wimbledon finally changes all-white rule for women - Female players will be allowed to wear colored undershorts to be more comfortable while playing during their periods.
“We are committed to supporting the players and listening to their feedback as to how they can perform at their best. It is our hope that this rule adjustment will help players focus purely on their performance by relieving a potential source of anxiety.” - Sally Bolton, Club Chief Executive of All England
Thank you for reading FemWealth! 🥰 Please share this issue with a friend if you enjoyed it. If you have feedback, would like to be featured in a future edition, or recommend exceptional women, please get in touch at femwealth@substack.com.
Wish you a wonderful Sunday and a successful week ahead!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth