💸 Kindbody Secures $100M in New Funding to Provide Affordable, High-Quality Fertility Healthcare
FemWealth Issue #101
Happy Women’s History Month!
While we achieved significant progress in women’s participation and representation in the tech and VC industries, there are still major challenges and setbacks to overcome. Let’s continue to build momentum, redefine the ‘rules of the game’ and pay it forward!
In the Spotlight 💸
Founded and led by CEO and Chairwoman Gina Bartasi, Kindbody, a US-based tech-driven fertility clinic network and family-building benefits provider for employers, has raised $100 Million in fresh capital from life sciences investor Perceptive Advisors.
“Infertility is widespread, more common than diseases like cancer or diabetes. Yet, for far too long, high-quality fertility care has been available to only a privileged few.” - Gina Bartasi
Offering virtual and in-person care, the fertility benefits provider’s customer base includes 112 employers, covering more than 2.4 million lives. The company plans to expand its clinic network in underserved US markets and enhance its care model.
To date, Kindbody has raised $290 million in funding from investors, including Perceptive Advisors, GV (formerly Google Ventures), RRE Ventures, Claritas Health Ventures, Rock Springs Capital, NFP Ventures, and TQ Ventures. The company is valued at $1.8 billion. Read more.
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
💸 Cancer drug startup Cargo raises $200M to solve CAR-T relapse - Led by Gina Chapman, the biotech company is developing a new cancer cell therapy for people with lymphoma whose cancer has relapsed or grown resistant to existing cellular treatments. Third Rock, RTW Investments, and Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund led the Series A round, joined by investors including Emerson Collective.
💸 Chroma Medicine Secures $135M in Series B Financing to Advance Breakthrough Epigenetic Editing Technology and Expand Pipeline of Durable Precision Genomic Medicines - Led by Catherine Stehman-Breen, M.D., the US-based genomic medicine company pioneering single-dose epigenetic editing therapeutics, secured $135M Series B financing led by GV, with participation from new investors ARCH Venture Partners, DCVC Bio, Mubadala Capital, Sixth Street, a.o.
💸 Bitwise Industries lands $80M to expand its sprawling software dev business - The California-based company, co-founded and led by Irma Olguin Jr., provides software implementation services. Kapor Center and Motley Fool co-led the startup’s Series B.
💸 StudentFinance nabs $41M to help Europeans upskill for in-demand jobs - Co-founded by Marta Palmeiro (CFO), the European fintech funds educational programs for individuals through income share agreements. It secured a Series A round (mix of equity and debt), led by Iberis Capital and joined by Armilar Venture Partners, Mustard Seed Maze, Giant Ventures, and Seedcamp.
💸 ‘Gut Health Is A Women’s Issue’: BelliWelli On Amplifying Science Of Gut-Brain Axis For Next Phase Of Growth - Katie Wilson, an irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patient, is the co-founder of the gut health snacking brand. It closed a $15.4 million Series A round led by The Invus Group.
“Gut health is a women’s issue. I think we, as women, have been asked to compromise on so many aspects of our lives, not to discuss things like stomach and bowel issues. But we flipped the script on that when we launched the ‘hot girls have IBS movement” [last year] — not only do we want to talk about it, we're here to make it cool, and to destigmatize it.” - Katie Wilson
💸 Berlin-based health tech startup Doctorly diagnoses $10 million - Anna von Stackelberg is a co-founder of the health tech startup. WELL Health Technologies, Horizons Ventures, The Delta, Speedinvest, UNIQA Ventures, Calm/Storm, and Seedcamp participated in the startup’s Series A round.
💸 Gable raises the roof (and $12M) for better remote working options - Co-founded by CEO Liza Mash Levin, the startup provides a one-stop-shop for managing employees’ remote working options. SemperVirens and Foundation Capital co-led the Series A, joined by Tishman Speyer Ventures, Ulu Ventures, and January Ventures.
💸 Edurino’s digital education platform raises €10.5 million series A - The Munich-based company, co-founded by Irene Klemm and Franziska Meyer, introduces the digital world to kindergarten children. DN Capital led the Series A round with participation from FJ Labs, Tengelmann Ventures, and existing investors.
“In 10 years time our children will be working in jobs that do not exist in this form today.” - Irene Klemm and Franziska Meyer
💸 Ganni, Patagonia and Reformation join pilot to decarbonise fashion - Founded by twin sisters Neeka and Leila Mashouf, the Californian startup Rubi Labs has secured an $8.7M in seed funding extension for its lyocell yarn made from converted CO2.
💸 How an entrepreneur, who didn’t know how to cook, started a recipe company - Cadence Hardenbergh is a co-founder and COO of SideChef, a company that provides an all-in-one cooking, shopping, and meal-planning app. The company announced $6 million in Series B funding.
💸 Zarta, a creator platform focused on pay-per-view video content, raises $5.7M led by a16z - Founded and led by YouTube creator and former Airbnb software engineer Luba Yudasina, Zarta is a new ad-free creator platform focused on pay-per-view video content. The seed round also includes Endeavor, AirAngels, Dragonfly Capital, a.o.
💸 Former Apple and Cisco engineers are ‘sneaking’ cheaper, energy-saving tech into buildings (BI $) - Gladys Wong is a co-founder and COO of Domatic, a California-based startup on a mission to power sustainable buildings. It raised $4M in seed funding led by Brick & Mortar Ventures, joined by Catapult VC, Alchemist, and Third Sphere.
💸 Berlin-based cybersecurity startup Secfix snaps €3.6M to help SMEs track their security gaps - The startup, co-founded and led by Fabiola Munguia, helps businesses comply with cybersecurity standards. Octopus Ventures led the seed funding round.
💸 London-based Cordless bags over €2.1 million to build a new era of conversational intelligence for customer support - Founded by Luba Chudnovets (CEO) and Irina Bednova (CTO), the SaaS startup raised over €2.1M ($2.3M) for its telephony platform that brings the power of AI to customer support. Fly Ventures led the seed round with participation from Passion Capital, Entrepreneur First, TrueSight, and angels.
💸 Former L'Oreal and Palantir execs use Sourcerie to conjure up beauty funding - Sourcerie, a UK-based personalised beauty shopping marketplace, co-founded by Kristin Cardwell and Alex Beyer (COO), announced its £1.8M pre-seed round led by Playfair Capital and Vorwerk Ventures.
“The $500bn global beauty and personal care market has become fragmented and frustrating for consumers to navigate. It is also becoming increasingly difficult for the industry to serve a wider spectrum of diverse consumers with a growing long tail of niche products and brands launching daily.” - Kristin Cardwell and Alex Beyer
💸 Prog.ai wants to help recruiters find technical talent by inferring skills from GitHub code - Founded and led by Maria Grineva, the startup combines GitHub and LinkedIn information to create a database of the most suitable candidates for a specific software development role. It raised $1M in pre-seed funding from Angel Invest, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, and angel investors.
💸 Cycle Care: Egal Raises $1M for its “Pads on a Roll” - Led by Penelope Finnie, the US-based company on a mission to achieve equality for periods in restrooms, launched its product with $1M angel funding.
💸 UK-based Humanising Autonomy bags funds for its behavioural AI platform - Co-founded and led by Maya Pindeus, the UK-based company developing a global standard for human-machine interactions announced that it raised debt funding (undisclosed amount) from Silicon Valley Bank UK.
Tech: 👩🏻💻 Stability AI, Hugging Face and Canva back new AI research nonprofit - Stella Biderman, an AI researcher at Booz Allen Hamilton will co-run the EleutherAI Institute.
🎫 How Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz brought the ticketing platform back from the brink - Features Julia Hartz, co-founder and CEO of Eventbrite.
VC: 🇳🇱 Amsterdam-based impact investment firm StartGreen Capital announces sixth fund; aims at €200M size - Laura Rooseboom (co-founder) and Anouk Blüm are two of the impact investment firm’s Managing Partners. The new fund will focus on accelerating the Dutch energy transition.
💸 Gwyneth Paltrow is raising a $75 million venture capital fund - Kinship Ventures, co-founded and led by actress and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow, and beauty industry entrepreneur Moj Mahdara, aims to raise $75 million for its debut fund. The Los Angeles-based firm focuses on Web3, CPG, and High Tech Growth.
🔥 Who markets marketing? This duo started a VC firm to scale what ‘founders are starving for’ - Emily Kramer and Kathleen Estreich publically launch MKT1 Capital, a VC firm focused on “rebranding marketing.”
“You have to be as good at distribution as you are at building a product. We really think of marketing as a strategic lever and in some ways it is under-utilized and under-supported.” - Emily Kramer
👏 Google’s CapitalG Names Laela Sturdy as New Leader - Laela Sturdy steps up to become managing partner of Google’s growth investment fund CapitalG. During her tenure at the firm, she led high-profile bets into companies like Gusto, Duolingo, and Stripe. Chief, a member network aimed at supporting women in leadership positions, is one of Sturdy’s recent investments.
Women’s Health: 🩺 Why investing in women’s health is impact investing
“Healthcare in general, like education and agriculture, is already a popular field for impact investing. Women’s health specifically, though, is an often overlooked yet obvious sector for impact. It offers investors the potential for outsized financial and social returns since bettering women’s health can improve their lives as well as their families, workforce, and countries’ overall economies.” - Linda Greub, Avestria Ventures’ co-founder and managing & Eva Epker, director of Marketing
Beauty: 💄 Can Isamaya Ffrench go global with her non-conformist beauty approach? - Isamaya Ffrench, a makeup artist-turned-founder, plans a retail expansion of her eponymous brand, which she launched with Milan-based incubator Flash Beauty Holding.
“As a new brand that’s primarily online-based, having a physical presence is a great way to drive PR, buzz and consumer engagement. We see this type of disruptive activation as a key element of our go-to-launch strategy.”
What I’m Reflecting On 💭
Why Silicon Valley Is Failing To Address Health Equity
“One of the basal credos of the Silicon Valley mindset, shared by technologists and venture capitalists alike, is the need to scale—a precept that is oftentimes incompatible with the infinite complexity inherent in dealing with human beings, the environments in which they live and the vast array of cultural, familial, biological and socio-economic circumstances that impact them.” - Sara Ratner, President of Government Programs, Nomi Health.
“Lots of men leave their positions, but we analyze and scrutinize when women leaders do in a different way. If we had a lot more women prime ministers and CEOs and leaders at the very top, when we had one retire or exit, it wouldn’t feel like such a loss.” - Alexis Krivkovich, McKinsey senior partner
In Europe’s sweeping tech layoffs, women are more affected than men - A Layoffs.fyi analysis of 233 laid-off European tech employees shows that female employees represent 41.6% of layoffs (since October 2022), despite women making up just over a third of the European tech workforce.
For female VCs, bias is a branding issue (TechCrunch + $)
“The number one risk that we fall into is inadvertently stamping our own portfolio with a diversity signal. And I mean that in the negative context of the word: We want our founders to stand on their own for being amazing founders. So what do we need to do? We need to become a super, high-signal VC.” - Leslie Feinzaig, Managing Director of Graham & Walker
Thank you for reading! 🥰 Share your news tips and feedback at femwealth@substack.com.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth