Holly Cardew’s seed round & other female founder news: Sept 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.
How Carted raised one of Australia's largest Seed rounds. Atto Educator and founder of Pixc and new venture Carted, Holly Cardew raised a record AU$13M seed round. Here Holly shared her process for raising capital. Read the article and watch the interview with Holly.
The Iconic bets on the benefits of fashion resale. “Partnering with circular economy provider Airrobe, customers at The Iconic will be able to register their items for resale as soon as they buy them, using photos and details from the website as well as a suggested price from the retailer.“ Read more in the AFR.
Kate Morris, Justin Ryan in new private equity venture. Atto Educator and founder of Adore Beauty, Kate Morris is extending her impact in investing by co-founding Glow Capital Partners. It’s a private equity company for the next generation of purpose-driven founders in the ecommerce and consumer brand space across AUS and NZ. Read more in the AFR.
The female investors backing female-founded Verve Super in multi-million dollar raise. “It’s a really exciting time to be a female founder, we spoke to a range of investors who told us that they actually prefer to invest in female founders, and we hope through our capital raise that many of our investors will go on to invest in other female-led start-ups as well.” - Christina Hobbs, co-founder of Verve Super. Read more in Women’s Agenda.
Why it’s more profitable to back women-led startups. “One of the things that we do notice is that women often tend to pitch the most realistic version of their plan, whereas men will often pitch the most optimistic version of their plan….We would normally scale back a guy’s forecasts by 50 per cent, and maybe we’ll scale the woman-led business back by 15 per cent.” - Jackie Vullinghs, Principal at AirTree. The article shares more about how women-led startups perform better over time and includes a recommendation from Kirsty Chong of ModiBodi. Read more in the AFR.
Bring Me Home startup to close down. After 4 years of operation, Jane Kou founder of Bring Me Home announced that she had to make the hard decision to close down the startup. The positive impact they’ve had is undeniable: 5.78+ tonnes of food rescued and 10.9+ tonnes of CO2 prevented. In the open letter, Jane outlines the events that led to the difficult decision and showed compassionate and authentic leadership during the transition. Read Jane’s full announcement here.
Canva raises at $40 billion valuation - its founders are pledging away most of their wealth. ”It’s all part of what Perkins has long described as a “two-step plan” for maximum impact: “become one of the most valuable companies in the world, and do the best we can do.” Read more in Forbes.
A career in VC? This is how Sam Wong did it and why funds want to hire more women. “Every venture fund I know wants to hire more women. They're crying out for more women candidates to apply for their roles." Read more in Women’s Agenda.
The $1 billion week: Is this a “coming of age” for the Aussie startup ecosystem? In just one week, Aussie startups raised $1 billion is capital (counting raises that were more than $10 million). Read more in Smart Company.
Tech board releases Female Founder Funding Report FY18-21. “Female founders bring a different perspective and approach from their male counterparts to the opportunities that exist or are created." - Susan Oliver, Chair at the Alice Anderson Fund. Download the report.
Startup Genome Global Startup Ecosystem Report. Melbourne was the second top performing location in the Oceania region. Download the report.
Read our previous news round-ups for female founders:
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