💸 Inka Mero's Voima Ventures Raises Its Third Deep Tech Fund
FemWealth #115
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
In the Spotlight 💸
Co-founded by Managing Partner Inka Mero, Helsinki, Finland-based Voima Ventures announced its third fund with €90 million in capital commitments and a final target of €120 million to focus on deep tech from research laboratories and university spinouts.
With the new fund, the firm aims to support Nordic and Baltic early-stage deep science startups. Initial investment ticket sizes range from €200k to €3m+.
“Four years ago, deeptech startup investing was novel in the Nordics. Now people talk about climate change, health challenges and quantum computing, which also LPs have started to appreciate.” - Inka Mero via Sifted
Voima’s Limited Partners include the European Investment Fund (EIF), Finnish investor Tesi’s funds-of-funds KRR, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Sweden’s Saminvest, Nordic pension fund Nordea Life, Finnish pension fund Elo, a.o.
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Deepchecks snags $14M seed to continuously validate ML models - Co-founded by CTO Shir Chorev, Deepchecks announced two tranches of pre-seed and seed funding led by Alpha Wave Ventures with participation from Hetz Ventures and Grove Ventures.
Unspun Unveils New 3D Weaving Machine For The Sustainable Microfactory Of The Future - Co-founded by Beth Esponnette, the certified B corporation on a mission to solve fashion’s waste problem, raised $14 million in a Series A funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital, alongside Climate Capital, SOSV, Signia Ventures, and MVP Ventures.
Oova grabs another $10.3M, unveils membership model for at-home fertility testing - Founded and led by Amy Divaraniya, Oova raised $10.3 million in Series A funding for its at-home woman’s fertility testing solution. Spero Ventures led the round, joined by US Fertility, Virgin Group, Jefferson Health, Connecticut Innovations, Hannah Bronfman, and Spanx founder Sara Blakely.
Meshcapade raises $6M to train foundation models for the analysis and generation of 3D humans - The German startup co-founded and led by Naureen Mahmood creates 3D models of humans for e-commerce and fitness businesses using AI. Matrix led the company’s $6 million seed round.
Fintonic raises €5M to fuel the growth of its consumer credit and open banking solutions (in Spanish) - Founded and led by Lupina Ituriaga, the Spanish consumer-focused money management app, raised €5 million in a funding round led by SquareOne Capital.
Rex’s new app makes it easy to discover and share recommended places with friends - Founded by former Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen, Rex helps people share their personal recommendations of places to visit, including restaurants, bars, museums, trails, and parks. The US-based startup raised $3.96 million in seed funding from Accel, Khosla Ventures, and other investors from Twitter, Snap, and Pinterest.
Nigeria’s Termii to launch mobile app and scale customer engagement business with new funding - Co-founded by Atinuke Idowu, the company provides an API-based communication infrastructure that allows businesses to engage customers via different channels, including SMS, voice messaging, mobile tokens, alerts, and a two-way support system. Pan-African, early-stage investor Ventures Platform led Termii’s $3.65 million new financing round, with participation from New York-based fund FinTech Collective, and Launch Africa Ventures.
Here’s how you can join an exclusive circle of ‘champagne nomads’ - Co-founded by Lindsey Elkin (Chief Growth Officer), London startup Yayem announced a $2m pre-seed round for its digital members’ club. The company’s backers include early execs at Sweetgreen, Meta, Uber, and Masterclass, and Cleo Sham, former Uber exec and partner at Stride VC.
Backed by Google’s Gradient, Versed wants to help storytellers create video games using generative AI - The gaming company, co-founded by CTO and former Unity developer Cat Burton, raised €1.6 ($1.7 million) in a pre-seed round led by Google’s Gradient Ventures.
Life Sciences Start-up DNTOX raises € 1,4 M in Seed Funding (in German) - The German startup co-founded by Dr. Ellen Fritsche, Silke Beaucamp, Dr. Katharina Koch, and Dr. Kristina Bartmann helps companies test chemicals without using animals.
