💸 With Fresh Funding gofrendly Brings Joy in Making New Friends
FemWealth Issue #100
Happy Sunday, FemWealth Friends!
Welcome to the 100th issue of FemWealth 🎉. Thank you for being a loyal reader! 🙏 🥰
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FemWealth Springboard ✨
In the Spotlight 💸
Founded by Ulrika Lilja (CEO) and Claudia Gård (COO), gofrendly, a Stockholm-based startup that makes it easier for women to develop real connections and experience friendships, has raised $1.25 million led by JNE Invest. The free-to-join AI-driven app matches users based on their interests.
“gofrendly is for those with a shared drive to make new connections, create more experiences, and have more memories with friends. We allow users to focus on the joy of making new friends, rather than the effort of finding them. We couldn’t be more excited about our plans to further develop and expand the app beyond Sweden, starting with the UK. Female friendships are invaluable to women everywhere, and can help with their general happiness and well-being. gofrendly is dedicated to fulfilling those important needs.” - Ulrika Lilja, Co-founder and CEO of gofrendly
The company plans to expand into the UK and improve its AI capabilities.
FemWealth Favourites ❤️
💸 Backed by Jaguar Land Rover, UK/Ukrainian co-founded Carmoola drives home £103.5 million - Co-founded by Amy McKechnie (Director of Product), Carmoola has raised £8.5 million in a Series A equity funding round and £95 million in debt facility. The company’s proprietary tech stack provides a streamlined process for car financing.
💸 Buk Announced a New Financing Round: US$35 Million To Grow in Latin America - Co-founded by Teresita Moran, Buk, a Chilean HR software company focused on Latin America, raised $35m in funding led by Base10.
💸 IFC leads $17M investment in South African insurtech Naked - The South African insurtech company, co-founded by Sumarie Greybe, helps consumers to insure their cars, homes and valuables. The Series B funding round was led by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) with participation from the German Development Finance Institution (DEG) and earlier investors Yellowwoods and Hollard.
💸 Water tech company Aquafortus raises US$17m in Series A1 round - Jessica Lam is the co-founder and the COO of the New Zealand-based water tech company that purifies high salinity brines and derives valuable metals and minerals from them in the process. DCVC and Novo Holdings led the round.
💸 CyberSmart raises $15M for an all-in-one cybersecurity and insurance solution targeting SMBs - The UK-based company co-founded by Mariella Thanner provides cybersecurity technology and insurance for small and medium businesses. The Series B round was led by Oxx and included British Patient Capital, Legal & General Capital, Solano Partners, and previous backers IQ Capital, Eos Venture Partners, Winton Ventures, and Seedcamp.
💸 BlueCargo reduces logistics late fees by tracking containers in port terminals - Co-founded and led by Alexandra Griffon, the California-based SaaS platform aims to optimize logistics in port terminals and reduce late fees for drayage trucking companies and shippers. It raised $11 million in funding co-led by Soma Capital and Left Lane Capital.
💸 Smartrr bags $10M for its customer experience approach to e-commerce subscriptions - Founded and led by Gabriella Tegen, Smarttrr enables direct-to-consumer brands to offer customizable subscriptions and memberships and then for their customers to have a portal where they can more easily manage their subscriptions. The US-based company secured $10 million in Series A funding.
💸 Munich-based Finway scores €9.2 million to reimagine spend management for European SMBs - Co-founded and led by Jennifer Dussileck, Finway helps SMBs digitize their financial planning and spend management. Capital 49 led the company’s Series A.
💸 Battery recycling startup Cylib recharges its coffers to go faster - German battery recycling startup Cylib, co-founded and led by Lilian Schwich raised a total of €11.6 million ($12.6 million) to build a recycling factory. World Fund led the €8 million extension, with participation from existing investors Vsquared Ventures and Speedinvest.
💸 Future Fields is turning fruit flies into bioreactors - Co-founded by Jalene Anderson-Baron, the Canada-based company secured $11.2 million in seed extension funding to build a production facility and launch its first products.
💸 Neobank Vexi raises millions to offer young Mexicans lower interest rate credit cards - Gabriela Estrada and Cinthia Merlos are two of the fintech’s co-founders. The Mexican company raised $8 million in an “oversubscribed” Series A round of funding led by Magma Partners and joined by previous investors Alpha4Ventures, Noa Capital, and Pomona Impact, as well as new backers Redwood Ventures and Rebalance Capital.
💸 Selfapy's digital self-service mental health platform nets €7 million - Founded by Nora Blum and Katrin Bermbach, the Berlin-based digital therapeutics platform provides online self-help courses for patients with depression and anxiety disorders.
💸 Soleadify is now Veridion, with $6 million further to its name - Veridion, co-founded by Sorina Vlasceanu, has raised $6 million in late seed funding to expand its AI-driven business information directory.
💸 Carbon credit insurtech secures £4m investment - Led by co-founder Natalia Dorfman, London-based Kita focuses on reducing the risks associated with carbon purchases. It raised a £4m funding round led by Octopus Ventures, alongside Chaucer Group, Hartree Partners, and existing investors Insurtech Gateway, Carbon13, and Climate VC.
“To prevent the worst impacts of climate change, we must remove gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually for the remainder of the 21st century.” - Natalia Dorfman, co-founder and CEO of Kita.
💸 Jumba, a Kenyan startup simplifying sourcing of construction supplies, raises $4.5M - Co-founded and led by Kagure Wamunyu, the Kenyan B2B construction tech startup raised $4.5 million in Seed funding led by LocalGlobe, with participation from Enza Capital, Foundamental, Seedstars International Ventures, Logos Ventures, SpeedInvest, First Check Africa and Alumni Angel Network.
💸 Norwegian edtech startup raises €4.1M to gamify the math experience - The Oslo-based edtech platform House of Math, founded and led by Vibeke Gwendoline Fængsrud, secured €4.1M (NOK 45M) in a series A round.
💸 Carbon Maps helps the food industry reduce their climate impact - The French startup co-founded by Estelle Huynh raised a $4.3 million (€4 million) seed round from Breega and Samaipata just weeks after its inception. The company is developing a software-as-a-service platform for the food industry to track the environmental impact of products.
💸 From lights to labour, Beryl raises £2 million to open factory in Poole - The UK micromobility firm Beryl, co-founded by Emily Brooke, aims to scale its UK manufacturing operations.
💸 South Africa’s Envisionit Deep AI gets $1.65M to expand access to medical imaging - Co-founded and led by Dr. Jaishree Naidoo, the South Africa-based medical technology company utilizes AI to streamline and improve medical imaging diagnosis for radiologists.
💸 Zymvol raises €1.3 million to spread enzymes everywhere - Co-founded and led by Maria Fátima Lucas, Barcelona-based Zymvol develops industrial enzymes to use across a range of sectors, from pharma to food production.
VC: 💸 Italian life sciences fund hits €175M - Co-founded by Diana Saraceni, Panakès Partners closed its Purple Fund with a total of €175 million ($185.4 million). The firm focuses on Italy, Europe, the UK, Switzerland, Israel, and the U.S.
💸 European VC firms Amadeus and Apex partner for €80m early-stage ‘deep tech’ fund - Anne Glover, a veteran investor with over 25 years of experience in the VC industry, is one of Amadeus’ co-founders and its CEO. The new fund aims to invest between €1-1.5 million in seed and Series A stage European startups with “unique and defendable technology” in AI, quantum computing, mobility and outer space, and robotics.
👩🏻💻 9 European training programmes for wannabe VCs - Most programmes accept applicants from anywhere in the world.
🎧 Female check-writers alone aren’t enough to close the female fundraising gap, data shows - Natasha Mascarenas interviews Kaisa Snellman, an economic sociologist and an associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Academic Director of the INSEAD Gender Initiative, about her recent Harvard Business Review piece with Isabelle Solal: For Female Founders, Fundraising Only from Female VCs Comes at a Cost. Their research shows that women-led startups whose first round was raised exclusively from female VCs were 2x less likely to raise a second round regardless of initial funding round size, industry, geographic location, or prestige of the investor.
👶 Taking parental leave as a founder: what we learned at Ada and how to set you and your team up for success. - By Francesca (Check) Warner, Co-founder and Managing Partner of London-based VC firm Ada Ventures
“As investors, I believe it is incumbent upon us to show leadership on this topic and create space to discuss having children with founders in our portfolio companies. It is also important to ensure that founders that are trying to conceive, concerned about fertility or having children are financially and emotionally supported on their journeys.” - Francesca (Check) Warner
Tech: 👩🏾💻 She’s working to make German tech more inclusive - Features Nakeema Stefflbauer, Founder and CEO of FrauenLoop, a grassroots-led initiative on a mission to bring women from underrepresented backgrounds into the Berlin tech scene.
Women’s Health: 👩🏻⚕️ Spanish Women’s Health Diagnostics Startup Innitius Raises €1.8M to Invest in R&D and Growth - The Spanish startup leverages technology and data analytics to develop cutting-edge medical devices that enable healthcare professionals to detect, diagnose, and treat women’s health issues more effectively.
Fashion: 👗 More minorities are filling supply chain roles. How can brands protect them?
“It’s not up to a marginalised woman in a factory who risks losing her job and may be experiencing poverty, debt or domestic violence to prove to any big fashion brand that she’s been sexually harassed. It’s up to the brand to have systems in place to reverse the burden of proof through anonymous whistleblowing and protect her.” - Ciara Barry, policy and campaigns manager at Fashion Revolution
🫶 ‘We lift each other up’: Feben on community and building a global brand - Features London-based emerging designer Feben.
Arts & Culture: 👩🎨 Why do we still define female artists as wives, friends and muses? -
“Exhibitions still contextualise female artists in relation to the men in their lives. Can this narrative ever change?” - Katy Hessel, Art historian, author of the Story of Art without Men , and host of The Great Women Artists Podcast
💃🏽 Rihanna Reborn: How A Megastar Became A Mother
What I’m Reflecting On 💭
Women’s health ‘missing out’ because of male-dominated investment
“Most people define [women’s health] very narrowly, and forget about the fact that 50 per cent of our population are women with very specific needs and gaps and we’re facing inequality in healthcare.” - Susanne Fiedler, chief commercial officer of Merck spin-off Organon
These women journalists were doing their jobs. That made them targets. - Female journalists across the globe face increasing gender-based violence.
Thank you for reading FemWealth! 🫶 Have a fun Sunday and a successful week ahead!
Anamaria
Founder & Writer of FemWealth