Spanx sale & other female founder news: Oct 2021
This monthly series showcases some of the best news for female founders.
Skim the news below to learn about the latest news, funding, opportunities and thought leadership for female founders.
Blackstone buys majority stake in SPANX, Inc. Blackstone, a leading global investment business, has agreed to buy a majority stake in Spanx at a valuation of $1.2 billion after disrupting the male-dominated shapewear and undergarment industry. After starting Spanx 21 years ago with $5,000 in savings, female founder Sara Blakely will still maintain a significant equity stake in the business. Read the article in Yahoo Finance. Read the full press release.
Rent the Runway, a secondhand fashion site, makes its trading debut. “I’m so proud of this milestone day,” Ms. Hyman, now the company’s chief executive, said in an interview on Wednesday. “We’ve gone from a single dress and a single situation to building a full closet in the cloud that women can access for every occasion.” Read more in the NY Times.
How maternity leave made me a better leader. “Last year, following the birth of my first kid, I went on maternity leave: for 18 weeks, I fully disconnected from my job as the CEO of Front, the company I cofounded 7 years prior….It was still a hard decision to make. I had worked at Front with almost no interruption for 7 years, and had never felt like I could take a long break—say, more than 2 weeks—without repercussions to the business, so the idea of fully disconnecting for more than 4 months was scary.” Read the full article in Fast Company.
Adore Beauty founder Kate Morris makes her TikTok debut with three business tips. Watch the video on LinkedIn.
Kiwi investment platform Sharesies raises NZ$50 million in a series C. “Sharesies was founded in 2017 by Brooke and Leighton Roberts. The fintech has seen its customer numbers double in the last 12 months, with more than 450,000 investors able to buy shares and ETFs with no minimum investment.” Read more in Startup Daily.
How to turn ideas into business reality. Atto’s founder Kate Kendall was featured in NAB’s business news talking about the first steps to build a business. “I see so many founders fail to validate their idea with customers, and focus on product and marketing too early. Some have even spent tens of thousands of dollars building a product without validating the idea.” Read the NAB Business View article here.
8 Women founders answer your questions about starting their own businesses. “Vulnerable stories have a powerful effect on the way we think about ourselves and the world.” Storyo shares stories of women and gender diverse folks in Aotearoa New Zealand to challenge the common narratives of success and representation. Watch the video here.
‘We’ve not progressed’: Male CEOs in more than 96% of ASX-listed finance firms. “More than 96 per cent of the country’s largest financial services firms have a male chief executive, with the private equity and investment banking industries among the worst offenders for gender equality in leadership roles.” Read more in the Sydney Morning Herald here.
The tide is changing in Aussie fintech, as women dominate Finnies Awards 2021. “While acknowledging there is more work to be done, FinTech Australia chief executive Rebecca Schot-Guppy said the results show the industry is making headway in terms of gender diversity." Read the full article and see the winners in Smart Company here.
Ten Australian startups that raised a combined $88 million this week. “Consumer brand Kester Black has successfully completed its equity crowfunding campaign on Birchal, raising $2.1 million from 1687 backers.” Startups Kester Black, Reejig and Perx all have female co-founders and their startups are included on this list of recent funding wins. Read more about recent funding in Smart Company here.
Perspectives on a career in venture capital from five investors from diverse backgrounds. Read specific VC career pathways and insights from Australian women in VC: Jessy Wu, Casey Flint, Hannah Parton-Cyr, and Joanna Ng. In this article, the five of us distil our insights on the paths that led us to VC; the average day of a VC associate; how to prepare for the interview process; and most importantly — the questions that you should ask yourself to figure out whether a career in VC is one that you would enjoy. Read the full article in Smart Company here.
Revealed: The VCs who’ve backed the most female founders. “Venture capitalists are at pains to show their support for female founders — a demographic which has scooped up just 13% of all VC funding in Europe since 2017.” Read the analysis and view the list here.
Read our previous news round-ups for female founders:
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