🕶️ The first femtech unicorn: founded by men

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Six bullets of updates

1. 🖇️ Open-source startup FOSSA acquires developer site StackShare, boosting community collaboration.

2. ✂️ Venture debt funding is rising, paving the way for M&A. Interest rate cuts, disappearing runways and 'hunting lines' point

3. 💰 MIT dropout and youngest self-made billionaire, Alexandr Wang, shares critical AI skills and long-term thinking for a new economy.

4. 🆙 Boost your firm's growth by scaling smartly: hire experienced consultants, invest in sales, and think larger.

5. ✅ Checkly's testing software mimics human interactions to ensure realistic performance, achieving up to 50% faster error detection.

6. 🚸 Heeyo built an AI chatbot to be a billion kids’ interactive tutor and friend with over 2,000 interactive games.

    

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The first femtech unicorn: a male founding story?

Flo Health, a women’s health app, has raised $200 million from General Atlantic, reaching a valuation of over $1 billion. This achievement marks a significant milestone for the femtech industry, which historically lacked innovation and funding. In recent years, there has been a 350% increase in investment in women’s health, reflecting growing interest in the market.

Flo Health primarily tracks menstrual cycles and ovulation, offering features like period tracking, cycle predictions, and personalized health reports. The app also includes educational resources and a community feature for support. With nearly 70 million monthly active users and five million paid subscribers, Flo expects to generate over $200 million in revenue this year.

When the news came out, there was backlash online: “A company founded by men, led by men, and funded by men became the first WOMEN'S health app to achieve unicorn status. Suppose this doesn't show you everything that's wrong with the ecosystem. In that case, I don't know what will,” Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen, cofounder of investment learning app and community for women Female Invest, wrote in a viral LinkedIn post, citing stats on the lack of funding for female founders.

Looking ahead, Flo plans to expand into the perimenopause and menopause space, leveraging its partnership with General Atlantic to drive growth. The company aims to enhance its R&D team in Europe and North America. CEO Dmitry Gurski highlights Flo's role in prioritizing women's health globally. Read more about this topic.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Crash Course in Financial Modeling | August 7 | Webinar

2. SaaStock: Dublin | August 14 | Conference

3. How to close a Funding Round (it’s not just the pitch deck) | August 14 | Webinar

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These companies just raised money

1. 🧑‍⚕️ Wealth tech startup Earned Wealth raised a $200M investment led by Silversmith Capital Partners and Summit Partners.

2. 🔗 Altana, a supply chain management startup, has reached unicorn status. It raised $200M, led by the US Innovative Technology Fund.

3.  💊 Healx, an AI-driven drug discovery startup, raises $47M to tackle rare diseases and starts Phase 2 trials in 2024.

4. 🇬🇧 UK chip incubator startups secure over £10M in funding. The ChipStart scheme aims to boost early-stage chip designers.

5. 🌬️ Axle Energy raises $9M to connect 15,000+ flexible assets, aiming to decarbonize the grid by 2030.

6. 🥗 Peruvian food tech Nutri Co raises $2M to expand into Argentina and Colombia and plans to launch 18 new products in 2024.

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EU funds blockchain startups to battle fake news

The EU has awarded €1.8M to 15 startups to combat online misinformation using blockchain. Part of the NGI TrustChain initiative, these grants aim to build a decentralized, trustworthy internet. With €4.5M already allocated to 43 companies, the focus is on human rights and democratic processes.

Each startup will receive up to €117,000. The 162 applicants were selected from 10 European countries, including the Netherlands, Germany, and France. The startups' solutions span cryptography, data aggregation, and Web3 computing and address misinformation, fake identities, and radicalization. The winners come from 10 countries. Read the list of finalists here. 

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Why is there a fetish for nostalgia tech?