💸 Lubomila Jordanova's Plan A Raises a $27 M Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners
FemWealth Issue #128
Hi FemWealth Friends,
In today’s edition: Lubomila Jordanova’s Plan A raises a $27M Series A extension round; May Habib’s AI startup Writer secures a $100M Series B round; Instacart, led by Fidji Simo goes public; plus the latest and greatest in women-led startups, VC, and more.
In the Spotlight 💸
Founded and led by Lubomila Jordanova, Plan A, a Berlin, Paris, and London-based corporate carbon accounting, decarbonisation, and ESG reporting software provider, raised $27 million from Lightspeed, Visa, Deutsche Bank, Opera Tech Ventures, the VC arm of BNP Paribas, and family offices, alongside existing investors.
“As the climate crisis is defined in large part by the growth of emissions, one of the most urgent challenges, and the only economically viable choice, is to rapidly reduce the emissions curve, especially for companies.” - Lubomila Jordanova (via TechCrunch)
The company’s mission is to support businesses across the globe with decarbonising and navigating the ever-changing regulatory environment. Its clients include Chloé, BMW, Deutsche Bank, Visa, GANNI, N26, HomeToGo, trivago, Personio, Sorare, a.o.
With the fresh funding, the company aims to scale French, UK, and Scandinavian markets, double the headcount, and advance the platform’s decarbonisation tooling, Scope 3 data processing, and reporting capabilities.
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
IPO: Instacart Rings the Opening Bell - Led by Fidji Simo (a former Facebook executive), US grocery delivery technology company Instacart went public on the Nasdaq. Also read: Instacart IPO is latest stop on Fidji Simo’s Silicon Valley ascent
Startups: AI Startup Writer Raises $100 Million To Take On ChatGPT Enterprise - Co-founded and led by May Habib, the San Francisco-based startup uses LLMs trained on extensive public, non-copyrighted data to improve corporate content creation. It secured a $100 million Series B round (at a $500+M valuation) led by Iconiq, and joined by WndrCo, Balderton Capital, Insight Partners, Aspect Ventures, a.o.
“The challenge enterprises face is fine tuning a good-at-all LLM on the ocean of data that they have and coming up with a model that can solve every problem. It’s really the last mile of tuning, data preparation and integration into current workflows that enterprises need help with.” - May Habib, co-founder and CEO of Writer (via Forbes)
TOLREMO Therapeutics secures USD 39 Million in Series A funding to fight non-genetic cancer drug resistance - Co-founded and led by Stefanie Flückiger-Mangual, the Basel, Switzerland-based startup is on a mission to stop non-genetic cancer drug resistance as it emerges by dismantling cancer’s earliest defences to targeted therapies. It secured a $39 million Series A round led by BioMedPartners.
Darrow raises $35M for an AI that parses public documents for class action lawsuit potential - Co-founded by Gila Hayat (CTO), the NYC-based startup provides an AI-based data engine that ingests large amounts of publicly-available documents to search for class action litigation potential. It secured a $35 million Series B round led by Georgian, with F2 and previous backers Entrée Capital and NFX also joining.
Diligent raises $25 million to triple its nursing robot’s reach - Co-founded by Andrea Thomaz and Vivian Chu, Diligent’s system, Moxi, is designed to support healthcare providers. The Austin-based company raised a $25 million round led by Canaan, and joined by True Ventures, DNX Ventures, a.o.
Jura Bio Binds AI and SynBio to Develop Immune-Based Therapeutics - Co-founded by Elizabeth Wood, PhD (CEO), and Julie Norville, PhD (CTO/CSO), Jura Bio announced $16.1 million in financing to accelerate the mapping of the human adaptive immune system.
Betterleap leverages AI to revolutionize recruitment, launches with impressive $13M in seed funding - Co-founded by Anna Melano, the San Francisco startup uses generative AI to provide recruiters with data-driven insights and automation, helping them discover the best candidates and reach out to them effectively. It raised a $13 million Seed round co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Peakstate Ventures, alongside Streamlined Ventures, Active Capital, Air Angels, and Stipple Capital.
Allocate Closes $10MM in Strategic Capital and Adds Key Personnel to Modernize Investment in Venture Capital - The platform co-founded by Hana Yang provides investors with a streamlined way to invest and manage private investments. Gopher Asset US, Intera Investments, M13 Ventures, and several prominent family offices participated in the financing round.
Navenio raises $6.3M to expand AI location services in US healthcare market - Professor Niki Trigoni FREng is a co-founder and CTO of the Oxford-based, AI-powered location platform that optimises patient care by tracking staff and equipment in real-time. Navenio secured $6.3 million in a Series A extension round led by Oxford Science Enterprises, with participation from existing investors G.K. Goh Ventures, Big Pi Ventures, George Robinson, and the University of Oxford.
Digital health provider HelloBetter receives a €5M boost from HSBC Asset Management - Co-founded by Dr. Elena Heber (Chief Clinical Officer) and Dr. Hanne Horvath (Chief Commercial Officer), the German digital therapeutics startup for tackling mental health issues announced a €5 million raise from HSBC Asset Management’s Financial Technology Venture Capital, as a second closing to its A2 round announced in May 2023.
