Female Founders Fund raises $57 million to invest in women-led startups

The organization’s third fun was launched in 2020 and will be used to invest in 25 companies. Fund III’s backers include Goldman Sachs, Cambridge Associates, and Twitter. (Image credit: FFF)

Female Founders Fund (FFF), an organization that focuses on investing in female, women of color and LGBTQ+ founders who are creating companies at the seed stage, has announced that its Fund III has raised $57 million to create “the largest fund for seed capital specifically for female founders.”

FFF launched its third fund in 2020 just as the global pandemic sent the world into lockdown. Despite this, the foundation continued to meet and get support from interested parties, including female-led companies like 23andme, Figs, and Bumble. Other backers include Goldman Sachs, Cambridge Associates, Twitter, and Plexo Capital. YouTube CEO Susan Wojciki and Houseparty co-founder Sima Sistani also invested in the fund.

“I firmly believe we are missing out on transformational ideas by not putting resources behind women,” said Melinda French Gates, founder of Pivotal Ventures, in a statement. “I’ve invested in the Female Founders Fund because we need women founders and funders at the table if we want to build a more prosperous and inclusive economy for everyone. New and innovative ideas come from everywhere; we can’t keep looking in the same old packages.”

So far, FFF has used Fund III to invest in seven companies – many of them in the pre-launch stage. One of the investments is at-home blood test created by a Facebook female engineer. Anu Duggal, a partner of FFF, expects to invest in 25 companies from this fund alone. The foundation also hopes to invest in more startups focused on workplace developments, such as those creating tools for employees and small businesses.

As for future investments, FFF will focus on climate change solutions and ways to improve education. For climate change, they hope to find startups that focus on technology to find alternatives to meat, find ways to record carbon use on a daily basis and replace plastic food containers. For education, FFF wants to find new opportunities in technology that allow senior citizens to remain mentally engaged via continuing education.

FFF isn’t the only organization looking to support women-led startups. Houston-based Artemis Fund built by three women launched in 2019. So far, the organization has raised a $15 million initial fund, which closed earlier this year. With the money, Artemis Fund will invest in startups with female founders in large markets that are often male-dominated. So far, they’ve invested in 11 companies with plans to invest in 4-5 more.

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