💸 Jessica Chang's Upwards Raises $21M in Series B to Provide Affordable Childcare Benefits
FemWealth Issue #147
Hi FemWealth Friends,
In today’s edition: Jessica Chang’s Upwards raises $21M Series B to provide affordable childcare benefits; Shreya Rajpal’s Guardrails AI secures $7.5M Seed round to help developers probe GenAI models for behavioral, compliance, and performance metrics; Joelle Kayden’s Accolade Partners closes more than $1B for three Funds of Funds; and more in women-led startups, VC, and tech.
Get in touch at femwealth@substack.com.
In the Spotlight 💸
Co-founded and led by Jessica Chang, Upwards (previously WeeCare) helps employers provide affordable childcare benefits while connecting caregivers and families through technology.
“While billions in public and private funds flow towards childcare annually, (…) families still struggle to find quality, affordable care and participate in the workforce, highlighting clear gaps in the system.” - Jessica Chang, Co-founder and CEO of Upwards
The Los Angeles-based startup raised a $21 million Series B round led by Alpha Edison, with contributions from previous investors M13 and Fika Ventures.
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Startups: General Atlantic leads $50M Series C into Bold to grow digital payments in Colombia - Co-founded by Ana Sandoval, Bold is a fintech company building an electronic payments infrastructure in Colombia. It secured $50 million in Series C funding in a round led by existing investor General Atlantic, with participation from the International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank Group), InQLab, and Amador.
Rasa, an enterprise-focused dev platform for conversational GenAI, raises $30M - Led by Melissa Gordon, Rasa is a US-based startup developing infrastructure for conversational AI. It secured $30 million in a Series C funding round co-led by StepStone Group and PayPal Ventures, joined by existing backers Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Accel, and Basis Set Ventures.
Scribe raises $25M Series B to automate internal knowledge capture - Co-founded and led by Jennifer Smith, Scribe auto-generates step-by-step guides for knowledge management. The US startup announced a $25 million Series B led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from New York Life Ventures and existing investors Amplify Partners, Tiger Global, and XYZ Ventures.
Camus Energy expands Series A to help utilities chart load growth - Co-founded and led by Astrid Atkinson, Camus Energy is a grid orchestration platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to fill in grid data gaps and model the future. The company announced a $10 million extension to its Series A funding round. Congruent Ventures and Wave Capital led the round.
Denmark’s Aegir Insights grabs €8.5M Series A funding to enhance offshore wind investment software and data products - Co-founded by Rikke Nørgaard, Aegir Insights is a data-driven research and analytics company for the offshore wind industry. The Copenhagen-based startup raised €8.5 million in Series A funding. Seaya Andromeda led the round, joined by Climentum Capital.
Anatomy Unveils AI-Powered Financial Automation for Healthcare Organizations - Co-founded by Sasha King, Anatomy Financial provides AI-powered financial automation solutions for medical, dental, digital health, and healthcare billing companies. The US-based startup raised $7.6 million from Lightspeed, Meridian Street Capital, Live Oak Ventures, Cambrian Ventures, Peterson Ventures, and angel investors.
Guardrails AI wants to crowdsource fixes for GenAI model problems - Co-founded and led by Shreya Rajpal, Guardrails AI enables developers to submit modular components (“validators”) that probe GenAI models for behavioral, compliance, and performance metrics. It raised $7.5 million in a Seed round led by Zetta Venture Partners with participation from Factory, Pear VC, Bloomberg Beta, GitHub Fund, and angel investors.
Information-Sharing Platform Civic Roundtable Raises $5M - Co-founded and led by Madeleine Smith, Civic Roundtable helps public officials build information-sharing networks. The Boston-based raised $5 million in a Seed funding round led by General Catalyst.
Fintech Techreo raises $3.4M - Co-founded and led by Iliana de Silva, Techreo is a Mexican digital platform that offers financial services for the underbanked in Latin America. It secured $3.4 million in funding from G2 Momentum Capital and Creation Investments Capital Management.
Artie helps companies put data to work faster with real-time syncing - Co-founded and led by Jacqueline Cheong, Artie provides real-time data replication between databases and data warehouses. The US-based startup raised a $3.3 million Seed round led by Exponent Founders Capital and joined by General Catalyst, Y Combinator, and industry angel investors.
Atlas helps companies offer contractor benefits no matter where they are located - Co-founded by Gianina Rossi, Karen Serfaty, and Josefina Van Thienen, Atlas is a work benefits tool for global companies to manage their contractor benefits from one place. The company raised $2.75 million in a Seed extension round led by Hi Ventures (former ALLVP).
This AI climatetech founded by Harvard classmates raises $2.5M to achieve green construction - Co-founded by Leise Sandeman, Pathways helps manufacturers reduce their embodied carbon footprint. The NYC-based company raised a $2.5 million round co-led by Pi Labs and Zacua Ventures.
Oxford-based MeVitae secures €1.7 million to keep making the workplace more fair and equitable - Co-founded and led by neuroscientist Riham Satti, MeVitae provides a comprehensive DE&I ecosystem of HR tools aimed to detect and mitigate cognitive and algorithmic bias. The Oxford, UK-based startup raised $1.8 million in a Seed funding round led by Apex Black.
First-of its-Kind Loan Readiness Platform, Parlay, Raises $1.3M to Offer Inclusive Access to Financial Resources for Small Businesses - Co-founded and led by Alexandra McLeod, Parlay is an embedded fintech software that helps small businesses maximize their eligibility for loan products while increasing loan quality, throughput, and efficiency for lenders. It closed $1.3 million in Pre-Seed financing led by Fenway Summer, with contributions from Hivers and Strivers Capital, Service Provider Capital, Capacity Capital, Alumni Ventures, and Techstars.
Essence App Secures $600K to Transform Menstrual Health Support in Workplaces - Co-founded and led by Elina Vale, Essence App aims to improve workplace environments for women and individuals with menstrual cycles. The company completed a $600K funding round from Berkeley SkyDeck Fund, Davidovs VC, Growing Well Partners, and angel investors.
Tech: The women in AI making a difference - A new TechCrunch series features remarkable Women in AI, starting with Irene Solaiman, head of global policy at Hugging Face
The World’s Most Important Industry Has a New Captain—and She’s Piloting It Into the 21st Century - Features Marina Hadjipateras, General Partner and founder of TMV, an early-stage venture capital firm focussing on supply chain, logistics, maritime, sustainability, future of work, and care
VC & PE: Accolade Gathers More Than $1 Billion for Three Funds of Funds (WSJ Pro $) - Founded and co-led by Managing Partner Joelle Kayden, Accolade Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based fund of funds announced the launch of three new funds: its ninth fund focused on venture and PE growth funds garnered $505 million in capital commitment; its third fund focused on only PE growth, closed at $400 million; and its first fund focused exclusively on venture capital secured $131 million.
.406 Ventures secures $265M for fifth fund - Co-founded and co-led by Maria Cirino, .406 Ventures is a Boston-based VC firm backing enterprise-focused startups in healthcare, data and AI, and cybersecurity. It closed its fifth fund with $265 million in capital commitments.
A peek inside Alphabet’s $7 billion growth-stage investing arm, CapitalG - Features Laela Sturdy, Managing Partner at CapitalG
Inspirational Quote ✨
“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing — and keeping the unknown always beyond you.”
― Georgia O’Keefe, American painter
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Until next Sunday,
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth