Issue #10 | Wednesday, May 27 2026
$356.9 million USD: The total capital raised by 12 companies with one or more female founder, as reported this week.
The largest raise this week was Nourish — co-founded by Stephanie Liu — which raised a $100 million Series C led by Menlo Ventures to scale its AI-native virtual care platform focused on reversing chronic disease.
Motive Force (Oana Olteanu) launched a new early-stage venture firm focused on Pre-Seed and Seed investments in AI, enterprise software, and robotics startups.
This week, I’m reading the signs around Lexroom’s Series B raise — funding AI tools for lawyers.
💡 Key takeaways from Issue #10…
Categorically, healthcare tech and AI continue to dominate funding storylines.
As it relates to positioning… the word “app” has left the chat. Instead, the words platform and system are the preferred terminology for startups.
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
Amie Sheridan | Editor, WINS LIST
📶 Capital Signal
The biggest stories about women and capital this week
📈 Founder Raises
BlueWind Medical (Kerry Nelson) raised $47.8M in equity and debt financing to develop implantable neuromodulation devices for urinary incontinence.
Count (Laura Cornely) raised £830K Seed to build a digital financial adviser platform.
CVRD Health (Alexa Baggio) raised $5M Seed to modernize health and welfare benefits management for federal contractors led by Upfront Ventures.
Hardline (Karly Heffernan and Alena Tuttle) raised $2M Pre-Seed to build a voice-first platform for the construction industry led by Mucker Capital.
LawX (Dr. Sara Brinkmann) raised €7.5M Seed to automate operational workflows for law firms and notaries led by Motive Partners (Kristy Trieste).
Lexroom (Martina Domenicali) raised $50M Series B to build AI-powered legal research infrastructure led by Left Lane Capital.
Nourish (Stephanie Liu) raised $100M Series C to scale AI-native virtual metabolic health and chronic disease care led by Menlo Ventures.
Oorja Bio (Dr. Janethe Deolina Oliveira Pena and Connie Coulomb) raised $30M Series A to develop therapies for fibrotic and cardiopulmonary diseases from Westlake BioPartners (Beth Seidenberg).
Pivot (Estelle Giuly) raised $40M Series B to build AI-powered procurement management software co-led by Notion Capital and Forestay.
Status AI (Fai Nur) raised $17M across Seed and Series A funding to build a gamified social media platform backed by Abstract, General Catalyst, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, and LightShed Partners.
Unframe (Larissa Schneider) raised $50M Series B to build AI delivery infrastructure for global enterprises led by Highland Europe (Irena Goldenberg).
Vêtir (Kate Davidson Hudson) raised $5.5M Series A to build an AI-powered luxury wardrobe operating system backed by Laidlaw & Company.
🏦 VC Signals
Motive Force (Oana Olteanu) launched a new early-stage venture firm focused on Pre-Seed and Seed investments in AI, enterprise software, and robotics startups.
Adjacent to the launch, Oana reposted Business Insider’s feature story on her with a look into her personal backstory.
Her words…
“Business Insider published the story behind Motive Force today.
The headline is "She became a VC for a green card." That part is true. Scale offered a job and a path to permanent residency. I said yes for the green card.
What it doesn't capture in the headline: no computer growing up in rural Romania. Won a NASA contest at 18, which gave me my first plane ride to the Bay Area. Worked three jobs to put myself through computer science in Germany. Petitioned the government for a waiver to work more hours than the legal student limit.
First room in California was a Craigslist rental. I knew nothing about Bay Area neighborhoods. My landlord was an early Atari engineer. My neighbor was Sergey Brin. I drove a beat-down Kia Rio.
This is the same pattern I look for in founders. Not the credentials. The engine underneath them.”
👀 If I’m Reading the Signs…
Narrative intelligence around venture funding communication
Founder Signal Assessment: Lexroom
Founded in 2023 by Paolo Fois, Martina Domenicali, and Andrea Lonza, Lexroom builds AI tools for lawyers and corporate legal teams operating in civil law jurisdictions. The Milan, Italy-based startup announced their $50M Series B on May 19.
These founders are adept at speaking in numbers and proving their success through traction in a differentiated European legal environment. They have built a tool legal teams are using, and they are pulling the right levers with their positioning.
Here are a few of the signal highlights from their announcement.
Momentum: $50M Series B raised just 8 months after $19M Series A in a competitive category
Capital Velocity: $73M+ total funding raised since the company launched in 2023
Market Adoption: Platform already used by 8,000+ law firms and corporate legal teams
Infrastructure Depth: Proprietary database of 6M+ verified legal sources
Engagement: Two-thirds of users are active daily, while 94% use the platform weekly
All founders shared the news of their Series B on LinkedIn. Paolo Fois went a step further in his post.
“The question everyone is asking now: What happens if Anthropic builds this?
Frontier model companies build the intelligence layer; we build the infrastructure layer for legal work.
In Europe the dynamics are decisive. European legal work runs across 27 different legal systems, each with its own language, codes and jurisprudence — and the European leader in legal AI will be whoever builds the proprietary infrastructure to serve all of them.
This is the bet we made from day one: data-first, not model-first.
My favorite line from the process came from Left Lane's Paddy Dillon, who described us as "an enterprise product with consumer-grade user love."
More than 8,000 law firms and corporate legal teams seem to agree with him.”
🎬 Signing Off
That’s a wrap on issue #10.
WINS LIST tracks the signals shaping women founders and investors.
In today’s ecosystem, visibility matters.
👀 We are seeing founders and VCs leveraging their own channels to amplify their traction.
👀 We are seeing startup storytelling begin six to twelve months before a raise.
👀 We are seeing funding announcements lead to press tours.
👀 We are seeing women founders showcasing credibility, momentum, and demand.
Follow along with us as we unbox investor perspectives and frame out the fundability metrics they evaluate when considering not only where their investments should go, but also which founders to meet.
We do not represent nor are we compensated by any of the businesses we cover.
Thank you for being a valued subscriber.
See you next week.
— WINS LIST
