💌 Leveling the Playing Field for Women Founders
FemWealth Issue #44
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
2021 has been a record-breaking year and a bonanza for venture-backed companies. Over $621B have been invested in startups globally, of which US startups have raised a record $330B.
Funding for women-founded startups in the US (data is not yet available for Europe) has also reached a record number of ~$6.4B —83% higher than the total raised in 2020. Yet, this represents only 2% (lowest percentage since 2016!) of the total amount. Mixed teams have received 15.6% of the funding ($164B).
The disparity in funding persists, even though women-led companies have higher revenues, better returns on investment, and shorter time to exit.
There are reasons to hope that the overall percentage of funding women-founded and led companies are able to raise will increase, especially as those early-stage startups evolve in their life cycle. Furthermore, successful founders like Melanie Perkins of Canva and Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe, are already giving back to the entrepreneurial community, investing in women and underestimated entrepreneurs. More and more women angel invest or start/join VC firms, and thus the likelihood they will invest in female founders increases. Organizations such as AllRaise, Diversity VC, and Included VC also support the ecosystem of women funders and founders.
And of course, as consumers, we have a significant power to decide what to spend our money on.
Let’s make 2022 the best year for women entrepreneurs to succeed!
Learn more:
Why aren’t female founders getting a bigger piece of the pie? Theories abound
Leveling the Investment Playing Field w/ Sharon Vosmek, CEO of Astia
From Microaggressions To Mansplaining: Busting Biases In Venture Capital - by Deena Shakir, Partner at Lux Capital
2022: The Year We Fix The Gender Gap In Tech Startup Funding
FemWealth Favorites ❤️
Politics: 🇧🇧 Barbados PM Mia Mottley who broke with Queen wins landslide second term
🇨🇱 Chile’s president-elect names progressive, majority-women cabinet - Gabriel Boric has named a progressive cabinet, with a ministerial team which for the first time anywhere in the Americas is dominated by women
🇪🇺 EU parliament elects youngest ever president - Roberta Metsola, a conservative Maltese lawyer, is the youngest ever president of the European Parliament and the first woman to lead the assembly in 20 years. She has a record of being anti-abortion, but she has insisted she will represent the European Parliament's view on sexual and reproductive health, rather than her own. Only two women have served as EP president - former French minister Nicole Fontaine (1999-2002), and Simone Veil, a Holocaust survivor and celebrated minister, who led the fight for women’s reproductive rights in France and ran the parliament from 1979-1982
Leadership: 👏 50 Over 50: Europe, Middle East and Africa list - feat. entrepreneurs Louisa Mojela (Wiphold) and Corinne Vigreux (TomTom), scientist-founders like Özlem Tureci and Emmanuelle Charpentier (2020 Nobel Prize laurate in chemistry), writers Bernardine Evaristo and Svetlana Alexievich (2015 Nobel Prize laureate in literature), and many more inspiring women.
Startups: 💸 Wheel raises $150M in quest to move beyond “telehealth 101” to virtual-first care - the virtual care provider is co-founded and led by Michelle Davey
💸 Women-Centered Gaming Startup Raises $55 Million To Scale And Grow Istanbul Into A Tech Hub - Spyke, co-founded and led by Turkish entrepreneur Rina Onur Sirinoglu has received $55 million in funding the largest seed round ever raised by a female CEO in Turkey.
"Driving growth are women over the age of 35" - Rina Onur Sirinoglu
💸 Andreessen Horowitz’s first African startup bet is a mobile games company - Carry1st, co-founded by Lucy Hoffman, has received $20M in funding
💸 Rebundle raises $1.4M for plant-based hair extensions - co-founded by Danielle Washington and Ciara Imani May. The company uses banana fiber as the core material in extensions that it sells in a variety of colors.