Tamnoon raises $5.1 million Seed for assisted cloud remediation solution - Co-founded and led by Marina Segal, the Israeli startup’s AI-augmented managed service combines human expertise with technology to help teams quickly and safely remediate their cloud risks. It raised $5.1 million in Seed funding led by Merlin Ventures and Secret Chord Ventures, joined by Elron Ventures, Inner Loop Capital, and toDay Ventures.
Electron secures £4M with its approach to electricity flexibility and distribution - Co-founded and led by Jo-Jo Hubbard, the UK-based electricity flexibility and distribution marketplace provider gives electric networks, generators, and consumers more control and flexibility over the power source. East Innovate led the round, joined by Riverstone, Nesta, and One Planet Capital.
AI platform Skyqraft raises $3.8M to improve energy grid infrastructure inspections - Led by CEO Louise Gauffin, the Swedish grid inspection company’s end-to-end cloud-based AI platform provides visibility and actionable insights into grid owners’ physical assets. Skyqraft announced the closure of an oversubscribed investment round of $3.8 million.
EverImmune secures €3.5M from Bpifrance to fund drug trial in cancer patients - French biotech firm EverImmune secured €3.46 million funding for clinical trials on a cancer drug candidate.
Wicked Saints is making Pokémon GO for young activists - Co-founded by Jess Murrey (CEO) and Alicia Clifton (COO), Wicked Saints is developing an interactive story game designed to teach Gen Z how to stand up for what’s right in an entertaining way. The startup raised a $3.5 million seed round led by Riot Games and Oregon Venture Fund.
Leone Solutions Group Raises $3.3M in Pre-Seed Funding for CLEONA, an AI-Powered Tool for Maternal Health - Founded by Ashley Bratton and Sacha Taylor, Leone Solutions Group (LSG), a Washinton, DC-based global consulting and technology firm committed to advancing positive societal change, raised $3.3 million in Pre-Seed funding for CLEONA, an AI-driven tool designed to advance maternal healthcare.
Rocky Road Games raises $3M Seed round for social gaming network - Co-founded by Vala Halldorsdottir, Reykjavik-based Rocky Road Games is building a social gaming network to nurture real-world social connections. Luminar Ventures led the company’s Seed round, with existing investors, Crowberry Capital and Sisu Ventures participating alongside angel investors.
Irish startup Micron Agritech raises €2.7M to reduce unnecessary anti-parasite use on farms - Co-founded by Tara McElligott, the agritech startup provides an AI-powered testing kit to combat the overuse of anti-parasite treatments in animals. It raised a €2.7 million round co-led by ACT VC, Atlantic Bridge, and Yield Lab Europe.
Pliable Launches with $2.5M To Replace the Need for Data Engineers - Co-founded by Kait Rikkers Slattery, Pliable is a San Francisco-based AI-powered SaaS platform that makes it simple for anyone to organize and leverage their data without a data engineer. It raised a $2.5 million seed round led by Resolute Ventures, with support from CEAS and Counterview Capital.
Renew Risk raises £1.7M Seed funding for green energy risk analytics - Co-founded and led by Ashima Gupta, the London-based clean-energy risk analytics company aims to improve the end-to-end financial lifecycle of renewable energy assets. It raised £1.7 million in Seed funding from strategic investor Insurtech Gateway, OnePlanetCapital, the University of Surrey, and angel investors.
Sawdust for starters: Could turning industrial waste into meat alternatives solve food scarcity? - Nemailla Bonturi is a co-founder of the Tallinn, Estonia-based food tech company which created a way of producing fats and oils from industrial and food waste. The company announced a €1 million funding round raised at the start of 2023.
VC: European Investment Fund puts €40M into female-founded climatetech fund Blume Equity - Co-founded by Eleanor Blagbrough, Clare Murray, and Michelle Capiod, Blume Equity is a climatetech growth fund investing in European companies supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy and a sustainable environment.
Malin Posern (previously a partner at Passion Capital) joined Project A as a partner and head of its London office. Sophie Luck (previously at Felix Capital) and Emily Bullman (previously an investor at True) joined London-based JamJar as investors.
I moved to Europe and built my VC network from scratch. Here’s how
“A network starts from individual relationships you invest in, and it amplifies when you bring a give-first mentality to every conversation. Think about ways you can help the person on the other side of the table and their organisation, and it’s almost always a win-win when you can bring together a group of talented people.” - Meagan Loyst, founder of GenZ VCs
Sustainability: Apple’s Lisa Jackson explains how going carbon neutral by 2030 is good business
“I think our job is to lead, to innovate and then to help other companies. Because of our demand, they can now meet that demand in a way that changes the system, that transitions the system.” - Lisa Jackson, Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives at Apple (via TechCrunch)
Fashion & Media: Chioma Nnadi to replace Edward Enninful as head of British Vogue - Chioma Nnadi, the London-born editor of Vogue’s US website will become the first Black female head of the fashion title in October.
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Until next Sunday,
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth