Female Foundry Week 61: The hidden truths of the tech money machine. Don’t let your cap table bring you down. Let's talk treasury. Late-stage startups zoom on cash. Latitude59.
Welcome to The Week 61, 2023 Edition of the Female Foundry newsletter!
Female Foundry - where investors and female founders meet.
In The News
UK-based Ufurnish, founded by Deirdre Mc Gettrick, raises a £3.4m Seed round from angels to help people shop for home furniture; Berlin-based HERMONE, co-founded by Lucia Vilsecker and Philippa Zorn, picks a €1m Pre-Seed round to bring more understanding to menstrual cycles; Denmark-based Landfolk, co-founded by Cathrine K. Reimann and Camilla Swartz bags a €3.8m Seed round for its holiday home platform; Amsterdam-based Agurotech, co-founded by Joëlle van den Brand and Lilia Planjyan fetches a €1.5m Series A round to fuel its data-driven farming platform; Berlin-based TheBlood, co-founded by Miriam Santer and Isabelle Guenou, raises a €1m Pre-Seed round led by RoX Health for menstrual blood testing solution and biomarker research.
The study released this week finds that UK tech startups have the worst gender pay gap in Europe.
Spotlight
The hidden truths of the tech money machine.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has sent shockwaves across the entire venture ecosystem. It’s been hard to believe: how could a poster child, an ally of tech visionaries that offered a range of startup-friendly products, turn into dust in a matter of days? Its amicable practice of bundling and cross-selling a variety of its services at sympathetic prices, from banking to venture debt, from personal accounts for founders to mortgages, created a hidden fault line that would undermine its future. What is now seen as the reckless creation of huge counterparty risk - might have been the reflection of the wider venture ecosystem itself - wanting to be daring, forgiving, progressive. The vast reach and influence of SVB - was like fuel to this money machine’s engine. As was trust. That now, above all, and regardless as to what the immediate future holds for the SVB brand, will need to be rebuilt, across the entire venture ecosystem. Read full story ➯
Fundraising
Don’t let your cap table bring you down.
I am regularly reminded about how very few early-stage founders pay close attention to the state of their startup’s cap table. I don’t want to sound pedantic, but rather state the hard truth: a messy cap table can hinder your chances of a fundraising success. Full stop. What makes a cap table messy? Dead equity. Endless list of minority investors. Disproportional amount of debt. High founder dilution. No option pool. Rounding errors. Wondering what investors are looking for in a cap table? Read this. Considering using a cap table management tool? Read this. Prefer to build it yourself? Here is a template and a case study. Wondering what to do about convertible notes? Check this. Read full story ➯
Let's talk treasury.
Do you still remember that feeling when after multiple applications, you finally managed to open a company account? If you already raised external funding, the investor cash most likely has been coming in sizeable chunks. Your plan has been to hire a CFO at the next financing round - the priority now is your product’s Beta release. Your startup’s infrequent income streams have still been making it difficult for you to borrow any additional cash, so just to keep things simple, you, as over 30% of startup founders, have been keeping all of your startup’s funds in a single trusted bank account.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week has drawn attention to how and where startups park their cash. How can you avoid a future cash crash? Park your cash with multiple banks. Have one account for payroll. One for regular/supplier-type payments and income. One interest-earning at a “too-big'-to-fail” bank, where you can draw your investor funds from. Before choosing your bank accounts, check bank credit ratings. Also, make sure that you understand your rights, customer protection, insurance, and customer service options. Read full story ➯
Analysis
Late-stage startups zoom on cash.
The latest report has found that while early-stage deals are expected to remain “material” with innovation in emerging sectors, late-stage startups continue to focus on profitability and conserve cash to extend runway through consolidation and a use of additional, smaller rounds of financing, at flat or lower valuations. The report highlights the post-pandemic tightening of monetary policy, intensifying geopolitical tensions leading to global supply chain shocks and the surfacing of irregularities in corporate governance across the tech ecosystem globally as key reasons for the drop in investment momentum globally. While this is not surprising, it raises a bigger question about the widening funding gap for growth-stage startups. Just this week, Y Combinator announced that it will wind down its late-stage investment fund, calling it a “distraction” from its core mission.
From the Community
Latitude59 x Female Foundry
Female Foundry is an official partner of the Latitude59 in Tallin taking place on the 24-26 of May and we have 2 x €249 FREE passes to give away to the Female Foundry Community!
To get a 20% promo code on all ticket types, respond to this newsletter. To enter the FREE ticket draw, submit your interest below. Deadline: March 24, 10pm BST. T&C of Latitude59 apply. I will announce the winners here next Saturday. Good luck!
Ticket draw: TechChill | 27-28 of April 2023 | Riga
The complimentary tickets winners are: Louise (g7hd5g) and Lara (hj7h6j). You can view the draw here. Congratulations! I will get in touch with you shortly.
Hiring
This week hiring:
Agurotech ➯ Project Manager | Doctorly ➯ Sales Manager | Spectrum.Life ➯ Product Marketing Manager
For more listings, check Female Foundry Job Board.
Founder & Investor Meetups
Tuesday, March 21, London ➯ Founder Meet Funder: Female Founders Edition Berlin ➯ Realignment: BPOC Women in technology meet-up in Berlin Stockholm ➯ WomenHack | Thursday, March 23, Berlin ➯ The Berlin Startup Meetup London ➯ Voices of Women in Health Tech London ➯ Women Founders Meet-Up March 2023 | Saturday, March 25, London ➯ Taking up space as a Female Founder Amsterdam ➯ Female Founders Brunch.
Have a good rest. See you next Saturday!
Agata
Written by Agata Leliwa Nowicka, an investor, a two-time entrepreneur, and a founder of Female Foundry based in London.
Suggestions? Drop me an email.
Check femalefoundry.co for more fundraising tools and investor content. View other Female Foundry articles.
♡
Thank you Eden, and Mariangela Cordella from Nauta Capital for sourcing our weekly meetups.