Issue #21 | Wednesday, August 12, 2026
💰 Approximately $797M in disclosed startup funding went to 15 companies with one or more verified female founder this week.
The largest raise was 🥇 LifeMine Therapeutics, raising $263M across Series D and E funding to develop immunosuppressant therapeutics.
Our ⚡ High Signal Founder is Weiqing Zhou of LifeMine Therapeutics, sharing personal commentary on the company's raise.
Three new women-led funds were announced this week. The largest was 🥇 South Park Commons, which launched its $575M Fund IV to back companies developing frontier technologies.
This week's 🏆 Athletes on the Cap Table highlights Kaitlyn Albertoli's Buzz Solutions raise, Rachel Williams' Rec partnership with USTA Ventures, and capital moves from Derek Jeter and JJ Watt.
📝 Take notes:
Biotech and therapeutics pulled in the largest checks this week, with immunosuppressant and inflammatory-disease drug development alone accounting for more than $370M in disclosed funding.
Early-stage capital kept flowing into AI infrastructure and enterprise tooling, from AI deployment platforms to crowdsourced design benchmarks.
Athlete investors continued diversifying beyond franchise ownership, adding equity stakes, board seats, and brand partnerships across energy, wellness, and consumer categories.
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 Sheridan | Editor, WINS LIST
📶 Capital Signal
Funding rounds raised by companies with 1 or more women on the founding team
📈 Founder Raises
Tier 1 — Mega Rounds ($100M+)
LifeMine Therapeutics (Weiqing Zhou) raised $263M across Series D and E funding to develop immunosuppressant therapeutics, backed by RA Capital Management, GV, GSK, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos.
Volta (Sofia Gumuzio) secured €259.8M in combined Seed and Series A funding to build a vertically integrated AI infrastructure platform, co-led by Azora, Andreessen Horowitz, and Altimeter.
Expedition Therapeutics (Yi Larson) raised $115M Series B to advance oral therapies for inflammatory and respiratory diseases, led by General Atlantic.
Tier 2 — Growth Rounds ($25M–$99M)
Ore Energy (Yaiza Gonzalez Garcia) raised $43M Series A to develop iron-air battery technology for long-duration energy storage, led by Plural and HV.
Tier 3 — Early Stage (<$25M)
Buzz Solutions (Kaitlyn Albertoli) raised $20M Series A to expand its AI-powered visual intelligence platform for electric grid inspection, led by S3 Ventures.
June (Efrat Rapoport) raised $20M Pre-Seed to build an AI deployment platform for enterprises, led by TIME Ventures.
Balance Theory (Lisa Mathias) raised $19M Series A to help companies manage cybersecurity spending, led by SYN Ventures.
DesignArena (Grace Li, Kamryn Ohly) raised $7.9M Seed to build a crowdsourced benchmark for AI-generated design, led by Index Ventures.
Pstryk (Magdalena Górska) raised €7M Series A to help households manage electricity consumption through dynamic pricing, led by Future Energy Ventures.
Vaaree (Garima Luthra) raised $6.6M Series A to expand its home décor and furnishings marketplace, led by Hero Enterprise and Cap Alpha Ventures.
Exclaim Robotics (Helen Oleynikova) raised $4.95M to develop robots that autonomously maintain AI data centers, co-led by Founderful and Playfair.
Meduloc (Sarah Sachinis) raised $4M Series B to develop an orthopedic medical device, led by GenHenn Capital.
Hulp (Neha Kulwal) raised $2.6M Seed to expand its personal assistance and concierge platform, led by Sparrow Capital and Bitkraft Ventures.
Aavalynx (Hanna Roos) raised £1.5M Pre-Seed to build a dispute-resolution legal platform, led by Omega Ventures.
Shiplog (Khushi Mehta) raised approximately $1M Pre-Seed to build an AI-powered customer lifecycle and expansion platform for B2B SaaS companies.
⚡High Signal Founder: Weiqing Zhou | LifeMine Therapeutics
Adjacent to Life Mine Therapeutics’ $263 million raise…
Today marks an important milestone for LifeMine Therapeutics and our mission to transform organ transplantation.
We have raised $263 million, including an oversubscribed $188 million Series E led by Milky Way Investments, to accelerate the development of LIFE-001 and beyond. We are honored to welcome Bezos Expeditions, Gates Frontier and RA Capital Management, alongside the continued support of GV (Google Ventures), LoLa Capital Partners, GSK, Invus and ARCH Venture Partners.
More than 1.6 million people worldwide are living with a transplanted organ. Yet the immunosuppressants they depend on every day have remained largely unchanged for 30 years, despite serious lifelong toxicity.
We are going to change this.
LIFE-001 is a structurally and mechanistically novel calcineurin activation inhibitor with the potential to transform the standard of care. We plan to begin a Phase 2 kidney transplant study and a Phase 1b islet cell transplant study in early 2027.
I am deeply grateful to our investors, physicians, partners and all of our LifeMiners; and to my fellow co-founders, our Chairman, Rick Klausner, and our CEO, Greg Verdine for the audacious vision behind LifeMine, and for the belief and perseverance to bring that vision to life over all these years. Most of all, I am excited for patients and for a future where preventing organ rejection no longer means living with the lifelong burden of drug-related toxicity.
Full announcement: https://lnkd.in/gcXj5zxH
🏦 VC Signals
💸 Fresh Capital—New VC Funds
South Park Commons (Ruchi Sanghvi) launched its $575M Fund IV to back companies developing frontier technologies. The new fund is nearly twice the size of its predecessor and will allow the firm to make larger follow-on investments in its highest-conviction companies.
Revenant VC (Jayni Shah) held a $78M first close of its debut fund focused on venture secondaries.
Cross-Border Impact Ventures (Donna Parr, Annie Thériault) held a $58M first close of its second Women’s and Children’s Health Technology Fund, targeting $125M.
💼 Women-Owned VC Firms Backing Companies
Funding rounds featuring investment from women-led venture firms.
QuantHealth raised $45M Series B to develop AI-powered clinical trial simulation technology. Qumra Capital (Sivan Shamri Dahan) led the round, with Pitango HealthTech, Sanofi Ventures, Artofin Venture Capital Fund, and others participating.
Zenity raised $125M Series C to expand its AI security and governance platform. Norwest led the round, with Qumra Capital (Sivan Shamri Dahan), SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and others participating.
SkinBit raised $6M Pre-Seed to develop a full-body scanner designed for skin cancer screening. Boost VC and Cleo Capital (Sarah Kunst) led participation alongside Manna Ventures, Profluent Capital, and angel investors.
Dash Bio raised $30M Series A to automate laboratory services for pharmaceutical companies. Oak HC/FT (Annie Lamont) led the round, with Freestyle Capital and Swift Ventures also participating.
🏆 Athletes on the Cap Table
Athlete-backed capital moves that caught our attention this week
This section is contributed by Christie Lenox.
Buzz Solutions (Kaitlyn Albertoli), a former elite competitive swimmer), a Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of AI software designed for energy infrastructure, raised $20 million in Series A funding. 3 Ventures led the round and was joined by GoPoint Ventures and existing investors.
Axum Capital Partners (Muhsin Muhammad) acquired a controlling stake in hydration beverage maker BARCODE (Kyle Kuzma) Financial Terms were not released, but BARCODE had previously raised money at a reported $15 million in 2023. Chelsea Gray, Victor Wembanyama, Derrick Rose, and Carmelo Anthony are among the company's athlete investors.
Rec (Rachel Williams) received an undisclosed investment from USTA Ventures. Rec has raised over $20 million in total funding since its founding in 2022, and includes notable athlete investors Kevin Durant & Rich Kleiman (35V), Joe Montana (Liquid 2 Ventures), Larry Fitzgerald Jr., Kelvin Beachum Jr., and Marquee Ventures (Chicago Cubs ownership).
ALUM, added Derek Jeter in a combined role as an equity investor, board advisor, and brand ambassador. His equity stake and board seat give him direct governance and ownership alignment with the company’s long-term growth. Financial details are undisclosed.
Mo Bamba Collects (Mo Bamba), is opening a trading card shop in Austin.
Base Power, a Texas-based energy company added JJ Watt as an investor as part of Base's $1 billion Series D.
In her own words…
Rachel Williams on USTA Ventures’ investment in Rec…
Today we get to share that (USTA) United States Tennis Association is part of the Rec Technologies team.
From the beginning, we've been deliberate about who we build Rec with. Every investor at our table is deeply convicted by our vision: that everyone, in every neighborhood, deserves an easy way to get outside and play.
Sometimes the alignment feels almost serendipitous. The USTA wants 35M Americans playing tennis by 2035. Somewhere along the line, tech became the biggest obstacle between people and play. In tennis, it's hard to find a court and even harder to book one. We're building to clear that long-standing blocker.
Public courts are where 40% of tennis players played last year. We know from experience that these courts are where the game actually starts and grows. And they are exactly where Rec shines, making it effortless to find a court, connect with a coach, book that lesson or simply get outside close to home; and for the partners we work with every day, to keep those courts full of happy players.
Having USTA Ventures behind us validates this work. It's been a pleasure getting to work with Michael Hughes, Bill McGugin, Alessandra Allen, Tara Fitzpatrick-Navarro to make this happen.
And special thanks to Rob Schaefer at Sports Business Journal for telling our story 🎾 https://lnkd.in/ggwhw4wt
🎬 Signing Off
Every week, we track the capital flowing to and from women-founded companies.
This week's signals point to three trends worth watching:
Biotech is commanding mega-round attention, with immunosuppressant and respiratory therapeutics leading the largest raises.
Fresh capital keeps forming, from frontier-tech generalist funds to women's health-focused vehicles.
Athlete capital is diversifying, moving beyond franchises into energy, wellness, and cap-table stakes.
Thanks for reading.
See you next week.
— WINS LIST
