🦄 The 'Unicorn Club' Turns 10
FemWealth Issue #143
Hi FemWealth Friends,
A warm welcome to new readers and special thanks to Sri Varre who shared FemWealth and other valuable resources for people who want to break into VC.
In today’s edition: Aileen Lee’s analysis of the evolution and future of the ‘unicorn club’; Sarah Faranda’s Granata Bio secures a $14M Series A round to develop fertility medications; Anna Veronika Dorogush’s Recraft raises $12M in Series A funding for its AI graphic design generator aimed at professionals; Co-led by General Partner Jessica Archibald, Top Tier Capital, a San Francisco-based VC and private equity firm, raised $1.05B to invest with global venture funds and tech companies; and more in women-led startups, VC, tech, and women’s health.
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In the Spotlight 🦄
Ten years after publishing “Welcome to the Unicorn Club,” and coining the term ‘unicorn,’ Aileen Lee, the founder and General Partner of Cowboy Ventures reflects on the evolution of VC-backed tech companies valued at over $1 billion within 10 years of founding.
“There are more founders named Michael, David and Andrew than there are women CEOs of unicorns. At this rate, we won’t reach equal gender representation until 2063.” - Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures and Allegra Simon, Chief of Staff
While among the 39 unicorns included in the original analysis (in 2013), there were no female CEOs, and just 5% of unicorns had a female co-founder, among the current cohort of 532 companies, 14% have a female co-founder and 5% have a female founding CEO.
Read more: Welcome back to the Unicorn Club, 10 years later
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
Startups: Prismatic lands $22M to connect disparate B2B SaaS apps - Co-founded by Beth Harwood, Prismatic aims to streamline app integration development to enable SaaS companies to more easily connect to third-party software. The US-based company secured $22 million in a Series B round led by Five Elms Capital.
Stalicla Raises $17.4M in Series B Financing - Founded and led by Lynn-Allison Durham, Geneva-based Stalicla is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing precision medicine pipelines for neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders. It secured $17.4 million (including $3.8 million in a credit facility) in a Series B funding round led by SPRIM Global Investments.
Car finance fintech Carmoola raises $15.5 million - Co-founded by Amy McKechnie, Carmoola is a direct-to-consumer car financing platform. It raised a $15.5 million Series B round from investors including QED Investors, VentureFriends, InMotion Ventures, AlleyCorp and u.ventures.
Granata Bio Raises $14M in Series A Funding to Enhance Fertility Treatment Options - Co-founded by Sarah Faranda, Granata Bio is a biopharma company specialising in fertility medications. The US-based company secured a $14 million Series A round led by GV, with participation from CooperSurgical, Gedeon Richter, Alumni Ventures, Amboy Street Ventures, and Vibe Bio.
Can Recraft’s foundational model for graphic design swerve the AI controversy? - Founded and led by Anna Veronika Dorogush, London-based Recraft is an AI graphic design generator aimed at professionals. It raised a $12 million Series A round led by Khosla Ventures alongside GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. RTP Global, Abstract VC, Basis Set Ventures, and angel investors also participated.
Talofa Games raises $6.3M to build fitness games for good - Founded and led by Jenny Xu, Talofa Games is a San Francisco-based startup developing a cooperative and competitive social fitness game. It raised $6.3 million in Seed funding. Chamaeleon led the round which also included A16Z Games Speedrun, Basis Set Ventures, Insight Partners, 1Up Ventures, and others.
Tandem gives ‘modern couples’ app to manage finances together and separately - Co-founded by Michelle Winterfield, the US-based company that helps couples manage their finances, raised $3.7 million. Corazon Capital led the round, joined by a group of individual investors and executives from companies such as OkCupid, Match Group, and Tinder.
Software start-up Lative raises $3m in funding - Co-founded by Laura Tortosa Sancho, Dublin-based Lative offers a sales performance, efficiency, and planning platform for B2B enterprises. It announced $3 million in Seed funding led by Elkstone Ventures, with additional support from Enterprise Ireland, Handshake Ventures, 1Qbit, SteamElements, WestWave Capital, and Future Five.
