Issue #19 | Wednesday, July 29, 2026
💸 Approximately $241M in disclosed startup funding went to 20 companies with one or more verified female founder this week.
The largest raise was 🥇 Genius AI with a $44M Series D at a $1.2B valuation to expand its AI operating system for service businesses.
1 new women-led fund was announced this week, with Tapestry VC launching an $80M Fund III to back repeat founders across Europe and North America.
This week's 🏆 Athletes on the Cap Table reveals that athlete capital is moving further upstream. Big moves came from Crystal Dunn, Lionel Messi's Play Time, Lauren B. Leichtman, Jason Kidd, and WNBA legend Tina Charles.
📝 Take notes:
More than half of this week’s raises were led by all-female founding teams.
The bulk of the funding flowed to women innovating in enterprise AI, climate tech, health tech, advanced materials, and space infrastructure—not consumer products.
The signals in this digest come from a variety of credible sources. If you have a tip, opp, data point, or story you would like to include, please send it to [email protected].
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Amie
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Amie Sheridan | Editor, WINS LIST
📶 Capital Signal
Funding rounds raised by companies with 1 or more women on the founding team
📈 Founder Raises
Tier 2 — Growth Rounds ($25M–$99M)
Genius AI (Danielle Cohen-Shohet, Leah Cohen-Shohet) raised $44M Series D at a $1.2B valuation to expand its AI operating system for service businesses, led by Lux Capital.
Andera (Tinah Hong) raised $37M Series A to automate SOX compliance testing for enterprises, led by Lightspeed.
Tier 3 — Early Stage (<$25M)
Moa Technology (Dr. Virginia Corless) raised £22.2M Series C to develop next-generation crop protection technologies, led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Supernova Invest.
Passionfroot (Jennifer Phan) raised $15M Series A to expand its creator marketplace for B2B brands, led by Insight Partners.
TidalSense (Dr. Ameera Patel) raised £14M to scale its respiratory diagnostics platform, backed by Cross-Border Impact Ventures (Annie Theriault, Donna Parr, Megan Dover), BGF, Airstream Capital, and Foresight Group.
Stealth founder Lisa Sorg raised €12M to build a next-generation wealth management platform, backed by Headline, Atomico, Global Founders Capital, and others.
Organic Traditions (Alexandra "Ally" Mamalider) raised $10.5M Series A from strategic angel investors to expand its superfoods business.
Subra (Sarah Børresen) raised €10M Series A to commercialize superconducting materials for next-generation power grids, backed by Bayern Kapital.
Hint (Martha Stewart, co-founder) raised $10M to build an AI-powered home intelligence platform, backed by Slow Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, and Brian Kelly.
Apaluma (Alicia J. Keyes) raised $5.6M Seed to modernize environmental data management for government agencies, co-led by Crosslink Capital, Kickstart, Haven Ventures, and Overwater Ventures (Kristina Simmons).
ORiS (Anna Mauro) raised €5M Pre-Seed to develop laser-based wireless power transmission for space applications, co-led by Earlybird and Pitchdrive.
imagi (Dora Palfi, Beatrice Ionascu) raised $4.5M Seed to bring AI and computer science education safely into K-12 classrooms, co-led by Brighteye Ventures and Day One Capital.
Cascade (Hannia Zia, Joana Ferreira) raised $3.5M Seed to help architecture, engineering, and construction firms identify and win projects, backed by Andreessen Horowitz Speedrun, Ada Ventures, and others.
Furbnow (Becky Lane) raised £2.5M ($3.3M) Seed to accelerate home energy retrofit services, led by West Midlands Co-Investment Fund.
Estrigenix Therapeutics (Victoria Zellmer) secured the first close of a $2M Seed round to develop non-steroidal estrogen receptor therapies, led by Talents Fund I.
Ponda (Antonia Jara Contreras, Neloufar "Nelly" Taheri) raised £1.8M Seed to develop regenerative textile materials for the fashion industry, led by Faber VC and Counteract.
BZERO Materials (Cristina Martín Poyo) raised €1.5M Seed to commercialize home-compostable high-strength packaging films, backed by Ship2B Ventures and others.
Joey (Sasha Nagarajah) closed more than £1.4M Pre-Seed to expand in-home pediatric health and wellness services, backed by Zinc (Ella Goldner), SyndicateRoom, Innovate UK, and angel investors.
