💸 Lena Hackelöer's Brite Payments Secures $60M Series A Round
FemWealth Issue #130
Hi FemWealth Friends,
In today’s edition: Lena Hackelöer’s fintech, Brite Payments, raises a $60M Series A; Kate Condliffe’s women’s health startup, Diana Health, secures $34M in Series B funding; FemHealth Ventures launches with $32M first fund for women’s health; Nobel Prizes 2023; and the latest and greatest in women-led startups, VC, and more.
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In the Spotlight 💸
Founded and led by former Klarna executive Lena Hackelöer, Brite Payments is a Swedish company on a mission to accelerate instant bank payments across Europe. It announced a Series A round of $60 million led by Dawn Capital and joined by Headline, and existing investor Incore.
Already present in 25 existing markets, the fintech aims to consolidate its position and expand into new markets.
“We see account-to-account payments gaining momentum across Europe, but merchants are still struggling to realise the full potential for their businesses. That’s why we’ve built a complete instant A2A payments and payouts offering that can be plugged into any checkout, while eliminating operational hassles such as settlement accounts, reconciliation, or FX.” - Lena Hackelöer, Founder and CEO at Brite Payments (via Tech.eu)
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Startups: Shorla Oncology raises $35m to accelerate growth - Co-founded by Sharon Cunningham and Orlaith Ryan, Shorla Oncology is a US and Ireland-based biotech startup focused on oncology treatments for orphan and pediatric cancers. It raised a $35 million Series B round led by Kurma Partners, with existing investors Seroba Life Sciences and Enterprise Ireland also joining.
Diana Health picks up $34M to expand network of modern women's health practices - Co-founded and led by Kate Condliffe, the NYC-based network of modern women’s health practices secured $34 million in Series B funding. Norwest Venture Partners led the round with participation from existing investors .406 Ventures, LRVHealth, and AlleyCorp.
Pollin Secures $20M Funding to Advance Fertility Healthcare in Canada - Founded by Dr. Kim Garbedian and led by Melody Adhami, the Canadian fertility clinic and technology firm, announced a $20 million Series A round, led by Osmington.
Insurtech Reserv raises $20m Series A round to accelerate growth - Co-founded by Martha Dreiling (COO), the AI-driven insurance claims processing startup closed a $20 million Series A round, co-led by Altai Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from AXIS Capital, Arch Capital Group, 8VC, Outpost Ventures, Convex Group, and Anthemis Ventures.
Unitary AI picks up $15M for its multimodal approach to video content moderation - Co-founded and led by Sasha Haco, Unitary AI secured $15 million in Series A funding led by Creandum, with participation from Paladin Capital Group and Plural.
“What is innovative about Unitary is that we have genuine multimodal models. Rather than analyzing just a series of frames, in order to understand the nuance and whether a video is [for example] artistic or violent, you need to be able to simulate the way a human moderator watches the video. We do that by analyzing text, sound and visuals.” - Sasha Haco, Co-founder and CEO at Unitary (via TechCrunch)
Vibrant Planet raises $15M Series A to help PG&E and others trim their wildfire risk (TechCrunch + $) - Founded and led by Allison Wolff, Vibrant Planet is a California-based wildfire prediction and mitigation startup. It raised a $15 million Series A funding led by Ecosystem Integrity Fund, with additional support from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Citi Ventures, Day One Ventures, SIG Climate, Globivest, Coefficient LP, and other investors.
Osmoses gets $11M seed to bring its molecule-scale membranes to the hydrogen market (TechCrunch + $) - Katherine Mizrahi Rodriguez is a co-founder and VP of Engineering at Osmoses, a startup spun out of MIT and Stanford that aims to transform industrial chemical separations with innovative molecular filters. The company raised an $11 million Seed round led by Energy Capital Ventures with participation from Engine Ventures, Fine Structure Ventures, New Climate Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Little Green Bamboo, BlindSpot Ventures, and angel investors.
