Issue #104 – Five Female Founders Raise Over $1.9 Billion in 2024

If you’ve been following along with my previous newsletters, thank you for staying with me! And if you’re new, welcome 😊  feel free to check out the earlier issues –  #102 and #103 —  for some context before jumping into today’s topic.

In this issue, we’re continuing the conversation about the female funding gap. Despite the ongoing disparities in funding, some female founders and CEOs have raised significant amounts in 2024.

These founders have collectively raised over $1.9 billion for their companies spanning industries from biotech to transportation.

Let’s take a closer look:

Molly He, CEO & Co-Founder, Element Bioscience 

💸 Funding: $680M+ (including a $277M Series D in July)

Ritu Narayan, CEO & Founder, Zum

💸 Funding: $400M+ (including $140M Series E in January)

Katherine Kostereva, CEO & Founder, Creatio

💸 Funding: $268M (including $200M in June, valuing the company at $1.2B)

Kristen Fortney

💸 Funding: $294M+ (including $170M Series D in February)

Christina Cacioppo, CEO & Co-Founder, Vanta

💸 Funding: $350M+ (including $150M Series C in July)

What stands out among these founders is their impressive backgrounds and the groundbreaking work they are doing across various industries. 

Which sectors are the most funded, and what is the stage-wise outlook for companies in those sectors? I’ll break it down in next week’s issue!

P.S. – I’m hosting a founders’ breakfast today in London and will share more updates next week!

SiS: Women’s Health London event brought together inspiring conversations with women’s health startups, investors, and partners from around the world. We had the opportunity to share FemTech India’s mission, our growth story, and the evolving trends and opportunities in the Indian women’s health market. 

If you’re working in women’s health and want to understand the Indian market, We have a proven track record of actively assisting founders and entrepreneurs with crucial aspects of market access, regulatory frameworks, pricing strategies, and investor relations. Let’s chat 📧

Health-tech startup Humm Care, now valued at USD 5 million, has raised investment to empower women’s health and family care in India.

• SPRY Therapeutics, an AI-driven practice management platform, has secured $15 million in funding from Flourish Ventures, Together Fund, Fidelity’s Eight Roads, and F-Prime Capital. 
• Tamil Nadu based IVF healthcare provider A4 Hospitals said it has raised growth capital funding from 360 ONE Asset’s healthcare and life sciences-focused private equity fund.
• Dezy, formerly Smiles.ai, has secured an additional $6 million from Alphawave, Chiratae Ventures, and Peak XV’s Surge to expand its clinic network, with a key focus on Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

• Cytovale, a San Francisco, CA-based commercial-stage medical diagnostics company, raised $100M in Series D funding.
• Rivermark Medical, a Milwaukee, WI-based company which specializes in minimally invasive solutions for Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), raised $30M in Series C funding.
• Glooko, Inc., a Palo Alto, CA-based global integrated digital health company connecting patients, providers, biopharma and medical device partners, raised $100m in Series F financing.
• Centaur Labs, a Boston, MA-based company which specializes in health data annotation, raised $16M+ in Series B funding.
• LEVY Health, a San Francisco, CA-based innovator in the field of reproductive health technology, raised $4.5M in funding.
• Arda Therapeutics, a San Francisco, CA-based company which specializes in targeted cell depletion therapies for chronic diseases, raised $43M in Series A funding.
• Babson Diagnostics, an Austin, TX-based science-first healthcare technology company, received a strategic investment from Becton Dickinson and Company.

• Any form of breast cancer treatment appears to speed the aging of the recipient’s cells, a new study finds.
• A simple blood test may help doctors decide the best way to treat a man with advanced prostate cancer. A phase 3 clinical trial has shown that circulating tumor cell (CTC) counts can predict which men are likely to respond to standard treatment and live longest and which might benefit from more aggressive new drug trials.
• Racial and ethnic disparities in screening for hepatitis C among reproductive aged women with opioid use disorder have been identified in a new study.
• A University of Queensland-led study has failed to find any strong links between drinking coffee during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental difficulties in children, but researchers are advising expectant mothers to continue following medical guidelines on caffeine consumption.  
• Hot weather can be more than just uncomfortable and annoying: New research finds it can impact an infant’s development both before and after birth. Babies are more likely to be delivered at low birth weight as an expecting mom’s average daily heat stress increases during the first trimester, researchers found.
• A newly developed soft robotic finger with a sophisticated sense of touch could one day help your doctor perform routine office examinations, a new study suggests. The finger can take a person’s pulse and detect abnormal lumps, researchers reported Oct. 10 in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.
• More than a third of women don’t know they are pregnant in time to meet the six-week abortion ban active in four U.S. states, a new study finds.About 37% of women who got an abortion in 2021 and 2022 discovered they were pregnant at six weeks or later, according to findings from the sexual and reproductive rights think-tank the Guttmacher Institute.
• A new study finds persistent loneliness taking a toll on aging brains and significantly raising a person’s odds for dementia.Research funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health tracked self-reports of loneliness and the neurological health of more than 600,000 people worldwide.
• More than 15.5 million U.S. adults have been diagnosed with ADHD, and nearly three-quarters of those taking medication to treat it say drug shortages are hampering their ability to get help, a new report finds.
• There’s a small but significant increased of certain cancers in people battling multiple sclerosis (MS), new research shows. Those malignancies include cancers of the bladder, brain and cervix, said a team from Rennes University in France.
• A study tracking almost 10,000 9- and 10-year olds for two years finds a link between time spent watching TV and other screens with a higher odds for ADHD and depression.
• Light therapy: It’s long been a go-to therapy for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a kind of depression that can beset some people when winter looms and days shorten. But new research is suggesting that time spent in front of light box might ease other forms of depression as well.
• Colon cancers are increasing among younger Americans, so much so that experts advised in 2021 that colonoscopy screening begin at the age of 45, not 50 as had been previously recommended. Now, research shows the new guideline may have led to a tripling in the use of the gold-standard screen among folks ages 45 to 49.
• The large majority of people with food allergy, and the caregivers of kids with such allergies, say the condition has led to psychological distress, a new study finds. However, only about 1 in every 5 such people have ever been assessed and counseled on their anxieties, the same report also found.

• HummCare, the healthcare startup dedicated to enhancing women’s health, caregiving, and family care has secured a seed funding propelling its valuation to USD 5 Mn.
• PeeSafe in partnership with GoSharpener conducted an awareness workshop on “Puberty and Menstrual Hygiene” at GD Goenka Public School for over 250 students.

• Bayer and MOMA Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing a new generation of precision therapeutics, announced that they have entered into a collaboration, under an option and exclusive license agreement, to develop and commercialize a small molecule oncology programme based on MOMA’s proprietary KNOMATIC platform. Under the agreement, Bayer will be responsible for completing further preclinical, development and commercial activities.
• Epoch Elder Care, India’s trusted name in dementia care services, feels privileged to announce the introduction of the ‘Epoch Dementia Caregiver Training Programme.
• Qinotto, Inc, a central nervous system (CNS) focused biopharmaceutical company discovering novel vehicles to deliver large molecule therapeutics to the brain, announced that it has entered into a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) to discover next-generation antibody-based vehicles for brain transport.
• Akums Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, largest India focused CDMO proudly introduces dual-action heartburn relief chewable tablet, combining famotidine, calcium carbonate, and magnesium hydroxide.
• Aerogen, an Ireland-based global leader in acute-care aerosol drug delivery, and Indian Association of Respiratory Care (IARC) signed a MoU to enhance respiratory therapy education and improve patient care across India.

• The Materiovigilance Programme of India (MvPI), under the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, has released the updated version of the medical devices adverse event reporting form, for the use of manufacturers, importers and distributors of medical devices and healthcare professionals.
• The National Council for Clinical Establishments (NCCE) has recommended to form an expert committee comprising representatives from various stakeholders for the determination of rates as per the provisions under the Clinical Establishments (Central Government) Rules, 2012.
• The Drugs Consultative Committee (DCC) has suggested that the cosmetics industry shall follow the standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) related to the ingredients, as it is not feasible to include the international nomenclature format.

📳 – Quick Reads:

• Think Your Opinion Must Be Right? Science Reveals Why You May Be Wrong
• Hearing Loss Can Raise Risks for Cognitive Decline. A new, large study from France underscores the link between adult hearing loss and dementia.

See you next Friday, friends 👋
Navneet

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