Elle MD (Dr. Jennifer Johnston) raised C$1.1M Pre-Seed to advance its removable non-hormonal contraceptive ring, backed by H Venture Partners (Elizabeth Edwards), Invest Nova Scotia, and others.
Virilitas Labs (Simone Immler) secured more than £700K through Innovate UK's Biomedical Catalyst programme to advance decentralized male fertility diagnostics.
⚡High Signal Founder: Danielle Cohen-Shohet | Genius AI
Adjacent to Genius AI’s $44M Series D, Danielle Cohen-Shohet laid out the numbers behind the raise… in high signal founder fashion.
Over the years, I have spoken to tens of thousands of customers and business owners and I can tell you that every single one of them just dreams of helping people.
Today, we’re sharing that we raised a Series D at a $1.15B valuation to bring AI to the in-person economy so talented professionals can help more people. We are also announcing a new brand, Genius AI, a reflection of the significant ways in which our platform has evolved.
We are now serving 125,000+ businesses. Half of all US ZIP codes. 112M hours of admin work eliminated. Approaching a ~$200M run-rate because nobody dreams of running the back office.
With advancements in AI, our ability to help customers in the $2T annual spend in-person economy do what they love doing is bigger than ever. We are doing that, workflow by workflow, until professionals just show up for what only they can do while the rest just effortlessly runs itself.
Thank you to our incredible customers, amazing Genius AI team and the support of our investors.
🏦 VC Signals
Tapestry VC (Audrey Miller) launched its $80M (£60.5M) Fund III to back repeat founders across Europe and North America.
🏆 Athletes on the Cap Table
Athlete-backed capital moves that caught our attention this week
This section is contributed by Christie Lenox.
Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (Lauren B. Leichtman), co-owner of the San Diego Wave FC, closed its $2B Fund IV to invest across business services, education, and other middle-market sectors.
World Labs (Fei-Fei Li) secured $5B in financing, with participation from Play Time, the venture firm backed by Lionel Messi, underscoring athletes' growing role in frontier AI investing.
Maple Park Partners launched a $200M debut fund, naming Jason Kidd as an Operating Advisor as the firm builds its investment platform.
Tallahassee Reckoning (Dr. Ashlee Fontes), a USL W League club and player development academy, welcomed Crystal Dunn to its ownership group, expanding the trend of active athletes investing directly in women's soccer.
WNBA legend Tina Charles launched 78 Brewing Co., extending her entrepreneurial portfolio beyond professional sports into consumer brands.
Signal behind the ACTion
Crystal Dunn Is Investing Below the Franchise Level
Most athlete ownership deals put a famous name on a professional franchise. Crystal Dunn is investing in the layer beneath it.
In joining the ownership group of TLH Reckoning—a Tallahassee-based all-girls soccer academy founded by Dr. Ashlee Fontes—the World Cup champion and USWNT veteran is backing the infrastructure that develops future players.
This deal is a strong example of athlete-investor alignment: Dunn brings firsthand knowledge of the development system, credibility with players and a real stake in improving the pathway she once traveled herself.
The bigger question is whether more athletes will follow her lead and invest at the base of the women’s sports pyramid, where the next generation of talent is actually being built.
In her own words…
“I am so excited to join the Tallahassee Reckoning ownership group. I’ve always wanted to continue making an impact on the women’s game, and being part of this opportunity is incredibly meaningful to me.
Tallahassee Reckoning is more than a team. It is about creating a better future for female athletes and building systems that genuinely support girls and women at every level of the game. That mission matters, and I am proud to be part of it.
I look forward to helping grow the game, empower the next generation of athletes, and contribute to the incredible vision being built here. Ashlee is building something truly special, and I am thrilled to help bring that vision to life.”
🎬 Signing Off
Every week, we track where capital flows to women-founded companies. We also look for the patterns beneath the headlines.
This week's issue tracks three signals worth watching:
enterprise AI continues attracting the largest checks
women-led founding teams are winning investor conviction across healthcare, climate, infrastructure, and industrial technology, and
athletes are increasingly investing in the systems that power sports—the layers beneath the prominent franchises and organizations… the future of the business.
Thanks for reading.
See you next week.
— WINS LIST
