Female Foundry Week 147: Intelligence on Tap. Vibe coding etc. Family offices eye AI investments. Inspiring Fifty.

Welcome to The Week 147, 2024 Edition of the Female Foundry newsletter!

Mar 30, 2025

From left: Anna Müller, Michelle He, Marie Bedu and Klaudia Szklarczyk-Smolana.

Female Foundry - the Future of Venture is Here.

In the news

London-based Abound, co-founded by Michelle He, lands €300m financing for consumer loans from Deutsche Bank for its AI-led lending platform; German Differential Bio, co-founded by Dong Zhao picks up a €2m round led by Ananda Impact Ventures and ReGen Ventures for its sustainable bio-manufacturing solution; Finnish startup Bought, co-founded by Anna Müller, picks up a $1.5m led by Lifeline Ventures to expand its AI-powered secondhand marketplace; Polish startup Intelliseq, co-founded by Klaudia Szklarczyk-Smolana, bags a €4.5m round led by VinciHitech to expand its AI-powered genomics platform to the US; French WealthTech startup RockFi, co-founded by Marie Bedu, lands a €18m round led by Partech to revolutionise private wealth management.

Spotlight

Intelligence on Tap.

Elon Musk’s xAI has officially acquired X in an all-stock deal that values the social media platform at $33bn—not bad for a startup that’s barely two years old (now worth $80bn!). Musk is no stranger to merging his companies; in 2016, Tesla acquired SolarCity for $2.6bn.

With xAI and X now under one roof, Musk is looking to enhance xAI’s ability to train its chatbot, Grok, which is already integrated into X and reinforce its positions on the AI leaderboard. Many users of X have already been using Grok, asking it to respond to posts and weigh in on arguments, making the platform a dynamic testing ground for AI interactions. xAI has also been expanding its data centre capacity to train more advanced models, and its supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee—called "Colossus"—is touted as the largest in the world.

-Competition among top players in AI is intensifying and as a consequence, intelligence is becoming a commodity, making the quest for differentiation and unique value proposition even more important.

Building

Vibe coding etc.

I’ve been speaking to many AI-driven founders these weeks, and one thing is clear. With a growing number of code editors integrating AI into their platforms these days, practically anyone can learn to code—and the process will only improve as advanced LLMs become more accessible. And so, as AI takes on more of an execution role, the developer’s responsibilities are also evolving, shifting toward product engineering.

Deep understanding of systems, data structures, and algorithms is still very important, but the ability to express these concepts in precise syntax is becoming less so. Instead, the ability to think clearly about problems, design elegant solutions, and effectively direct AI tools is becoming crucial.

Rather than focusing on writing the code for database migrations or schema visualisation, developers now spend most of their time on the conceptual layer — how should database changes be represented visually? What information is most important for developers to see? With code writing tools becoming so abundant, how are you adapting to the new way of product development?

Analysis

Family offices eye AI investments.

Ultra-wealthy investors are going all-in on AI, seeing it as a lucrative investment opportunity. AI and automation is the most popular investment theme for family offices (it was once climatech), now featuring in 80% of client portfolios, according to PWM’s Global Asset Tracker. Citi Private Bank reports 53% of family offices are already backing generative AI, with another 26% on the verge of making their first investment.

While big tech stocks like Microsoft, Nvidia, and Alphabet are still investment staples, family offices are looking beyond the public market. Private equity (30%) and direct investments (21%) are the top choices for AI plays. Some of the wealthiest families have allocated up to 45% of their portfolios to private assets, betting on early-stage innovation and long-term growth.

Community

Nominate: Inspiring Fifty.

Nominations are open for InspiringFifty UK—celebrating the 50 most inspiring women in tech. I was one of the winners of last year’s edition.

If you know an outstanding founder, C-suite leader, academic, and innovator—who is driving impact, pushing boundaries, and serving as role model in tech, submit your application until the 7th April.

Nominate here