Issue #16 | Wednesday, July 8, 2026
✉️ Letter from the Editor
I am so proud to be delivering the 16th issue of WINS LIST to you today.
Our subscriber base is buzzing with venture-backed women founders and VCs joining daily. If that wasn’t exciting enough, our list of vetted women founders and VCs has surpassed 1000 records. As someone who has spent the past decade (plus) building a business, the momentum feels fantastic.
Building content of value is hard. Getting people to care about it is harder.
Thank you for being here.
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Now, onto this week’s digest… Scroll away!
💸 $396.9M in disclosed startup funding went to 10 companies with one or more female founder this week.
The largest raise was 🥇 Airwallex (Lucy Yueting Liu) with a $320M Series H to expand its global payments and financial platform for businesses.
4 women-led fund announcements were made this week, representing more than $174.6M in venture capital.
The largest fund is led by Climentum Capital (Doerte Hirschberg) with a €60M first close for its second climate technology fund investing in early-stage European startups.
This week, in 🏆 Athletes on the Cap Table, athlete-backed capital accelerated across sports and consumer brands, highlighted by the Premier Lacrosse League's $100M Series E, Pau Gasol's €55M investment in Liga F, Michele Kang's expanded global football portfolio, and strategic backing from athletes including Carolyn Tisch Blodgett, Allyson Felix, Sara Toussaint, and Novak Djokovic.
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].
Thank you for being a valued subscriber of WINS LIST.
Amie
Connect with me on LinkedIn | Read my Startup column for Inc.
Amie Sheridan | Editor, WINS LIST
📶 Capital Signal
The biggest stories around women and capital this week
📈 Founder Raises
Tier 1 — Mega Rounds ($100M+)
Airwallex (Lucy Yueting Liu) raised $320M Series H to expand its global payments and financial platform for businesses.
Tier 2 — Growth Rounds ($25M–$99M)
Tissium (Maria Pereira) secured a €60M financing package (Series D2 + European Investment Bank facility) to advance programmable biomorphic polymers for tissue reconstruction.
Tier 3 — Early Stage (<$25M)
Fusion Bionic (Laura Kunze) raised €5.8M Seed to commercialize bio-inspired laser technology for advanced surface functionalization, led by Stream Capital.
Soource (Silvia Chiarot, Serena Galli) raised €3M Seed to build an AI-powered procurement intelligence platform, led by Vertis.
Xylo (Habs Isabelle Kim) raised £2.8M Pre-Seed to build AI software for local government planning departments.
Digiclean (Charlotte Stigen Låstberg) raised €2.5M Seed to help manufacturers monitor and optimize industrial cleaning processes, co-led by Unconventional Ventures and Almi Invest GreenTech.
Acodyne (Jasmina Pless) raised €2.5M Pre-Seed to develop heavy-payload autonomous eVTOL aircraft, co-led by Gungnir Capital and PSV Hafnium.
Mila (Águeda Trujillo, Kim Aviv) raised $2.5M Pre-Seed to grow its intimate wellness brand, led by Mensch VC.
AIVA (Lucia Mari Sanguino, Paula Rodriguez) raised $1.5M Pre-Seed to build an AI-powered hotel intelligence platform, led by Comma Capital.
Intu Diagnostics (Skaiste Arbaciauskaite) raised €1.1M to develop portable at-home HPV diagnostic technology.
Subatron (Samira Baumann, Alissa Wyss) secured €162K to develop underwater communication technology, backed by Venture Kick.
⚡High Signal Founder: Ada Trujillo | Mila
Adjacent to Forbes covering the announcement of Mila’s $2.5M Pre-Seed round to grow its intimacy wellness brand…
“One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately... maybe it's a hot take, maybe not.
I don't think the brands that win over the next decade will be the ones asking consumers to create completely new habits. I think they'll be the ones that earn a place in the rituals people already have.
Whether it's your morning coffee, your skincare routine, your overnight bag prep, Sunday reset, or winding down before bed - we all have rituals that make us feel like ourselves. The best brands won't interrupt them, they'll become part of them.
That's been one of our biggest principles building Mila. When we're briefing creators, we don't ask them to "sell" our products. We ask them to show their real routines, because that's exactly where we believe intimate wellness belongs.
For me, that's what modern brand building is about. Not creating another thing people have to remember, creating products that become part of the rituals they already love.”
🏦 VC Signals
Climentum Capital (Doerte Hirschberg) secured a €60M first close for its second climate technology fund investing in early-stage European startups.
Magnify Ventures (Joanna Drake, Julie Wroblewski) closed Fund II at $46.6M to invest in startups building technology for the care economy, aging, longevity, and women's health. This fund is backed by Pivotal Ventures (Melinda French Gates.)
Blue Lake VC (Lyubov Guk) launched its debut fund to back early-stage immigrant-led startups in the UK, anchored by the British Business Bank. (Fund size undisclosed.)
Morgan Beller (formerly NFX) announced the launch of a new venture firm with Ashton Kutcher (formerly Sound Ventures) focused on AI infrastructure, energy, and deep technology. The new firm has not yet been announced by name.
💬 Investor Speak: Julie Wroblewski | Magnify Ventures
Adjacent to the launch of her firm’s $46.6M Fund II, which will “back the founders defining the next era of the care economy, aging and longevity, and women's health."
“Two big things happened recently: we closed our next fund at Magnify Ventures, and I welcomed a daughter!
We're thrilled to share this feature from Fortune’s Emma Hinchliffe on the launch of our new fund: bit.ly/4eGkACg
I’m incredibly energized about what’s ahead. We’re at the start of a generational wave — companies building for the care economy, longevity, and women’s health are starting to get the attention they deserve. I couldn't be more excited to back the founders defining these categories — at a moment when AI is changing what's possible.
Having a daughter a few weeks ago has sharpened everything. During 3am feedings, I'm thinking about what's coming — for working parents, for families — when visionary founders build from lived experience and the technology finally catches up.
Endlessly thankful to Joanna Drake for her partnership, to the founders at Alix, Joy Parenting Club, Peak Health, Seven Starling, Quo Labs and beyond for letting us partner with you, and to our LPs for backing this vision.
Our next fund is committed to the idea that care deserves to be built for, not just gotten through. That’s the wave we’re betting on — and the world I want my daughter to grow up in.”
🏆 Athletes on the Cap Table
Athlete-backed capital moves that caught our attention this week
This section is contributed by Christie Lenox.
Premier Lacrosse League raised $100M Series E to accelerate league growth, with participation from Rob McElhenney, Next 3 (Carolyn Tisch Blodgett), and Bolt Ventures.
Liga F, Spain's top-flight women's soccer league, secured a €55M (~$62.7M) strategic investment from Pau Gasol to accelerate the league’s commercialization and growth.
Seat Unique raised £20M (~$27M) growth round led by Nickleby Capital through The Players Fund, whose LPs include Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Allyson Felix, Eniola Aluko, Nikita Parris, Danielle Carter, Laura Kenny, Charley Hull, and Chloe Chong.
Able Made (Suzanne McKenzie) raised $2M Seed for its soccer-inspired fashion brand, backed by North Carolina Courage co-owner Sara Toussaint, Oregon Sports Angels, and other professional athletes.
Eagle Football Group (Michele Kang) acquired 87.8% ownership of Eagle Football Group, expanding her multi-club portfolio to include Olympique Lyonnais' men's team alongside Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, the Washington Spirit, and London City Lionesses.
Bay Collective (Kay Cossington, Jenny Walsh) acquired a majority stake in Sunderland Women, expanding its multi-club ownership portfolio alongside Bay FC. (Transaction value undisclosed.)
The Champion Fund launched a new sports investment fund designed to democratize sports investing with a $500 minimum investment.
General Atlantic appointed Novak Djokovic as a Strategic Advisor to support the firm's global investment strategy and portfolio companies.
📣 ACT QOTW: Suzanne McKenzie | Able Made
They say anything worth having takes time.
They also say never give up.
Turns out, both are true.
What started as a mission to harness the power of sport and lifestyle for good has grown into something much bigger than I ever imagined.
Today, I'm incredibly grateful to finally share that leaders from the world of professional sports, across the U.S. and abroad, have backed our Able Made $2M capital round.
Pro soccer and basketball athletes, team owners, executives, and builders who believe that sports can be more than a game: it can be a platform for impact, responsibility, and connection across cultures and communities.
Thank you to everyone who believed in the vision early.
LFG
🎬 Signing Off
Every week, we track from where and to which women-founded companies capital flows. We also track WHY.
This week's issue reveals three shifts worth watching:
👀 Capital continues flowing toward infrastructure—from payments and climate to manufacturing, healthcare, and AI-enabled enterprise tools.
👀 Specialized venture funds are becoming more thesis-driven, with new capital concentrating around climate technology, the care economy, women's health, and immigrant founders.
👀 Strategic capital is evolving. Athletes, operators, and ecosystem builders are increasingly joining cap tables as long-term partners who bring distribution, credibility, and influence—not simply investment dollars.
Thanks for reading.
See you next week.
— WINS LIST