Anise Health Raises $1.2M to Expand Culturally-Responsive Mental Health Care for People of Color - Founded by Harvard grads Alice Zhang and Nisha Desai, the digital mental health platform is designed to provide culturally-responsive mental health care for people of color. The company announced its pre-seed funding round of $1.2 million, led by Kicker Ventures, with participation from Gold House Ventures, Allston Venture Fund, and strategic angel investors.
Gorgie ‘Feels Like The Sequel’ Of Lively: Serial Entrepreneur Michelle Cordeiro Grant Details Plans To Facelift The $20 Billion Energy Drinks Industry - The New York-based energy drink brand founded by serial entrepreneur Michelle Cordeiro Grant raised $6.5 million in pre-seed funding. Gelmart International CEO Yossi Nasser, former Under Armour board member Harvey Sanders, the managing partners of GGV Capital, and other angels invested in the round.
Data observability startup Telmai raises $5.5M in oversubscribed seed round - Co-founded and led by Mona Rakibe, the US-based company raised $5.5 million in an oversubscribed seed round, co-led by Glasswing Ventures LLC and .406 Ventures LLC, with participation from existing investors.
Masthead Data Raises $1.3M to Provide Observability Without Requiring Client Data Access or Increasing Cloud Costs - Co-founded and led by Yuliia Tkachova, the Toronto-based data observability platform raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding led by focal, with participation from SMOK Ventures, DEPO Ventures, Monochrome, and Alchemist Accelerator.
Bryleos Raises $5M in Seed Funding - The US-based clinical-stage therapeutics company, led by Wendy Komac, is developing BNAD101, a patent-pending, novel oral composition of NAD+, a potential high-value medicine for the treatment of costly neurological disorders.
Suneera Madhani, $1 Billion Stax Founder, Wants To Teach Women To Build Businesses With CEO School - After building a billion-dollar company that processes $40B in payments annually and supports over 30,000 customers US-wide, Stax co-founder Suneera Madhani launched CEO School to support women entrepreneurs.
“I didn’t know I could go build a million dollar business, let alone a billion dollar business, because you can’t be what you can’t see, so I didn’t know how to go strategically in. I made so many mistakes along the way, so many mistakes. Like giving away too much equity because I didn't have the right support around. That’s why I want CEO School to be one of the most diverse communities for female founders, to make sure everybody has a seat at the table.” - Suneera Madhani, CEO and founder of CEO School and co-founder of Stax
VC: Canva introduces new developer tools and $50M investment fund - The design platform, co-founded and led by Melanie Perkins, announced an app marketplace to distribute the apps built on top of the platform and a $50 million fund to help launch some of the more promising ideas.
With backing from Thiel, Recharge Capital launches $200M women’s health investment vehicle - Recharge Capital aims to bridge the gap in women’s health by focusing on creating women’s health and fertility care ecosystems in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East through investments and roll-ups, including digital healthcare platforms and local clinics. The US-based firm announced an initial close of its new fund with capital commitments from investors including Peter Thiel, the Olayan Group, Blue Lion Group, the Al Rashid family of the Salmira Investment Fund, the Disney family’s Shamrock Holdings, a.o.
London-based Sie Ventures officially launched its angel syndicate network - Co-founded by Triin Linamagi and Nicole Velho, Sie is a capital platform that supports the most promising female founders on their fundraising journey.
Amy Wu, former head of FTX Ventures, joins Menlo Ventures - Amy Wu joined Menlo Ventures as Partner to focus on consumer startups. She is based in New York. More here.
Bay Area nonprofit launches national campaign to boost women in venture capital - How Women Lead aims to bring 10,000 women into the VC sector by matching them with potential investment opportunities.
What I’m Reflecting On 💭
European startups still have a long way to go to achieve gender parity - A new study from Sista and the Boston Consulting Group shows that women founders are still underrepresented in the European tech ecosystem. While 22% of startups created in 2022 included a woman in the founding team, women-only founding teams accounted for 10%. More here.
Thank you for reading FemWealth! 🥰 If you enjoyed this issue, please share it with a friend or teammate. Have a great Sunday and an exciting week ahead!
Until next Sunday,
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth