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.
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)