Updated Female Founder Spreadsheet
The YTD public spreadsheet is new and improved with data pulled from Crunchbase, Fortune Term Sheet and readers like you. Do play along and keep us posted on announcements.
This is Flo Freely, the code name for the new and improved Underwire Female Founder Funding Update. Access the full spreadsheet here.
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
I’ll be updating this page over the coming week to reflect all investments for the past 7 weeks. Meanwhile, Series A raises for Figure8 and Herbivore Botanicals. Series B for Hipcamp. Seed round for Genneve.
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.
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
Seven fundings, one exit and a new fund. Series A raises for Remedy, DotLab, Chief and Anomalie. Series B for Genome Medical. Seed rounds for Homeroom and Miss Grass. SheWorx gets acquired. And Vice Ventures raises a fund for sinful companies.
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)
Weekly Female Founder Funding Update
Five seed rounds and one Series A this week for Athena Security, Kango, Mixlab, Needslist, Novi, and Part & Parcel. Plus The RealReal files for IPO.
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.
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
A first-time foray into femtech for Forerunner, and a big exit for a female-led tech company with a service fueling Fortnite’s dominance. Alliteration!
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
Two women make inroads into traditionally male based industries—global money transfers and marketing SaaS.
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: More Unicorns
Away and Nextdoor join the unicornsphere, hauling in a combined $223 million. Plus two more raises in health and wellness and women’s lifestyle brands.
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
The investments flow into two health and wellness companies, a childcare platform and a beloved Seattle brick-and-mortar children’s clothing reseller going online.
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)
Weekly Female Founder Funding Update
Three tech startups helmed by women, all focused on infrastructure. BentoBox and Shopback support e-commerce, and HiMama simplifies life for day-care providers.
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
Four of the six companies raising venture capital this past week were femtech. Two of those, Blume and Cora, are subscription tampon-and-pad deliver services. Are the dudes finally seeing that there’s money in menstruation?
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 and Tinkergarten raise Series A and B rounds. Read the star-studded, gender-diverse investor list behind both entities.
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
We raised $22.5 million last week in the crypto, job services, coding, health/wellness and media/entertainment industries.
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
The $105 million raised from March 4-11, and the other $325 million we missed since the start of 2019.
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.
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)
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)
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.
February Ifs
Monthly must-reads, six cos. raise $163 million and three female-CEO exits
Illustrations by Blair Breitenstein / @blairz.
Hearts & Millions
I love this issue of the Ifs. Here’s why: Seven heart-centered must-reads, six fundings with over $163 million raised, and three exits (two at $100 million each). ❣️💪🏽💸
If flab has landed
Take this 3-question quiz to get your ass back. This is from Richa's article on how to grow without VC and a classic example of Frontend Bait in a customer-loving Value Ladder.
If objectivity eludes you
This is why thinking of your business as your baby could be stalling growth. Informed by Finnish research that confirms the emotional connection to your business mirrors your emotional connection to a child.
If buying chocolate and roses feels shallow
Go deep this Valentine's day. Buy nothing, reinvest in the relationship and finish what you started. Raptitude did this for a year and one million people read about it.
That orange blob is a chicken wing. Delivered by a drone. There’s a model for that, mockumentaried in the Crunchbase series "A Startup Takes Flight.”
If confused by funding lingo
In the five-part series, "A Startup Takes Flight," Crunchbase skewers the Valley’s lust for the next-big-thing while mockumenting a fictitious company’s growth from unpriced Seed round to acquisition. Along the way, you get clear examples of the legal and insider terminology used in deal-making (cap tables, deal terms, valuations, etc.), and more importantly, the mechanisms that VCs use to protect themselves in the deal. You know what happens when they know more than you. No excuses, ladyballers.
If Snapchat's in your mix
Here’s what it takes to put together world-class social content. A short-read overview of Vogue International's three Snapchat Discover channels, team resources required, and why they love Gen Z.
Bianca Valenti surfing the big waves at Maverick’s in December 2018. Photo by Dina Litovsky/Redux, for The New York Times.
If in need of a Fuck Yeah!
Read this outstanding article on the push for gender equality in big wave surfing. Read it for the lesson on how to harness coalitions and small government, such as land-use commissions, to demand change. Read it for the love of great writing. Read it for the role models, as per usual, a group of supremely talented women outworking and outwitting men for the right to compete and get paid equally. The best article of the year (so far).
