Three Point Zero Agata Nowicka • Female Foundry

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This week, I spoke with ⁠Sara Larsson from a Swedish startup Freshsound who recently raised a €2m Seed round led by Zenith Venture Capital and Aligned for its self-service platform to license commercial music. (see: Week 69).

In the episode, we talk about how the music industry works and why having a straight mind when innovating is necessary, how to get the best out of your investors and your board and how to keep your investors in the loop.

Female Foundry: ⁠femalefoundry.co⁠.

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: ⁠femalefoundry.substack.com⁠.

This week, I spoke with Yvonne Nagawa from London-based Black Seed, a London-based emerging VC fund focused on investing in black founders, who recently announced the first close of its target £10m fund.

In the episode, we talk about why investing in black founders matters, the meaning of the Black Seed community, how to form relationships with LPs and how to deal with their "No"s, and about how Black Seed evaluated founders.

Female Foundry: ⁠femalefoundry.co⁠.

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: ⁠femalefoundry.substack.com⁠.

This week, I spoke with Melody Lang from London-based MPA, a syndicate with the mission to back purpose-driven companies focused on the future of learning & work.

In the episode, we talk about the meaning behind investing with impact, why investing in the future of learning and work matters, what are the current trends driving the investment opportunities in those spaces, including the impact of ChatGPT on learning, and the strategies for sourcing investors for syndicates.

Female Foundry: ⁠femalefoundry.co⁠.

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: ⁠femalefoundry.substack.com⁠.



This week, I spoke with ⁠Liz Beatty⁠ from Paris-based ⁠Inato⁠ who recently raised a $25m Series A round from Cathay Innovation to scale her global clinical trial platform that brings research to patients where they live. (see: ⁠Week 64⁠).

In the episode, In the episode, we talk about building marketplaces, metrics for proving user engagement, how to facilitate an efficient Series A due diligence process, thinking big, and why the future of medtech innovation will be powered by clinical trial data.

Female Foundry: ⁠femalefoundry.co⁠.

Subscribe to the Female Foundry newsletter: femalefoundry.substack.com.

This week, I spoke with Amanda Maiwald from Berlin-based Codary who in September last year raised a €3.5m Seed round from Speedinvest, FJ Labs, Educapital, and Sparkmind.vc for her platform that teaches kids 21st century skills through gamified and adaptive coding content (see: Week 36).



In the episode, we talk about why teaching kids coding is a future-proof business opportunity, how to manage customer acquisition when your paying customer is not your user, how Codary decided to approach their international expansion, and leveraged university grants, angel investments, and its focus on unit economics to close the latest €3.5m Seed round.

Female Foundry: femalefoundry.co

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This week, I spoke with Sara Stephens from Rest Less who recently raised a €6.8 million Series A round from Moneta Venture Capital for it’s platform empowering over 50’s to live their best lives (see: Week 51).



In the episode, we talk about business opportunities driven by the aging population, why networks matter in the fundraising process, how to strike a balance between meeting investor expectations and delivering impact as a business with a social focus, and how to overcome fears of starting a family while building a business.



Female Foundry: femalefoundry.co