There’s still time, but this week is already shaping up to be a massive one for female-founded and co-founded startups.
First we go to the news that investors have gone into overdrive in backing HR analytics startup Reejig with another $15 million raised.
The latest round of funding follows the $6 million raised in October — a round led by women — that has already seen those initial backers tripling their investment.
Launched in 2019 and having received $2.2 million in seed funding in 2020, Reejig has is led by CEO Siobhan Savage, alongside her two co-founders, Chief Data Scientist Dr Shujia Zhang and CTO Mike Reed (all pictured above). It offers a workforce intelligence platform enabling companies to identify skills, potential, experience and passions across their workforce.
Now to the acquisition announcement of a business and its founder, Rhian Allen, that we’ve followed for a number of years: The Healthy Mummy. The business selling supplements, exercise programs and boasting a community of 1.5 million has been acquired for a reported $17 million in cash and scrip this week, to the ASX-listed Halo Food Co. Allen once put everything on the line, including her house, to set up the business. She will stay with the business and has the option to receive some additional and impressive future earn-outs.
Another win came in the latest news from Shebah, the female ridesharing service founded by Georgina McEnroe. Placed into voluntary administration in October — as the business was hit heavily by the pandemic — the administrators have announced they are able to keep the platform further operating.
Special mention also this week to Canva founder Melanie Perkins. After last year announcing that she would be giving a significant chunk of her fortune away, alongside co-founder and partner Cliff Obrecht. Canva has this week announced a two-week drive to raise money for providing relief for the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, donating an initial $250,000 to get started. It’s the start of much more to come, with the Canva Foundation expected to become the country’s largest charitable foundation.
These latest announcements also follow news just last week that female-founded fintech Paypa Plane has successfully sold a 20 per cent stake in the business to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, highlighting the appetite corporates now have for investing in SMEs. The business is co-founded and led by Simone Joyce.