Pow.bio says biomanufacturing is broken and its continuous fermentation tech will fix it - Co-founded by Shannon Hall, Pow.bio aims to help synthetic biology companies manufacture their products at cost parity. The US-based startup secured $9.5 million in Series A capital. Re:Food and Thia Ventures led the round which included Hitachi Ventures, Possible Ventures, XFactor, Bee Partners, iSelect, Climate Capital, Vectors, Better Ventures, and Cantos.
Queer social app Lex gets a new CEO and $5.6M to grow - Co-founded by Jennifer Lewis (CEO) and Kel Rakowski (Chief Creative Officer), Lex, a San Francisco startup that operates an LGBTQIA+ social network and dating site, raised a $5.6 million round led by Stellation Capital, with additional funding from Slauson & Co, Hope Lab Ventures, Best Nights VC, Great Oaks, Graph Ventures, Female Founders Fund, Alpaca Ventures, Red Swan, and Gaingels.
Procurement is painful, so Pivot wants to simplify it - Co-founded by Estelle Giuly (CTO), Pivot is a Paris-based startup that helps early-stage companies manage procurement. It raised a $5.2 million Pre-Seed round from investors including Visionaries, Emblem, Cocoa, Anamcara, and Financière Saint James.
KittyCAD Updates API, Adds Geometry Engine - Co-founded and led by Jessie Frazelle and Jenna Bryant, the San Francisco startup is building a programmable CAD platform with a set of APIs to enable developers to build their own hardware design tools. It raised a $5 million Seed round led by Venrex Partners and joined by USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering, Gaingels, Undeterred Capital, Liquid 2, Madrona Venture Group, and angel investors.
Class Companion Puts AI To Work Helping Teachers Help Students - Co-founded and led by Avery Pan, the San Francisco-based virtual classroom platform focused on writing raised $4 million in Seed funding. Index Ventures led the round, joined by OpenAI Startup Fund, and angel investors.
Vera wants to use AI to cull generative models’ worst behaviors - Co-founded and led by Liz O’Sullivan, the US-based AI safety startup is building a toolkit that allows companies to establish “acceptable use policies” for generative AI and enforce these policies across open-source and custom models. It raised $2.7 million in Pre-Seed funding led by Differential Venture Partners, with Betaworks, Greycroft, and Everywhere VC’s participation.
Atalan Tech seeds $2.5M to predict doctor burnout (Axios Pro $) - Co-founded and led by Tiffany Chan, the Boston-based clinician burnout and turnover predictions startup, raised $2.5 million in Seed funding. Excelerate Health Ventures and OCA Ventures co-led, with angel investors also joining.
Helios unveils AI analyst Cersi for tracking food supply chain disruptions - Co-founded by CTO Eden Waller Canlilar, the US-based company combines clients’ supplier data with “climate, economic, currency and political risk signals” to create business insights. It raised a $1.85 million Pre-Seed round led by Supply Change Capital and joined by January Ventures.
Finnish AI governance startup Saidot secures €1.75M for safe AI implementation - Founded and led by Meeri Haataja, Saidot, an AI governance startup that supports the implementation of safe and ethical AI systems, raised €1.75 million in Seed funding. Crowberry Capital led the round.
Genie’s open source web framework for Julia programming language attracts $1.2M - Co-founded by Cinzia Palumbo (COO), Genie offers open-source full-code and low-code web dev libraries, and a no-code app development tool. The Barcelona-based startup announced a $1.2 million Pre-Seed round led by Speedinvest, with participation from Expa Ventures, Antler, APX/Heartfelt, and Shine Capital.
VC: FemHealth Ventures Closes $32 Million Fund for Women’s Health Investments (WSJ $) - Founded and led by Managing Partner Maneesha Ghiy, the VC firm aims to back companies focused on women’s health diagnostics and care, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, and digital health.
Co-founded and co-led by Check Warner, London-based Ada Ventures is the first VC fund to support founders with childcare, through a partnership with childcare provider Bubble. Each founder in the firm’s portfolio will be entitled to claim up to 40 hours of childcare each year.
Nobel Prizes 2023: Dr. Katalin Karikó received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”. Jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi won the Nobel Peace Prize “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”. Anne L’Huillier won the Nobel Prize in Physics “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter.”
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Until next Sunday,
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth