Legendary

Cokie Roberts. Photo by Lionel Delavigne.

Last week 17 women founders raised over $1 billion dollars for their companies. Precisely, $1,165,715,000. 

Also notable, four companies raised $100 million and above:

• Reshma Shetty at Gingko Bioworks

• Eva Shang at Legalist

• Jennifer Parke at Fair

• J. Jean Cui at Turning Point Therapeutics

Deal flow is following growth opportunities in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, software as a service, and consumer food, health and beauty. The past two weeks have also seen investments in value-based health care technology. View the week’s funding update. And be sure to sign up for Underwire’s weekly newsletter to get deeper insights into the funding founders and companies.

Last week also brought news of the death of Cokie Roberts, journalist, author, political correspondent and commentator. Her deep, raspy voice comforted me for as long as I've been paying attention to news and politics. Her commentary was always objective, no-nonsense and illuminating. 

I first heard it in a blip on NPR. Cokie Roberts had died from breast cancer. I was in my car, driving to catch an early train. My chest and sinuses tightened. Tears welled in my eyes. Done in by the boobs. 

Cokie Roberts was among my circle of Baba Yagas, wise women who've seen shit and know the way the world works. Women like Nina Totenberg, Terry Gross and Krista Tippett. These are a few of the high-profile women who help me process events and better understand humans. 

In reading quotes from The Washington Post and The New York Times obituaries, I saw how Cokie's journey through politics and media paralleled that of other professional women, myself included. 

Cokie was a lifelong mentor to female journalists. "Duck and file," she advised aspiring female reporters. "Just do your work and get it on the air." 

Cokie worked for competing new organizations ABC News and NPR at the same time. She was a true professional, avoiding stories where there might be a conflict of interest. When The Post asked her about this in 1993 she said, "I think it's a woman's talent. Being able to do two things at once." 

In 1992, on record for The Los Angeles Times, Cokie talked about the impact of sexism in the workplace: 

"We had people tell us all along the way that we weren't qualified to deliver the news, that we weren't authoritative enough. We would have meetings with men in high positions and find their hands on our knees. We would have invitations from those people to hotel rooms. All kinds of propositions. Insults they didn't consider insults."

She added, and this is what's still true today, "Those assaults make a difference in terms of how you think about yourself. Maybe they're right, you begin to think. Maybe I'm not authoritative. Maybe I'm not smart enough. And then you say to yourself, 'God, I went to the same schools as those guys. I have the same education as they do. What's the problem? Why am I asked how many words a minute I can type when the guy next to me can't type at all?'" 

That was 27 years ago. At that time, I was a young woman in advertising. My boss used to come into my cubicle without asking and massage my shoulders while I worked at my desk. On more than one occasion he asked if I'd like to go camping with him. Or would I like for him to teach me how to fly-fish? Another male superior, my creative director, once mentioned in a hallway conversation that I should wear a tight turtleneck to the next creative review so my ideas would be taken more seriously. 

I never reported those incidents. Like Cokie said, you begin to think. My ideas aren't good enough. I don't deserve to ask for more. Or for improvements to the way we work. 

Fortunately, I didn't let these bastards grind me down. I found a better job in a new city. But that early experience did contribute to an ongoing battle with anxiety. 

So, legends. Rest in peace, Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs Roberts. What a glorious name. What an epic role model. 

Duck and keep doing the work.

Shoulders open, firm grip on the microphone. Cokie Roberts owns the room.

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Also legendary...

If you're in the Seattle area, block out the evening of October 17.

Onstage at Seattle Center's PACCAR IMAX Theater, you can witness a beautiful thing: an entire accelerator cohort of women-led companies. Brought to you by the Female Founders Alliance and their Ready Set Raise national startup accelerator. 

This is a fun event where you get to see eight women or non-binary founders pitch their business models to a sold out crowd. How often does that happen?!? Don't be shy, last year's event featured an open, friendly crowd and great food. 

RSVP & tickets

Here's the 2019 lineup:

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It's time

You see that stick figure yogini above? She's doing a balance pose. I don't know the name of it. I just know that it rattles my confidence unless I'm totally grounded and in the moment. It's not easy to stand on one leg, hold the other leg up in the air, out to the side, and keep your balance. Kinda like how I feel right now about the Fall yoga retreat. 

I'll be real, I'm wobbly. We're one month out. Sign ups so far are making me go hmmmm. It could be that I suck at event promotion. Which I do. I'm not on Facebook and barely on Instagram.

So I'm asking for help. Use this link to share the event on your socials. If you're planning to come, please sign up now. 

This is the real deal. Awesome yoga teacher, food, location. All women, so you can skip the makeup. Throw you hair in a ponytail and pull on your rattiest yoga pants. Just come and be the real you. Let's make this happen. Hugs and love. 

Fall Female Founders Yoga Retreat
Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019
8:30 am - 5 pm

Book your place

What it takes to raise a Seed

Surbhi Rathore, CEO and Co-Founder, Rammer.ai

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Seed round short Q&A

Last May I featured Surbhi Rathore's perspective on her company's participation in the 2019 Techstars Seattle accelerator program. Three and a half months later, Surbhi and the Rammer.ai team closed a $1.8 million Seed round. Here are key takeaways from her fundraising journey. 

How many investors did you pitch (approximately) to close the round? 

We ended up having meetings with less than 30 or so investors. We were very targeted in the approach of only reaching out to the firms with some investment thesis around Enterprise AI or platforms. And it was a pleasure to get connected with each of them. 

What about your company's story changed or evolved as you pitched? What narrative worked best? 

Every meeting was a new learning experience that gave us further clarity on handing the objections. One of the things I learned was making sure we communicate the vision in the right proportion to what exactly we are doing near-term. I would say in the end it was the strength of the founding team, the founder's insights in the market and what hypothesis we are validating, with a clear understanding of how we will get to the next stage. 

How will you use the proceeds? 

With this Seed round we will expand the engineering and data science teams to scale the platform and make it easy for developers to adopt this technology. We are also investing in business fundamentals to grow, acquire, and delight both customers and partners.

What people or groups were most helpful throughout the fundraising process, and how? 

Techstars helped us immensely with the support system and access we needed to the right investors. Not just the entire Techstars team, but the alums from previous batches and mentors helped us with introductions and sharing the knowledge of what worked for them. It's always faster to learn from others' experiences and apply to your own journey. 

Anyone you want to give a special shoutout? 

Chris DeVore, Aviel Ginzburg and all our mentors during the Techstars program. Our entire team in India who stepped up to take more responsibilities as I (alongside Toshish Jawale, my co-founder) went through our first fundraise process. We are so excited to unfold the next phase.

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What is a Seed round?

Here's an overview from Investopedia's Series A, B, C Funding: How It Works...

Seed funding is the first official equity funding stage* and typically represents the first money that a business raises. Some companies never extend beyond Seed funding into Series A rounds or beyond.

You can think of the "seed" funding as part of an analogy for planting a tree. This early financial support is ideally the "seed" which will help to grow the business. Given enough revenue and a successful business strategy, as well as the perseverance and dedication of the founders and investors, the company will hopefully grow into a "tree."

Seed funding helps a company to finance its first steps, including things like:

• Market research and product development to dial in product-market fit

• Hiring a founding team, or expanding the team  

*I'm seeing more Pre-Seed rounds pop up on Crunchbase (there are two listed below in this week's update). Funding for a Pre-Seed business normally comes from the 3F’s (Friends, Family and Fans). The amount of money is usually small (under $1 million) because the business is still in the idea or conceptual stage. That said, both of this weeks's Pre-Seeds are $1 million and above (Airspace Link, $1 million; Kensho, $1.3 million). 

Investors, I'd love your insight on the Pre-Seed trend. Contact me.

Updated Female Founder Spreadsheet

This is Flo Freely, the code name for the new and improved Underwire Female Founder Funding Update. Access the full spreadsheet here.

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Crazy, sexy, cool data

Mama's been giving her spreadsheet some TLC.

I spent the past two weeks revamping the Underwire Female Founder Fundings Update. Yeah, the name's a mouthful. But that bitch is SEO'd up. Just between you and me, I call it Flo Freely in honor of Margaret Jane Swendsen's alter ego, and the hope that one day funding will flow freely and equally to womankind.

I never thought I'd enjoy working a spreadsheet so much. Pffftt, yes, Sarah Bryar, I really just said that.

So what's up with Flo?

You can now access year-to-date funding and exit details for U.S. headquartered companies with at least one female, non-binary, bigender, gender fluid, gender-nonconforming, or transgender female founder.

For ease of weekly reporting, I made an executive decision to focus on:

• Crunchbase as my primary data source; Crunchbase gets its data from AI and machine learning, a venture network program, investor and founder contributors, third-party partnerships and in-house data analysts

• Additions from Fortune Term Sheet, as well as investor and founder word of mouth for deals that don't show up on Crunchbase (happens very rarely)

• U.S. only companies (for now)

• Filings for Pre-Seed, Seed, all Series rounds, Venture - Series Unknown, Angel, Private Equity, Debt Financing, Convertible Note, Crowdfunding, and Initial Coin Offerings.

At the bottom of each future newsletter I'll cover filings reported from Friday to Friday of the previous week. Details will include:

• Company name and industry

• Founder(s) name and title

• Last funding round and type of deal

• Number of funding rounds total

• Top 5 investors

• Links to their website and Crunchbase profile

• Notable insights about a founder, investor, or category.

Finally, one big change to save my sanity: the weekly summary will only be available in the newsletter. The easiest way to stay current on female fundings is to subscribe to the Underwire newsletter (it’s an irreverent doozy).

Click here to see the full year-to-date Underwire Female Founder Update.

Tips encouraged

Contact Underwire if you’re a founder or investor with a funding tip to share. In addition to inclusion in the YTD update, I’ll feature your company info in an upcoming newsletter.

Summer Female Founder Funding Update

Welcome to Underwire’s female founder funding update. We track this information to combat the negativity around women-led venture funding (yes, it still hovers around 3%). We know that it can feel self-defeating to read about companies getting funded when you’re not. Still, this is important to track. This page is proof that women are building and scaling incredible companies. Dream big, dammit!

We cover mostly venture capital updates and exits. We source our updates from Fortune’s Term Sheet newsletter (edited by Polina Marinova), Crunchbase, GeekWire and tips from local investors and founders.

Here is the Underwire Funding Update spreadsheet with a year to date (to the best of our knowledge) summary of fundings, including founder names and titles, industry, investors and diversity info. This is a labor of love from a person that dislikes spreadsheets, so be nice. Better yet, contact us if you have info to share or want to make improvements.

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Funding

Genneve, $4 million, Seed, Jill Angelo, Founder & CEO
Seattle-based digital health platform for women in midlife. BlueRun Ventures led the round, joined by StartupHealth and Maven. (Website, Crunchbase)

Herbivore Botanicals, $15 million, Series A, Julia Willis, Co-Founder, Co-CEO and CCO
Seattle-based clean beauty brand. Silas Capital led the round, joined by Stage 1. (Website, Crunchbase)

Figure8, $40 million, Series A, Maryellis Bunn, Co-Founder
New York-based brand marketing firm and creator of the Museum of Ice Cream. Lead investors include Elizabeth Street Ventures and Maywic Select Investments, joined by OCV Partners. (Website, Crunchbase)

Hipcamp, $45 million, Series B, Alyssa Ravasio, Founder and CEO
San Francisco-based outdoor recreation content platform. Round led by Andreesen Horowitz, joined by Jay Z (Marcy Venture Partners) and Will Smith (Dreamers Fund). (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Welcome to Underwire’s weekly female founder funding update. We track this information to combat the negativity around women-led venture funding (yes, it still hovers around 3%). We know that it can feel self-defeating to read about companies getting funded when you’re not. Still, this is important to track. This page is proof that women are building and scaling incredible companies. Dream big, dammit!

We cover mostly venture capital updates and exits. We source our updates from Fortune’s Term Sheet newsletter (edited by Polina Marinova), Crunchbase and GeekWire.

Here is the Underwire Funding Update spreadsheet with a year to date (to the best of our knowledge) summary of fundings, including founder names and titles, industry, investors and diversity info. This is a labor of love from a person that dislikes spreadsheets, so be nice. Better yet, contact us if you have info to share or want to make improvements.

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Funding

Anomalie, $13.6 million, Series A, Leslie Voorhees, Co-Founder & CEO
San Francisco-based custom wedding gown company. Goodwater Capital led the round, joined by investors including Signia, SoGal Ventures, Lerer Hippeau’s BN Capital Fund, and Fin’s Sam Lessin. (Website, Crunchbase)

Chief, $22 million, Series A, Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan, Co-Founder and CEO and Co-Founder, respectively
New York-based private network of women. General Catalyst and Inspired Capital co-led the round. (Website, Crunchbase)

DotLab, $10 million, Series A, Heather Bowerman, Founder and CEO
San Francisco-based personalized medicine company for women’s health. CooperSurgical led the round, joined by investors including Tiger Global Management and Luxor Capital Group. (Website, Crunchbase)

Genome Medical, $23 million, Series B, Lisa Alderson, Co-Founder and CEO
Monterey-CA network of genomics services experts using telemedicine to integrate genomic insights into everyday health care. The latest financing was led by Echo Health Ventures, a collaboration between Cambia Health Solutions and Mosaic Health Solutions. Other backers included LRVHealth, Casdin Capital, Perceptive Advisors, Manatt Venture Fund and Dreamers Fund. Thanks for Kristine Ashcraft, CEO of YouScript for the tip.(Website, Crunchbase)

Homeroom, $3.5 million, Seed, Casandra Espinoza Stewart, Co-founder & CEO
San Francisco-based platform for after-school enrichment programs. Forerunner Ventures led the round, joined by Felicis, Precursor, and Kapor Capital. (Website, Crunchbase)

Miss Grass, $4 million, Seed, Kate Miller, Co-founder and CEO
Venice, Calif.-based cannabis brand with a content and e-commerce platform. Investors include Listen Ventures, Casa Verde Capital, Advancit Capital , firstminute capital, Third Kind Venture Capital, and Muse Capital’s Assia Grazioli-Venier and Rachel Springate. (Website, no Crunchbase listing)

Remedy, $10 million, Series A, Christina Gabrysch, Co-Founder
Austin, Texas-based provider of healthcare services. Sante Ventures led the round. (Website, Crunchbase)

Exit

SheWorx, Undisclosed, acquired by Republic, Lisa Wang, Founder
New York-based platform and event series for female entrepreneurs. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. (Website, Crunchbase, article on Republic’s blog)

New Fund

Vice Ventures, $25M fund to back sinful sectors, led by founding partner, Catharine Dockery. (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Welcome to Underwire’s weekly female founder funding update. We track this information to combat the negativity around women-led venture funding (yes, it still hovers around 3%). We know that it can feel self-defeating to read about the companies that are getting funded when you’re not. Still, this is important to track. This page is proof that women are building and scaling incredible companies. Dream big, dammit!

We cover mostly venture capital updates and exits. We source our updates from Fortune’s Term Sheet newsletter (edited by Polina Marinova), Crunchbase and GeekWire.

Here is the Underwire Funding Update spreadsheet with a year to date (to the best of our knowledge) summary of fundings, including founder names and titles, industry, investors and diversity info. This is a labor of love from a person that dislikes spreadsheets, so be nice. Better yet, contact us if you have info to share or want to make improvements.

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Athena Security, $5.5 million, Seed, Lisa Falzone, CEO & Co-Founder
Austin-based AI security camera startup. Pathfinder led the round. (Website, Crunchbase)

Kango, $3.6 million, Series A, Sara Schaer, Co-Founder & CEO
San Francisco-based ridesharing for kids. National Express led the round. (Website, Crunchbase)

Mixlab, $8.5 million, Seed, Stella Kim, Founder and CXO
New York-based pet pharmacy. Global Founders Capital led the round, joined by Monogram Capital, Brand Foundry, Lakehouse Ventures, Mars Petcare, Joyance Partners, and TQ Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

Needslist, $1 million, Venture, Natasha Freidus, Founder
Philadelphia-based online platform that matches products and services to communities in need. Investors include Amplio Ventures, Marigold Capital, Omidyar Network, Next Wave Impact, Silicon Valley Social Ventures and the Kuo Sharper Fund. (Website, Crunchbase)

Novi, $3 million, Seed, Shannon Mosier, Co-Founder and COO
San Francisco-based company focused on improving financial literacy. Investors include Runa Capital, Lightspeed, Doberman Forward, Freedom Financial Network, M ventures, SGH Capital, Republic.co and Vectr. (Website, Crunchbase)

Part & Parcel, $4 million, Seed, Lauren Haber Jones, CEO and Founder
San Francisco-based community commerce platform for plus-size women, selling apparel and footwear. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, joined by Village Global and Peterson Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

Exit:

TheRealReal, IPO, Julie Wainwright, Founder and CEO
San Francisco-based luxury reseller, plans to raise $270 million in an IPO of 15 million shares priced between $17 to $19. The firm posted revenue of $207.4 million and loss of $75.8 million. The firm is is backed by Perella Weinberg Partners (11% pre-offering), Canaan Partners (13%) and Great Hill Partners (14.7%). It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “REAL.” (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Modern Fertility, $15 million, Series A, Afton Vechery and Carly Leahy, Co-Founders and CEO and Chief Creative Officer
San Francisco-based women’s health company closing the fertility information gap by letting women test key fertility hormones at home. Round led by Forerunner Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

Exit:

Houseparty, terms N/A, Sima Sistani, CEO
San Francisco-based group video chat app acquired by Epic Games, the company that created Fortnite. Financial terms weren’t disclosed. Houseparty raised approximately $70.2 million in venture funding from investors including Sequoia, Greylock, Arena Ventures, Aleph, and Soma Capital. (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Updates

WorldRemit, $175 million, Series D, Catherine Wines, Co-Founder and Executive Director
London-based money transfer service that enables quick money transfers from migrant workers and immigrants living in developed countries back home. LeapFrog Investments, TCV and Accel led the round. (Website, Crunchbase)

Zyper, $6.5 million, Series A, Amber Atherton, CEO & Founder
San Francisco-based marketing platform that connects brands with their superfans to drive engagement, insights and sales. Talis Capital led the round, joined by Forerunner Ventures and Y Combinator. (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

MOD Super Fast Pizza, $160 million, private equity, Ally Svenson, Co-Founder and Director
Bellevue-based fast casual pizza brand. Led by private-equity investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. The investment will continue to fuel MOD’s growth plans and expansion to reach 1000 locations in the next five years. Including this round, MOD has raised $335 million to date. (Website, Crunchbase)

Notable:

“Consumers are leaning in to brands that are more relevant, that are delivering a product and an experience that’s more in keeping with what they’re looking for today, “ said Scott Svenson, CEO.

Svenson also points to the chain’s commitment to social impact as crucial to its success. MOD recruits workers who might otherwise struggle to find employment, including people who were previously incarcerated. Perks such as higher pay, free meals, and a fund that employees can access during emergency situations help build culture and reduce turnover, Svenson says. (Business Insider)

Modsy, $37 million, Series C, Shanna Tellerman, Co-Founder and CEO
San Francisco-based ecommerce company that creates 3D renderings of customized rooms and allows customers to purchases recommended products. Round led by TCV, bringing Modsy’s total funding to $71 million. (Website, Crunchbase)

Soda Says, $2.5 million, Seed, Grace Gould, Founder & CEO
London-based online marketplace for lifestyle tech products (go-to-market focus on sex tech). Investors include LocalGlobe. (Website, Crunchbase)

Talkspace, $50 million, Series D, Roni Frank, Co-Founder
New York-based provider of therapy via a subscription-based online platform. Round led by Revolution Growth. The New York company’s model involves connecting users with a network of over 5,000 licensed therapists through a web and mobile platform. (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update: More Unicorns

Away, $100 million, Series D, Steph Korey, Co-Founder & CEO, and Jen Rubio, Co-Founder
New York-based online luggage retailer Away raised $100 million in funding at a $1.4 billion valuation. Wellington Management led the round, and was joined by investors including Baillie Gifford, Lone Pine Capital and Global Founders Capital. Away, which said its 2018 sales totaled $150 million, is planning to use some of the new capital to expand into apparel, wellness and lifestyle accessories. (Website, Crunchbase)

Nextdoor, $123 million, Series F, Sarah Friar, CEO
San-Francisco-based neighborhood social network is now valued at $2 billion. It’s the company’s first round since Friar took over, with the cash set to fund international expansion. Riverwood Capital led the round, joined by investors including Benchmark, Tiger Global Management and Kleiner Perkins. (Website, Crunchbase)

Core, $4 million, Seed, Sarah McDevitt, Founder & CEO
San Francisco-based meditation experience and personalized wellness company. Spero Ventures led the round, joined by investors including Bolt , Corigin Ventures and Stanford-StartX Fund. (Website, Crunchbase)

Hatch, $5 million, Series A, Ariane Goldman, Founder
New York-based lifestyle brand for women before, during and after pregnancy, raised $5 million in Series A funding. Silas Capital led the round, joined by investors including M3 Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Daye, $5.5 million, Seed, Valentina Milanova, Founder & CEO
London-based femtech company. Their first product is a tampon that uses CBD tp help tackle dysmenorrhea, raised $5.5 million in funding. Investors include Khosla Ventures, Index Ventures and Kindred Capital. (Website, Crunchbase)

LunaPBC, $4.6 million, Dawn Barry, President & Co-Founder
La Jolla, Calif.-based provider of a genomics and health data platform. Investors include ARCH Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Illumina Ventures and Osage University Partners. (Website, no Crunchbase listing)

Vice Media, $250 million, Debt Financing, Nancy Dubuc, CEO, Anne Gaviola, Founder
Brooklyn-based a global youth media company, engages in print, event, music, online, television (TV), and feature film business activities in the United States and internationally. Investors include 23 Capital, Soros Fund Management, Fortress Investment Group LLC and Monroe Capital. (Website, Crunchbase)

Techstars Accelerator

One way to take your company to the next level of development is to join a startup accelerator. These organizations, with mentor networks and financial contributions, help young companies leverage initial successes, fine tune business models, and demo their products for potential investors.

If you’re considering an accelerator, here’s a helpful tool for understanding your options:

Seed Accelerator Rankings Project

Also known as SARP, this group is led by researchers from Rice University, the MIT Innovation Initiative Lab for Innovation Science and the University of Richmond. They track quantitative and qualitative factors like startup outcomes and founder interviews with the intent to encourage research about the seed accelerator phenomenon, its effects, and its prospects for the future.

Encouragingly, SARP is led by two women—Yael Hochberg and Susan Cohen.

One of the top accelerators on SARP’s list is Techstars. Samantha Bell from the Techstars Seattle team wrote the article below, and conducted a short Q&A with two female founders in the 2019 Techstars Seattle class— Surbhi Rathore of rammer.ai and M.H. Lines of Automaton.

Read about their Techstars experiences here:

• Surbhi Rathore Q&A

• M.H. Lines Q&A

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Techstars Seattle x Underwire

Comprehensive support. Investor access. Accelerated knowledge. These are the three main reasons why startups choose to exchange 6% equity of their company (issued as common stock) for $20,000 when joining a Techstars accelerator. Upon acceptance, every company is offered a $100,000 convertible note.

To date, out of the 3,315 individuals who have gone through a Techstars Accelerator and self-selected their gender as male or female, 477 of those individuals, or 14%, identified their gender as female.

Though today’s startup ecosystem is predominantly male, research shows that companies with female founders often outperform their male peers. Through its network of hundreds of companies and startup programs worldwide, Techstars hopes to influence this on a large scale.

In 2015, Techstars launched the Techstars Foundation, a non-profit created to improve opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities in tech. So far the foundation has supported 15 non-profit organizations and hundreds of underrepresented entrepreneurs.

Roots of Techstars accelerator programs

Techstars is the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed. Since its founding in Boulder, Colorado in 2006, Techstars has expanded to 150+ countries with 10,000+ mentors in its network. To date, Techstars has invested in 1,700+ companies and has raised nearly $7 billion in funding. With the addition of the Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator, Techstars now has 46 accelerators to consider when applying.

Do more faster: In 3 months

Techstars helps startups do more faster, every day, by surrounding them with people who will mentor, inspire, and challenge them. Within the first month of the three-month accelerator, startups begin growing their network during Mentor Madness week. From these hundreds of interactions, companies select three to five lead mentors who help with product development, market fit, and provide valuable introductions.

In addition to working with their lead mentors, startups work with the Techstars Managing Directors to hit their milestones and gain traction. Over the course of the program, startups will determine their fundraising strategy and prepare to meet with investors, allowing them to accelerate their business.

So what does all this hard work lead to? At the end of the program, companies can show how much progress they made at a culminating demo day. The startups spend the last month of the program crafting and perfecting their five-minute pitch to investors, family and friends to present at this celebration.

Techstars doesn’t stop once the program ends. Companies can leverage the network post program through events and access to a deep well of resources for life.

Want to submit your startup to Techstars?

Application periods vary for Techstars’ different accelerator programs. Information around what programs are accepting applications, and when, can be found on the Techstars website.

After applications close, each program spends about seven weeks getting to know more about the applicants’ ideas, teams, and market progress. The final group of companies accepted into each accelerator is typically notified within eight weeks from the application closing date.

Make sure you pick a program in a location that will give you the best opportunity to build the right network with the right mentors. Who knows - you may end up relocating your company there once the program ends!

For a full list of programs, click here.

For tips from Techstars’ Managing Directors, click here.

Preview application questions here.

Techstars Seattle Accelerator

Techstars launched Techstars Seattle Accelerator in 2010 with ten companies, five of which went on to be acquired. Of the Techstars top 50 companies, six went through the Seattle Accelerator, including Zipline, Outreach, Remitly, Leanplum, Realty Mogul, and Skilljar, with the latter two having women CEOs.

Combined, Techstars Seattle Accelerator alumni have raised nearly $900 million, and now employ thousands of people in the Pacific Northwest and around the world.

The Techstars Seattle Accelerator receives hundreds of applications based on the opportunity to build the right network with the right mentors, and female founders are highly encouraged to apply. There have been 29 founders who identified their gender as female that have come out of Techstars Seattle.

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Mejuri, $23 million, Series B, Noura Sakkijha, Co-Founder & CEO
Toronto-based fine jewelry brand. New Investors include NEA and Imaginary, as well as Felix, BDC, Incite, and Dash Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

Zum, Undisclosed, Follow On to Series C, Ritu Narayan, CEO & Founder
Redwood City-based logistics platform offering child transportation for school districts, raised funding of an undisclosed amount from Citi Ventures. The investment adds to its existing $40 million Series C round. (Website, Crunchbase)

Other Funding Updates

New VC Fund
Serena Williams formed a venture firm called Serena Ventures, which invests in early-stage companies that “embrace diverse leadership, individual empowerment, creativity and opportunity.”

Crunchbase Q1 2019 Diversity Report — Female Founders Receive 17% of Q1 Funding
In Q1 2019, $8.1 billion went to companies with at least one female founder in the first quarter of this year, representing 17% of venture dollars. Of that, 2% was invested in only female founders, and 15% went to companies with male and female co-founders. (Read the report)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Carrot Fertility, $11.5 million, Series A, Tammy Sun, Co-Founder & CEO, Dr. Asima Ahmad, Co-Founder, Medicine, and Juli Insinger, Co-Founder, GrowthSan-Francisco-based provider of fertility health plans to companies. CRV led the round. (Website, Crunchbase)

EverlyWell, $50 million, Series A, Julia Cheek, CEO & Co-Founder
Austin-based digital health platform that provides at-home health tests and lab results. Investors include, Goodwater Capital, Highland Capital Partners, Next Coast Ventures, NextGen Venture Partners, and SoGal Ventures. They also announced a partnership with Target to roll out its tests in more than 1,600 stores. (Website, Crunchbase)

Kids on 45th, $3.3 million, Seed, Elise Worthy, CEO
Seattle-based e-commerce reseller of gently used children’s clothing. Interesting, the company originated as a beloved brick-and-mortar store in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. Two years ago it was purchased by Elise Worthy, who also founded Ada Academy. Investors include YesVC, an early-stage firm co-founded by Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake; Maveron, SoGal Ventures, Sesame Street Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Liquid 2 VC, and Brand Foundry Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

MyVillage, $6 million, Seed, Erica Mackey, CEO & Co-Founder, and Elizabeth Szymanski, Co-Founder and CFO
Bozeman, Montana-based childcare system that works with a community of in-home childcare programs. Investors include Red Sea Ventures, Acumen, Better Ventures, and Kairos. (Website, Crunchbase)

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Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

BentoBox, $16.4 million, Series B, Krystle Mobayeni, Founder & CEO
New York-based service that helps restaurant owners build mobile-friendly websites. Threshold Ventures (formerly DFJ Venture) led the round, joined by Bullpen Capital, Haystack and Female Founders Fund. (Website, Crunchbase)

HiMama, $5.4 million, Series A, Alana Frome, Co-Founder & CTO
Toronto-based early childhood technology startup. Round 13 Capital led the round. (Website, Crunchbase)

ShopBack, $45 million, Series B, Josephine Chow and Lai Shanru, Co-Founders
Singapore-based affiliate marketing startup offering cashback and consumer rewards in Asia Pacific. Rakuten Capital and EV Growth co-led the round. (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Blume, $3.3 million, Seed, Bunny Ghatrora and Taran Ghatrora, Co-Founders and C-Level Execs
Vancouver, B.C.-based female hygiene and wellness subscription box service. Felicis Ventures led the round, joined by investors including Victress Capital. (Website, Crunchbase)

Cora, $7.5 million, Series A1, Molly Hayward, Co-Founder
San Francisco-based women’s wellness brand delivering organic tampons and elegant accessories. Harbinger Ventures led the round. Notably, Cora has 80% female board representation. (Website, Crunchbase)

Elvie, $42 million, Series B, Tania Boler, Co-Founder and CEO
London-based health and lifestyle brand developing technology for women (breast pumps). IPGL CEO Michael Spencer led the round, joined by Octopus Ventures and Impact Ventures UK. (Website, Crunchbase)

NextGen Jane, $9 million, Series A, Ridhi Tariyal, Founder
San Francisco-based women’s health tech startup. Material Impact led the round, joined by Access Industries, Viking Global Investors and Liminal Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

Nutrafol, $35 million, Series B, Dr. Sophia Kogan, Co-founder, Chief Medical Advisor
New York-based health and beauty nutraceutical brand that aims to improve hair growth performance. L Catterton led the round, joined by investors including Unilever Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

Good Dog, $6.7 million, Series Unknown, Lauren McDevitt, Co-Founder, Chief Experience Officer
New York City-based marketplace to allow people to get a dog from a breeder, shelter or rescue. Investors include BoxGroup, Felicis, Slow Ventures, Fuel Capital, BarkBox, and SV Angel. (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Ellevest, $33 million, Series A, Sallie Krawcheck, Co-Founder and CEO

New York-based digital investment platform. Investors include Pivotal Ventures, Valerie Jarrett, Rethink Impact, PSP Growth, PayPal, Mastercard, Google’s Eric Schmidt, GingerBread Capital and Elaine Wynn. (Website, Crunchbase)

Bonus: Ellevest produced an interactive, annotated press release that adds fun color commentary about investors and the team. Might be worth borrowing the tactic to liven up a staid press release.

Tinkergarten, $21 million, Series B, Meghan Fitzgerald, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer

Northampton, MA-based edtech platform offering outdoor learning classes and activities for kids, entire round funded by Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo. (Website, Crunchbase)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Cleo, $27.5 million, Series B, Chitra Akileswaran and Shannon Spanhake, Co-Founders
San Francisco-based supplemental benefits company that partners with enterprises like Uber, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Slack to offer supplemental benefits to working parents. Greylock Partners and Forerunner Ventures led the round. Cleo has an all-female, three-person board. (Website, Crunchbase)

Glossier, $100 million, Series D, Emily Weiss, Founder and CEO 🦄
New York-based direct-to-consumer beauty products retailer. Sequoia Capital led the round, joined by Tiger Global Management, Spark Capital, Forerunner Ventures, Thrive Capital, IVP, and Index Ventures. The financing sets a $1.2 billion valuation. (Website, Crunchbase)

Henry the Dentist, $10 million, Series A, Alexandria Ketcheson, Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer
New Jersey-based mobile dental practice. Forerunner Ventures led the round, joined by Brand Foundry and Trail Mix Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

Maude, $1.5 million, Seed, Eva Goicochea and Dina Epstein, Co-Founders and CEO and CPO, respectively
New York-based sex essentials company, Tune House Capital led the round, joined by RRE, CASSIUS Family, Outbound Ventures, Shrug Capital, and Pico Alto Ventures. (Website, Crunchbase)

Rent the Runway, $125 million, Venture Round, Jennifer Hyman and Jennifer Fleiss, Co-Founders and CEO and Head of Business Development , respectively 🦄
New York-based e-commerce website that rents designer apparel and accessories. Investors included Franklin Templeton Investments, Bain Capital Ventures, and T. Rowe Price. (Website, Crunchbase)

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🦄 Other Female Founded Unicorns 🦄

23andMe — Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs

Nextdoor — Sarah Leary and Madison Bell, Co-Founders and VP of Marketing and Operations and Chief Product Officer

Cloudflare — Michelle Zatlyn, Co-Founder and COO

Credit Karma — Nichole Mustard, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer

Houzz — Adi Tatarko, Co-Founder and CEO

Eventbrite — Julia Hartz, Co-Founder and CEO — IPO’d in September 2018

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Amun, $4 million, Seed, Ophelia Synder, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer
Switzerland-based Amun is a company that wants to make buying crypto as easy as stock. Investors can invest in crypto easily, safely, and in a regulated way on the SIX Swiss Exchange. Round led by BoostVC. (Website)

Fairy Godboss, $10 million Series A, Romy Newman, Georgene Huang, Co-Founders
New York-based, female-focused professional networking platform focused on gender equality. Round funded by Signal Peak Ventures, GSV AcceleraTE. (Website)

Girls Who Code, $3 million, Grant, Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO
New York-based edtech non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology. Through its Summer Immersion Programs and Clubs, Girls Who Code seeks to provide computer science programming for girls in rural areas. Grant round led by Walmart. (Website)

OOVA, $1 million, Seed, Amy Divaraniya, Co-Founder and CEO
New York-based fertility diagnostic company spun out from Mount Sinai Hospital. Special Situations Life Sciences Innovation Fund led the round. (Website)

Serial Box, $4.5 million, Seed, Molly Barton, CEO and Co-Founder
NYC-based provider of serialized entertainment for readers and listeners. Investors include Forerunner Ventures, Boat Rocker Media and Uzabase. (Website)

Weekly Female Founder Funding Update

Crunchbase released an analysis that shows over $8 billion in funding internationally has gone to women-led companies since the start of 2019. 

Here are the biggest deals:

The rundown:

Grab, $1.46 billion, Series H, Tan Hooi Ling, Co-Founder
Singapore-based ride-sharing service. SoftBank Vision Fund led the raise.

Horizon Robotics, $600 million, Series B, Annie Tao, Co-Founder, VP Operations
Beijing-based AI for robots. Investors include Morningside Venture Capital, Hill House Capital, Sequoia Capital, GSR Ventures, Linear Venture, Innovation Works, ZhenFund, Wu Capital, Tsing Capital, and Vertex Ventures.

DaDa, $255 million, Series D, Hui Zhi, Founder and CEO
Shinghai-based online English training institution for one-on-one online tutoring. Investors include Warburg Pincus, TAL Education Group and Yonghua Capital.

Zilingo, $226 million, Series, D, Ankiti Bose, Co-Founder and CEO
Singapore-based online fashion marketplace. Round investors include Temasek Holdings, Sofina, Sequoia Capital India, EDBI, Burda Principal Investments and Angel Capital Management.

Relex Solutions, $200 million, Series Unknown, Joanna Smaros, Founder and Director, Scandinavia
Finnish retail and supply chain system. Led by TCV.

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From that same Crunchbase analysis, Underwire discovered three missed raises by U.S. companies:

Confluent, $125 million, Series D, Neha Narkhede, Co-Founder and CTO
Palo Alto-based streaming platform, backed by Sequoia. (Website)

Andela, $100 million, Series D, Christina Sass, Co-Founder and COO
New York-based distributed engineering teams with Africa’s top software developers, led by Generation Investment Management. (Website)

ImpactAlpha, $100 million, Zuleyma Bebell and Avary Kent, Co-Founders
Berkeley-based, investment news media organization. Led by Equilibrium Capital. (Website)

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Funding update for week of March 11, 2019

KonMari Media, $40 million, Marie Kondo, Founder
Marie Kondo, the author, businesswoman, and personality behind the popular Netflix series “Tidying Up,” is reportedly in talks to raise up to $40 million in venture funding to scale her personal media brand, KonMari Media. Details undisclosed. (Website)

Kuli Kuli, $5 million Series B, Valerie Popelka, Anne Tsuei, Lisa Curtis, Co-Founders
Oakland-based superfood brand. Griffith Foods led the round, joined by eighteen94 capital, InvestEco, S2G Ventures, Authentic Ventures, VilCap Investments and Rocana Venture Partners. (Website)

Luminary Media, $60 million, Series Unknown, Lauren Perkins, Co-Founder, Head of Talent
New York-based podcast subscription service. Notably, they haven’t launched an actual product. Lead investor was New Enterprise Associates. Two male co-founders. (Website)

Max-Bone, Undisclosed, Parisa Fowles-Pazdro, Founder and CEO
Los Angeles and New York-based pet label, raised Series A funding of an undisclosed amount. Colle Capital led the round, joined by investors including Cooley LLP. (Website)

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SheEO 2019 U.S. Finalists

SheEO offers another path to funding for majority woman-owned companies with at least $50,000 in revenue and mission to better humanity.

This year’s U.S. Finalists:

• BioCellection

• Farm From a Box

• Tyga Systems

• S.O.U.L. Sisters

• Solstice

Learn more about SheEO and this year’s global ventures.