Infield wants to make open source dependency management trivial - Co-founded by Allison (Swihart) Pike, US-based Infield is a dependency management tool focused on breaking changes. Foundation Capital led the company’s $3 million Seed round. Y Combinator, Firsthand Alliance, and angel investors also joined.
Meiro secures $3M Pre-Series A funding to fuel its global expansion - Co-founded by Jana Marlé-Zizková, Singapore-based Meiro enables brands to better understand and engage with their customers by focusing on first-party data. It raised a $3 million Pre-Series A round led by Wavemaker Partners.
Madrid-based edtech Leemons gets €1.5 million to spread its SaaS platform for data-based learning - Co-founded and led by Lula de León, Leemons is a Madrid-based data-driven edtech platform. It raised €1.5 million in funding from investors including Swanlaab Venture Factory, Ship2b Ventures, and Stella Maris Partners.
Jampy secures €1M Pre-Seed to raise the bar in pet wellness - Co-founded by Rosa Scelsa (CEO) and Federica Signoriello (CPO), Jampy offers ethical plant-based dog care products. The Italian company raised a €1 million Pre-Seed investment round led by the European fund 360 Capital and including business angels.
‘There’s been no innovation in continental Europe’: Menopause tech startup Omena raises seed round - Co-founded by Mathilde Nême (CEO), Hahyeon Park (CPO), and Jane Douat (CTO), Omena is building an app offering information and support services to menopausal women. The Paris-based startup raised an €800k Seed round, including €600k of equity from business angels and family offices.
Parents make great founders, so why are we constantly punished for it?
“Becoming a parent has, quite honestly, been the best thing that could have happened to me, professionally speaking — and I know I’m not alone in this.” - Erika Brodnock, Co-founder and CEO of Kinhub
VC & PE: Top Tier Capital lands $1.05B to invest in funds and startups - Co-led by General Partner Jessica Archibald, the San Francisco-based VC and private equity firm, raised $1.05 billion to invest with global venture funds and tech companies.
Women’s Health & Wellness: Closing the women’s health gap: A $1 trillion opportunity to improve lives and economies - A new report by McKinsey Health Institute shows that addressing the women’s health gap could not only increase women’s healthy lifespan but could also potentially boost the global economy by $1 trillion annually by 2040.
The Honey Pot Eyes Ambitious Growth Following $380 Million Acquisition - Co-founded and led by Beatrice Dixon, plant-based feminine care company The Honey Pot aims to ‘become the largest personal care brand in the world’ following its acquisition by Compass Diversified.
Tech: How a 27-Year-Old Codebreaker Busted the Myth of Bitcoin’s Anonymity - Features mathematician Sarah Meiklejohn - now a Professor in Cryptography and Security at University College London (UCL) and a Staff Research Scientist at Google - who during her graduate studies proved that the blockchain enables researchers, tech companies, and law enforcement to trace and identify users.
What I’m Reflecting On 💭
As diversity, equity and inclusion comes under legal attack, companies quietly alter their programs - Following the US Supreme Court’s June (2023) ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions and conservative activists’ efforts to set a similar precedent in the working world, companies are rethinking their diversity programs.
‘Real taboo’: include birth trauma in UK women’s health strategy, MP urges - Conservative MP Theo Clarke and Labour MP Rosie Duffield are leading the UK’s first parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma.
“There is such a focus on the baby post-birth that we sometimes forget about the mums and the fact that they need care too. And I was really amazed when I shared my personal story last year the huge amount of people that contacted me from across the country that shared their own difficult stories.
“It was very clear to me that there was a real taboo about talking about birth trauma, and people felt that they couldn’t share with friends or colleagues at work if they had had a birth injury or had mental psychological distress based on giving birth.” - Conservative MP, Theo Clarke
Inspirational Quote ✨
“Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible.” - Angela Davis, American political activist and philosopher
Thank you for reading FemWealth! 🥰 If you enjoyed this edition, please share it with a friend.
Until next Sunday,
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth