The female-founded Circle In offers a bright spot among investor-backed startups in Australia, following months of the sector being called out for failing to back women.
Circle In has this week announced it’s closed a $2 million investment round, led by Australian venture capital firm Alberts Impact Ventures.
It comes as less than 3 per cent of funding went to all female-founded teams in 2022, according to the State of Startup Funding Australia report.
And Thursday’s announcement also marks a refreshing shift in seeing investors specifically highlighting that they appreciate the focus Circle In has on “care”, when so often care-related work and businesses can fail to attract investment.
Circle In was founded by Jodi Geddes and Kate Pollard in 2017, to address a need they personally felt while on parental leave around the lack of support for working parents. At the time, Geddes spoke about a 2am “lightbulb” moment that occurred while she was feeding a baby at home, when she realised the potential for an online community and resources for mothers on parental leave. She later pitched the idea to her friend and former colleague Kate Pollard, and they became co founders.
The business has since expanded to cover all parents and is working with a huge number of corporate employers leveraging tech to enhance manager and family support for caregiving, with these latest funds to be used to support Circle In’s global expansion plans. This latest investment will also see their current investors continuing their support, with an impressive list that includes Carol Schwartz. They also have the support of Scale, Launch Vic and the Alice Anderson Fund.
Lisa Federenko, from Alberts Impact Ventures, said the fund loves Circle In’s focus on “creating workplaces who care.”
“They’ve clearly demonstrated the economic value to businesses for valuing their caregiver workforce – higher staff retention, more engaged workforces and increased psychological safety,” she said in a statement on the funding.
Asked about the lack of investment in female backed businesses and how Circle In has been successful in securing funding, Geddes told Women’s Agenda that impact-led investors are best suited to what they are looking to achieve, due to the social lens they apply to investments. “We have found that women often drive a business developed from a personal need or experience. Our platform was born out of our frustrations of becoming a working parent and the lack of support provided by our employers,” she said.
And asked about what needs to change in Australia to get more female-founded businesses backed, Geddes said we need to see more diversity in VCs and at the senior decision-making level.
“We are seeing more co-founded mixed teams, but as a fully female-led business, you are still faced with systemic challenges,” she said.
“We are confident that change is happening, especially with female-led programs such as LaunchVic and SBE, which are helping more women break through barriers. For us, involvement in these programs and mentorship from female advisors have given us greater confidence to face each raise.”
As for the future need for Circle In, co founder Kate Pollard said the business is responding to the relentless nature of parenthood in today’s world, made all the more challenging when combined with a career and continuing to cause more women to leave the workforce.
“With more dual-working couples than ever before, families need support and want to work for family friendly organisations,” she said.
Now five years old with no signs of slowing down, the business has more than 20 employees and appears to demonstrate the value of steady and sustained growth – over fast expansions that result in dozens if not hundreds of staff hired in short periods. It also boasts great user research to highlight the value it brings to corporate clients, with 80 per cent saying the platform has made them feel more positive towards their organisation.
It’s also a business that addresses a clear issue its founders saw and had experienced themselves, highlighting again the value women bring to new ideas and startups that address challenges huge portions of the population face.
Finally on impact, Circle In demonstrates bringing value to varied issues, having published valuable research and made strong public contributions to addressing key issues for women at work. This includes Circle’s Ins recent research into menopause, in partnership with the Victorian Women’s Trust, which found 83 per cent of respondents who had experienced menopause said it negatively affected their work, with almost one in two saying they considered retiring or taking a break from work because of it.