If your teen has lusty Qs
Planned Parenthood's Roo chatbot answers with honesty, sensitivity and humor. Props for the gender inclusivity. This is an ingenious use of tech to reach Gen Z, their next gen of supporters.
Funding
Remarkably, $800,000 Seed, Erina Malarkey, CEO and Co-Founder; Anna-Lea Dieringer, Chief Product Officer
Seattle-based marketing analytics software for the real-estate industry. Round led by Pioneer Square Labs Ventures with angel investors in real estate and technology. Remarkably is the first all-women-led company to spin out of Pioneer Square Labs. (Via PSBJ)
PartySlate, $3 million Seed, Julie Roth Novack, CEO and Co-Founder
Chicago-based PartySlate is a digital platform designed for event professionals. Led by Hyde Park Venture Partners; other investors include Purple Arch Ventures, Hyde Park Angels, and InvestHER Ventures.
Ritual, $25 million Series B, Katerina Schneider, CEO and Founder
Los Angeles-based Ritual is a direct-to-consumer vitamin company. Previous investors Founders Fund, Norwest Venture Partners and Forerunner Ventures participated. Three-quarters of Ritual's board members are women and 60 percent of its 47 full-time employees are female.
Billie, $25 million Series A, Georgina Gooley, Co-Founder
Brooklyn-based wellness company Billie sells direct-to-consumer shaving supplies and body products for women. Round led by Goldman Sachs’ Private Capital Investing Group. Silverton Partners, Female Founders Fund, and Lakehouse Ventures also participated in the round. (Fortune)
Cuyana, $30 million, Series C, Karla Gallardo, CEO and Co-Founder; Shilpa Shah, Co-Founder
San Francisco-based direct-to-consumer fashion brand focused on responsibly sourced, high-end apparel and accessories. Cuyana was profitable in 2018. Backed by private equity firm H.I.G. Capital. (Business of Fashion)
FabFitFun, $80 million Series A, Katie Echevarria Rosen Kitchens, Co-founder, Editor in Chief
Los Angeles-based subscription-box service for beauty and wellness products. Led by Kleiner Perkins. FabFitFun financing follows a period of hockey-stick growth for the nine-year-old company, which topped $200 million in revenue last year.
Exits
Killer Infographics, acquired by Lieberman Research Worldwide, amount undisclosed, Amy Balliett, CEO and Founder
Seattle-based visual communication company known for stylized infographics and videos. Notably, they designed their own confidential information memorandum — CIM — for potential partners, instead of letting a brokerage firm do the work.
Read GeekWire's insightful Q&A with Amy with practical advice about bootstrapping. Hire a bookkeeper, have money in the bank before you start the company, network with the men, and this....
“For the first five years of this company, I tried to avoid conflict. I often would put emotions of other people above business needs. But then I started letting the needs of the business drive all decisions over my own emotions. I do think that’s something women aren’t taught to do or expected to do. Women are often vilified when they do that. But the fact is, when you have 25 families that rely on you for their source of income, you need to let the needs of the business drive decisions over emotion.
Ultimately, I had to learn to stop apologizing and I really had to learn to stop justifying the same decisions I’d make that a man would make. Women often have to justify logical decisions and emotionless decisions and it makes it pretty hard if you’re running a business. Women have to earn it far more.”
More exits
L., acquired by P&G for ~$100 million, Talia Frankel, Founder
San Francisco-based L. is a retailer of period products and prophylactics. Founder Talia Frenkel was a photojournalist before she started L. through Y Combinator.
Why this acquisition is important: According to TechCrunch, “For investors with knowledge of the company, the P&G acquisition is a harbinger of things to come. The combination of a non-technical, female founder operating in the consumer-packaged goods market with a mission-driven company was an anomaly in the Silicon Valley of four years ago, but Frenkel’s success shows what kind of opportunities exist in the market…’With this acquisition investors need to update their patterns,’ said one investor with knowledge of the company.” (TechCrunch)
To that end...
The Laundress, acquired by Unilever for $100 million, Gwen Whiting and Lindsey Boyd, Co-Founders
NYC-based The Laundress is a luxury eco-friendly home-cleaning products startup. The founders never took venture capital money and sell 85 products, from specialized detergents to dish soap. (Fast Company)