2025 in Full Swing: $1.045B in Female Founder-Led Acquisitions and $80M+ in Funding
Katlin Smith Leads with a $795M Acquisition, Peggy O’Flaherty Follows with $250M, Teresita Moran Raises $50M, and Sofia Noori Secures $14.5M in Funding
This is WWV Labs’ weekly newsletter: Her Hustle, a place to learn all about the new and the next in female entrepreneurship, and we’re here to help you dive into it. We highlight all the fierce women who are building startups—from those launching from dorm rooms and balancing classes to recent grads and experienced professionals turning their bold visions into reality.
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This past Thursday, in collaboration with the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurial Association of South Florida, Adrian and I had the incredible opportunity to meet Lisa, our very first (and returning) client, at an intimate Ladies Networking Night in Miami. Lisa, a healthtech founder, has sourced three talented tech interns through WWV Labs to build workflows and modernize her platform, growing her predominantly female team!
Within minutes of being connected with Lisa, she sent over a job description for a UX designer, leading us to organize our first-ever design hackathon. Despite figuring out pricing and processes on the fly, we delivered a candidate she was thrilled with, helping her accelerate her platform's growth in just three months—work she said would have taken far longer otherwise.
Our takeaways:
1) Listen to your customer—they’ll tell you exactly what they need.
2) Be flexible and responsive to feedback.
3) Move fast—in startups, speed is everything, especially when hiring top talent.
Amy Fan, Co-Founder of Twentyeight Health (New York City, NY), raised $10M in Series A funding led by Seae Ventures to expand their digital women’s healthcare platform, which provides reproductive and sexual care across 43 states and partners with Medicaid insurers.
Ella Hough, Cornell ‘25 and co-founder of the Bitcoin Students Network, launched the Layer Zero program connecting over 70 university groups across 25 countries to empower students with Bitcoin education.
Anna Li, a student founder pursuing a dual MD/PhD at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon, is revolutionizing health care accessibility with Korion Health’s guided electronic stethoscope, earning global recognition with a $1M Hult Prize win among 100,000+ applicants.
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), women’s startup activity rates rose from an average of 6.1% (2001-2005) to 10.4% (2021-2023) across 30 countries.
Teresita Moran Ovalle, Co-Founder of Buk (Santiago, Chile), raised $50M in Series B funding led by Headline to expand its HR tech platform—used by 7,000+ companies in Latin America—into Brazil and enhance automation and employee benefits.
Branching Minds, co-founded by Maya Gat, was named a 2025 Top EdTech Product of the Year for its innovative student support technology, impacting over 2 million students across 545 school districts in 38 states.
January 22 | 🌉 B.E.L.L.E Startup Showcase & Networking (San Francisco)
January 23 | 🌃 NYC Student Founder Dinner hosted by WWV Labs (NYC)
January 25 | 👩💻 Women in AI RAG Hackathon @ Stanford (Stanford)
January 28 | 🥂 Women in AI: San Francisco Happy Hour hosted by Create.xyz (San Francisco)
February 7-8 | 👩💻 FEMHACK: All-Female Hackathon hosted by Fierce Foundry (NYC)
Hosting an event for women in entrepreneurship?
Share the details with WWV Labs Her Hustle’s community by filling out this form!
Katie Fang, Founder of SchooLinks, just raised $80M in Series B funding—2024's largest U.S. edtech deal—scaling her College and Career Readiness platform to 40 states and transforming student outcomes for life beyond K-12.
This week, five powerhouse female founders led major acquisitions, including Katlin Smith’s Simple Mills ($795M) and Peggy O’Flaherty’s Mavely ($250M).
Eve Halimi's Alinea Invest closed 2024 with 850K+ downloads, 6x revenue growth, 10 employees, and best-in-class 63% retention, proving Gen Z is redefining wealth management!
Five female founders raised a combined $82.5M this week, including Sara O'Sullivan’s Red Rover Health, Inc. ($4M), Caitlin Leksana’s Fazeshift (YC S24) ($4M), and Sofia Noori’s Nema Health ($14.5M).
Name: Rukaiah Edhah
School: Mercy University ‘26
Major: Computer Science
Startup: Masari Tech
Sector: Fashion, Tech, & Sustainability
Description of Startup: A platform that helps fashion brands reduce returns and solve sizing issues to improve customer satisfaction and promote sustainability using AI.
Biggest Startup Achievement: My co-founder, Samira Salifu, was invited to the Forbes Under 30 Summit, and we were accepted into the highly competitive Impact Innovation Hub at Drexel University, where we received funding and mentorship from industry experts.
Biggest Startup Learning Moment: Since our platform is B2B, we’ve learned the importance of working with the right people and understanding customer needs. Also, focusing on market research and data-driven decisions before building to help fashion brands grow and deliver sustainable solutions that meet industry needs.
Advice for Female Students Interested in Entrepreneurship: DO IT.
Worst case? you learn, grow, and take everything into your next step with no regrets.
Best case? you succeed and become the entrepreneur you’ve always dreamed of being.
and believe in yourself like no one else will, especially when things get tough and others lose faith.
Know a bada$$ female student founder?
Nominate her or yourself to be featured in Her Hustle’s newsletter by completing this form!
💁♀️ Are you a female student or recent graduate who wants to work at a startup? Apply to WWV Labs Fellowship Program to find ad hoc projects, term-time internships, summer internships, or full-time employment opportunities at startups!
Join our community of 600+ fellows from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, UC Berkeley, and other top universities today!
🤝 The Old Girls Club is launching a beta mentorship program for junior, senior, and recent female and non-binary grads—apply by Jan. 15 for a chance to connect with industry-leading mentors and grow your career!
💰Over $200K in funding opportunities are up for grabs for Black, LGBTQ+, and women-owned businesses, including Braze's Tech for an Equitable Future Grant and $25K EmpowHer Grants for female founders—check out this post for links to apply!
📱Uplevyl is launching an ethical, female-focused social platform, inviting the first 1,000 women to early access on 1/10 before its official debut at Sundance—sign up now to join the movement!
📈 Jessica Lynch, investor at FoundersEdge, breaks down the ultimate guide to early-stage pitch decks with a series of YouTube Shorts under 3 minutes each, covering everything from crafting a winning cover slide to avoiding common mistakes—perfect for founders gearing up for fundraising!
🛂 If you're an international student founder aiming to work in the U.S. on your startup or join a startup team, Alcorn Immigration Law offers personalized guidance to secure the right visas and green cards to help bring your entrepreneurial dreams to life—reach out to Sophie and mention you were referred by Daniela Andrade, WWV Labs!
📊 Accountalent, the leading tax and accounting firms for over 5,000 startups, has offered to file 2024 taxes for any undergraduate female-founded and managed startup corporation totally free of charge. This includes filing the Federal and State corporate tax returns, DE Franchise tax return, Form 1099s, consulting on tax matters, etc. It also includes preparing 2024 financial statements.
Joe Faris, CPA, founder of Accountalent has conducted Office Hours for many years at Harvard, MIT and UChicago and has worked with hundreds of female founders, including many foreign founders. Feel free to email him or make an appointment on his online calendar to redeem this perk or if you have any tax questions:
Joe Faris, CPA, jfaris@accountalent.com, Online Calendar: https://calendly.com/joefaris
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📈 Partner with WWV Labs if you are a startup interested in hiring top female talent.
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I hope you enjoyed this newsletter, Hustlers!
Feel free to share your feedback on this newsletter with me by filling out this form!
Love,
Daniela