Female Foundry Week 136: Decisions and momentum. All eyes on B2B AI. Fundraising Roundup: September.
Welcome to The Week 136, 2024 Edition of the Female Foundry newsletter!
Female Foundry - the Future of Venture is Here.
In the news
French Pathway, co-founded by Zuzanna Stamirowska and Claire Nouet lands a $10m Series A round led by TQ Ventures for its real-time data AI systems platform; Also French startup Otrera Energy, co-founded by Nicole Fortunet, bags a €2.5m Seed round from Exergon, Invest For The Future and others to address energy demands by developing modular nuclear reactors; Spanish biotech Orikine Bio, co-founded by Ariadna Montero-Blay picks up a €800k Pre-Seed round from CPP23 innovation health research program to advance treatments for autoimmune diseases; German food tech Planet A Foods, co-founded by Dr. Sara Marquart, secures a $30m Series B round co-led by Burda Principal Investments and Zintinus for its cocoa-free chocolate alternative; French biotech Orakl Oncology, co-founded by Fanny Jaulin and Diane-Laure Pagès, raises a €11m Seed round led by Singular to launch AI-powered drug development products; Cambridge-based 52North, co-founded by Umaima Malik Ahmad, secures a €5.7m investment round co-led by KHP Ventures and Cedars-Sinai Intellectual Property Co to advance cancer-focused technologies; UK-based family office fund FIGR Ventures, co-founded by Fiona Humphries and Ellie Craig, launches a family office fund to invest in early-stage businesses with the potential to drive positive environmental and social change in consumer behaviour.
Fundraising
Decisions and momentum.
Momentum is the magnet for investors, partners and clients. Yet, I still meet founders who linger for far too long on taking simple decisions! Waiting for ‘perfect decisions’ is a momentum killer. I get it, choosing the right hire or determining the next product feature, all at once, can be paralysing. But waiting can be even more detrimental. Reid Hoffman once said, ‘If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.’ The same principle applies to decision-making. Why?
Decisions create clarity. Indecision breeds confusion within a founding team. As a founder, your ability to make decisions sets the tone for your company’s culture. Mistakes are opportunities for learning. When you make a decision and it doesn’t work out, you’re presented with invaluable data. Why didn’t it work? What can be improved? The faster you fail, the faster you can course-correct and improve. Perfection is the enemy of progress. It’s tempting to wait for the ‘perfect’ answer. In reality, startups thrive on iterative progress, not unattainable ideals.
Okay. So where should you go from here. Communicate Vision: Regularly remind your team of the bigger picture to keep them engaged. Focus on Execution: Make a decision at the point you think you have obtained 70% of information you need - Waiting for more data will likely lead to diminishing returns and lost momentum. Monitor Progress: Use metrics to track achievements and identify areas for improvement. Adapt Quickly: Learn from setbacks and pivot when necessary to maintain forward motion.
Think of decision-making as steering a bicycle. It’s hard to stay upright and turn while stationary, but once you’re moving, even the wrong turn can be corrected quickly!
Analysis
All eyes on B2B AI.
Are you looking to build a B2C AI startup? You may want to think again. Unlike during the past tech booms when companies like Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb stole the spotlight, this time AI funding seems solely focused on enterprise startups, the latest data shows.
For context, this year alone, B2B AI startups pulled in $16.4bn - for comparison, B2C startups managed to raise only $7.8bn. When looking at the genAI startups, the contrast is even starker: B2C funding is just 6.4% (!) of B2B's total for 2024.
So, is B2C out of the game? Not so fast! As reported, the consumer AI market is projected to double the size of the enterprise market by 2032, riding on the second AI funding wave.
Community
Community Fundraising Roundup: November
November was truly a blockbuster month for female founders from the Female Foundry community in Europe, who raised a whooping €1.02bn in funding in November. The total reflects 1/6th of the total funding that went to female-founded startup last year! Health, AI and Sustainability and fintech-focused companies attracted the most capital. Congratulations to all founders!
Prize Drop: Female Innovation Index 2025
This is the final prize drop for everyone who took part in the Female Innovation Index 2025 Survey. The winners of the news and data subscriptions are: Maria (at5YgZ), Kim (d2yA0I), Marc (FdzXLf), Letitia (QhV5sr), Jon (aQKVju). View the draw here.
*The survey takes only 3 minutes, but your voice will speak volumes when we publish the report in early March.
Hiring
This week hiring:
Fit Collective (Visionaries Cohort II) ➯ Lead Engineer | Spyke Games ➯ Illustrator | Sirius ➯ Quality Assurance Engineer.
Events This Week
Tuesday, December 10, Milan ➯ Unruly Milan Breakfast, Berlin ➯ Berlin AI Meetup, ➯ Co-Founder Matching Night | Wednesday, December 12, London ➯ Disruptive Tech London | Thursday, December 11, Amsterdam ➯ VC Rising Stars Drinks, Berlin ➯ AI Hack Night.
That’s all for today. Have a great Sunday!
Agata
Written by Agata Leliwa Nowicka, an investor, a startup adviser, a two-time entrepreneur, and a founder of Female Foundry based in London.
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