📈 Meet The Female Founder Of A Unique Trading Platform With A Social Spin - featuring Zoe Barry, founder of Zingeroo, a retail trading platform designed to make friendly competition the key pillar of their value proposition
👩🏻💻 Investors said my male cofounder’s name 117 times, mine only 16 - Lorna Armitage, a cybersecurity expert and co-founder of CAPSLOCK, shares what she and her other female co-founder did about sexism in the industry
Web3: 🔗 Your new crypto BFFs are Gwyneth Paltrow, Brit Morin, Jaime Schmidt and Rebecca Minkoff - BFF is on a mission to onboard more women and non-binary people into crypto
“I worry that if women aren't participating, not only are we missing out on wealth opportunities, but more than that, we're not participating in building what could be the future of the internet.”- Brit Morin
Venture Capital: 💸 Blossom Capital becomes Europe’s biggest Series A investor - The VC firm started by Ophelia Brown has raised its third fund of $432M. [Listen to this podcast w/ Ophelia Brown]
“The opportunity is just so huge — across fintech, consumer [and] Web3″
💸 SteelSky Ventures moves to Atlanta with $50M fund focused on women’s health - led by Maria Velissaris, the firm focuses on investing in women’s healthcare startups
🌎 500 Global’s Christine Tsai shares her 2022 VC predictions - Christine Tsai’s top three predictions: (1) Rapid rise of web3, (2) Capital flows to less obvious founders (Yesss!), (3) Continued globalization of venture capital
Women's Health: 🙋🏻♀️ Goddess Gaia Ventures: Why the UK Needs a £100M Venture Fund Dedicated to Women’s Health - Priya Oberoi is raising a £100M fund to invest in women’s health startups in the UK and across Europe
💸 Diana Health Launches with $11M in Series A Funding to Redesign Maternity & Women’s Health Programs at Leading Hospitals - co-founded and led by Kate Condliffe
“The care we receive as women, particularly during pregnancy and birth, has the potential to impact population health across generations while building lifelong connections between a family and their healthcare provider.” - Kate Condliffe
👀 Trends to watch in femtech in 2022 and beyond (Sifted $) - from treating endometriosis to cultured milk, women’s health solutions are on the rise
🧠 Your eating disorder could be a sign of neurodivergence. - ‘Research has shown high rates of overlap between ADHD or autism and various eating disorders in girls and women’
👩🏽⚕️ Patients get better care from doctors who are women. But sexism persists in medicine.
“Female physicians are more likely to follow guidelines, collaborate with specialists and ask patients about social circumstances that may affect their health; they also spend more time with patients. And yet, female doctors have consistently faced discriminatory conditions: double standards, implicit bias, sexism and overt sexual harassment.”
Career: ✨ You’re Not an Imposter. You’re Actually Pretty Amazing. - by Kess Eruteya
🤔 Could The New Hybrid Workplace Turn Some Women Into Second-Class Employees?
🤰🏼 We need to talk about pregnancy at work sooner–even when it ends in miscarriage - ‘Waiting the customary 12 weeks to announce a pregnancy conceals the reality of women's health and their lived experiences.’
“By sharing the news with my team about my second child early on, I hoped my younger colleagues could see that talking about something related to women’s health–being pregnant, having a miscarriage, going through menopause, having PCOS, or getting an abortion–isn’t a ding on your work ethic or a sign of not being good enough.” - Lauren Lyon
💵 Sharing Personal Stories Won't Move the Needle on Paid Family Leave. Talking About Money Might [US-focus]
“If the business community starts to pressure our elected officials because they see a profit incentive during these unpredictable economic times, then we might see some movement on this issue.” - Katherine Goldstein, The Double Shift
ClimateTech: 🌍 The Founder of UBI Group on Leading a Transition to Renewable Energy in Africa
“Clean energy will offer a greater return on investment than fossil fuels do. It is possible to earn a profit and protect the environment and our local communities at the same time. Africa can industrialize in a sustainable way, and I will do my part to promote that kind of growth and development.” - Salma Okonkwo
Culture: 👏🏾 From Coretta Scott King to Ella Baker: These women's ideas were key to MLK's work
“Even though those are the names we don't know, that we can't remember easily, those folks were significant to him. They inspired him. They critiqued him — as Ella Baker did. Everybody needs to be challenged and pushed. Whether their names get called or not, women significantly impacted his life and his work.” - Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart
👩🏾 Women behind the lens: ‘She was too beautiful not to be photographed’ - Featuring Etinosa Yvonne, a self-taught Nigerian documentary photographer and visual artist based in Abuja
[Fantasy] Sports: 🎾 'I'm proud of myself': Osaka finds silver linings from loss
"I feel like now I'm in this position where if I lose to someone, it might make a headline, but I also think it kind of grows more superstars, and I feel like that's good for the game. - Naomi Osaka
🙌🏿 Serena Williams joins Sorare’s board in effort to make Web 3 more inclusive - The elite athlete and VC will provide guidance on developing the startup’s relationship with athletes, expansion strategy, and future initiatives to make Web 3 more inclusive and diverse. Sorare plans to expand into women’s sports and new sports categories.
🏂 Chloe Kim Is Ready to Win Olympic Gold Again—On Her Own Terms
⚽ FC Barcelona Football Player Alexia Putellas Wins the FIFA Golden Ball
Thank you for reading FemWealth! Wish you a wonderful Sunday and a successful week ahead!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth