💸 How to make investing inclusive, with Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen, Co-founder of Female Invest
FemWealth Issue #91
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
Today’s issue brings you the latest FemWealth Springboard edition with Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen, co-founder of Female Invest, a women-led company on a mission to close the financial gender gap and make investing more inclusive. She shares her insights into why it is important that women invest and what motivated her and her co-founders to write their upcoming book Girls Just Wanna Have Funds.
FemWealth will pause next week for the holidays but will return to your inbox with a special ‘Year in Review’ edition on December 28, respectively, on January 8, 2023, with regular scheduling.
What are your highlights of the year and your predictions and hopes for 2023? Please share them with the FemWealth community at femwealth@substack.com or in the comments section.
Have a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!
FemWealth Springboard 💸
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Startups: 💸 Poppi raises a can to fresh capital to support its functional beverage growth - Co-founded by Allison Ellsworth (Chief Brand Officer), Poppi is building a brand around a gut health-focused prebiotic beverage. It has raised a $25 million round led by CAVU Consumer Partners.
💸 Fashion data exchange FashionCloud picks up €25 million - Alies ter Kuile is a co-founder of the Hamburg-based B2B data and content exchange portal for fashion wholesalers and retailers.
💸 BetterManager Raises $16M in Series A Funding to Scale its Top-Rated Leadership Development Platform - Wendy Hanson is a co-founder of the San Francisco-based startup providing a leadership training platform. Education Growth Partners led the round, with participation from Polar Capital Group.
💸 Skincare brand InnBeauty Project raises $12M - The direct-to-consumer skincare brand InnBeauty Project, co-founded by Alisa Metzger and Jen Shane, has raised $12 million in a Series A round led by Alliance Consumer Growth.
💸 Guidewheel lands $9M Series A-1 for SaaS that boosts manufacturing and trims carbon emissions - Lauren Dunford is Guidewheel’s co-founder and CEO.
💸 This startup just landed $8.5M led by Bessemer to help companies automate their financial operations - Danielle Shaul is the co-founder and CTO of Nilus.
💸 Swiss edtech startup Avallain scores €8 million - Ursula Sutter is a co-founder of the SaaS platform, enabling businesses to launch branded digital learning experiences in minutes.
💸 Arketa Raises $7.6M To Grow Fitness Studios Beyond Classes - The Los Angeles startup, co-founded and led by Rachel Lea Fishman, helps fitness businesses monetize activities beyond in-person classes, such as live-streamed classes, retreats, and teacher trainings, and branded retail. The $7.6 million seed round was led by First Round Capital, joined by Amity Ventures, Fitt Capital, and Y Combinator.
💸 Bollywood star Deepika Padukone’s skincare startup attracts VC backing - Deepika Padukone’s skincare startup 82°E has raised $7.5 million in seed funding. Padukone is among the highest-paid actresses in India and a prolific investor, having backed several startups, including unicorn online beauty store Purplle and satellite/aerospace manufacturing firm Bellatrix.
💸 Infinity AI lands $5M in funding for its synthetic data generation tools - Lina Colucci is one of Infinity AI’s co-founders.
💸 Mexican femtech Plenna raises a $4.4M seed-round for women’s health platform - The startup, co-founded by Giovanna Abramo and Lorena Ostos, provides a hybrid care model to serve women holistically through in-person gynecology services, online mental health care, as well as DTC nutrition and primary care services. The seed funding was led by Urban Innovation Fund and joined by Canary VC, Collaborative, 1984 VC, 500 Global, Bridge Latam a.o.
💸 Beni is creating an ‘easy button’ for secondhand shopping - Founded by Sarah Pinner (CEO) and Celine Mol (CTO), Beni has developed a free browser extension, initially for Chrome and Safari, to assist shoppers in finding resale listings for items they are looking for. It has raised $4 million in new seed funding, led by Buoyant Ventures, with participation from Buoyant, Ventures, and existing investors XYZ Venture Capital, Chingona Ventures, and Starting Line Ventures.
“We want to be the welcoming party for people who want to buy secondhand, but won’t actively look for it. In the acceleration of re-commerce happening now, we see the future is not going to be e-commerce and re-commerce, but an integrated experience.” - Sarah Pinner, Co-founder and CEO of Beni
💸 Nigerian startup Taeillo raises funding to scale its online furniture e-commerce platform - Founded and led by Jumoke Dada, the Lagos-based startup has raised $2.5 million in “expansion” funding from Aruwa Capital.
💸 Oxyle’s tech uses water movement to remove pollutants - The Zurich-based startup, co-founded and led by Dr. Fajer Mushtaq, has developed a new wastewater treatment that removes micropollutants. Oxyle raised $3 million in a pre-seed round led by Wingman Ventures and joined by SOSV, Better Ventures, and another.vc.
💸 Techstars Funded Plannly Launches an AI-Driven Benefits Platform to Reduce Employer Spending and Provide Personalized Well-Being Options for Employees - The US-based startup, co-founded by Alisha Harris, helps companies provide customized workplace benefits. It has raised $1.2 million from VEST Her Ventures.
🏃🏾♀️ Serena Williams Just Launched Her First Wellness Brand With Everyday Athletes In Mind - Serena Williams has launched Will Perform, a new lifestyle collection that aims to revolutionize post-workout recovery.
📄 Seedsummit: Europe’s full-stack resource for your early-stage legal needs [Free legal documents templates for early-stage startups]
📣 Shout-out to Peggy Choi, founder and CEO of Lynk, the company leading the worldwide knowledge-sharing economy. Peggy recently announced the launch of TalentHub, a new initiative that makes it easier for businesses to find relevant job candidates and for those impacted by layoffs to find their next opportunity. Created in just two days, the solution is free to both companies and individuals. Join the growing network of over 2,650 users by visiting: talenthub.lynk.global.
VC: 💸 Baukunst Raises $100M Debut Fund - The San Francisco-based firm, co-founded by Kate McAndrew, has received $100 million in capital commitments for its debut fund - the largest-ever debut fund for a pre-seed firm. Focused mainly on North America, it will back companies at the frontiers of technology and design.
💸 Solo GP Nichole Wischoff raises $20M fund backed by Peter Thiel to invest in ‘unsexy businesses’ - Nichole Wischoff’s Wischoff Ventures closed a second fund of $20 million. She aims to invest in 25 to 30 US startups at the pre-seed or seed stage, innovating large legacy industries.
🙌 Becoming a Cowboy Partner! - Jillian Williams, an NYC-based investor focused on early-stage fintech, has become Cowboy Venture’s newest partner.
👩🏻⚕️ VC Identifies Market Opportunities In The Women’s Health And Wellness Space
“Health and wellness investments focused on women only represent about 2% of all health investment.” - Jessica Karr, general partner at Coyote Ventures
👀 Going Back to Go Forward: Foundational Needs Take Center Stage - Forerunner Ventures, led by Kirsten Green, launched The Dinner, a new research platform, and a new report on recent shifts in human behavior and modern culture, including the eight modern consumer archetypes.
🎧 The Super Angel Podcast with Roxanne Varza, Director of Station F - Roxanne Varza, speaks about her investments as a scout and angel.
Web3xFashion: 👗 Tribute Brand wants to be digital fashion’s go-to platform - Gala Marija Vrbanic is the co-founder and CEO of Tribute Brand. After raising $4.5 million in a July seed funding round, Tribute Brand has launched an interoperable digital fashion platform.
Leadership: 👏🏽 The Honest Company names Carla Vernón as CEO - A former Amazon and General Mills executive, Carla Vernón, will officially assume the CEO role on January 9 and will become one of the only Afro-Latina CEOs leading a publicly traded company in the US. Jessica Alba is the founder and chief creative officer of the LA-based company.
👏🏽 Harvard University Names Government Scholar Claudine Gay as Next President (WSJ $) - Claudine Gay is the second woman and the first Black person to lead Harvard.
Politics: 🇵🇪 Peru swears in Dina Boluarte as new president amid constitutional crisis - Dina Boluarte became Peru’s first female leader in its more than 200-year history.
What I’m Reflecting On 💭
The secret diaries of women protesting in Iran | Also, read United Nations Expels Iran From Women’s Commission Over Human Rights Abuses
Will diversity slip further as the tech slowdown continues? [Europe-focused]
“2022 saw the sprouting of a new wave of contrarian emerging managers in the Nordics, France, Austria and the UK, emboldened with a thesis that greater diversity yields higher returns. The virtuous circle of attracting and funding more diverse teams has begun and we will start to see incremental changes [at the earlier stages].” - Vera Baker, venture partner at Unconventional Ventures.
From Singapore to Silicon Valley, female founders fight for funds
“I am someone with a lot of built-in networks. I went to an Ivy League school, I worked at Bain and even to me, fundraising was impossible. Guys have their golf and cigar clubs, I just can’t think of an equivalent space for women to talk about business.” - Sarah Miyazawa LaFleur, founder and CEO of MM.LaFleur
“Women never had the same privileges and access the way that a lot of men had. We believe that capital is the nexus where power lies.” - Sarah Chen-Spellings, co-founder of Beyond The Billion
A widening gender rage gap? No wonder: women have a lot to feel angry about
“While women have a lot to be angry about, there are also reasons for optimism. The fact that women seem increasingly comfortable admitting that they’re angry is a good thing in itself.” - Arwa Mahdaw
From heart disease to IUDs: How doctors dismiss women’s pain - Recent studies support the claim that gender bias in medicine routinely leads to a denial of pain relief for female patients for a range of health conditions, including heart problems, stroke, reproductive health, chronic illnesses, adolescent pain, and physical pain. Racial disparities in pain management make matters worse for Women of Colour.
“There’s a pain gap, but there’s also a credibility gap. Women are not believed about their bodies — period.”— Anushay Hossain, author of “The Pain Gap”
Pioneering Black feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes dies at 84 - Remembering Dorothy Pitman Hughes, a pioneering Black feminist, child welfare advocate, and lifelong community activist.
Thank you for reading FemWealth! 🥰 Please share this issue with a friend.
Wish you wonderful holidays with your loved ones! See you on December 28 and in the New Year!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth