Big Wins, Big Checks & Big Opportunities for Female Founders

$253.5M Raised by Female Founders, AI & Innovation from Ex-OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, Cindy Gallop on DEI & Driving Excessive Income, Stanford Student Founder Elsa Bismuth Wins Google Award at TreeHacks

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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Applications are officially open for the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Entrepreneurship (WiE) 2025 Female Founder Circle!

This event holds a special place in my heart—last year’s inaugural Female Founder Circle was the first event I ever hosted with my incredible co-organizer MC, and it was a huge success!

Since then, I’ve hosted 10+ events for female entrepreneurs in the past year, bringing together 800+ attendees, and I know this year’s event will be even bigger and better!

This invite-only event on April 12 at Harvard University is bringing together 30 of the top female student founders for a full day of workshops, panels, networking, and a pitch competition with funding opportunities. It’s more than just an event—it’s a space to connect with leading female entrepreneurs, investors, and a powerful community of women-led startups.

✨ Want to see what it’s all about? Check out the video below from last year’s Female Founder Circle to get a sense of the energy, support, and community we’ve built!

📢 Please reshare this post with your network! We’re on a mission to bring together the best and brightest female student entrepreneurs—let’s make it happen.

• Aparna Dhinakaran (San Francisco, CA) - Co-founder of Arize AI, an AI observability platform, raised $70M in Series C funding led by Adams Street Partners.

• Boston University female student founders are driving impact: Brianna Matey (BU ‘27) is developing Rubie, a platform supporting women with PCOS; Nevaeh Calliste-Williams (BU ‘26) founded Survivors Awareness, a nonprofit improving survivor support; and Mya Kelly (BU ‘27) is building financial literacy tools to expand access to financial education.

• Ula Rustamova & Irene Jia (San Francisco, CA) - Co-founders of Level Zero Health, a hormone monitoring startup, secured $6.9M in pre-seed funding, the largest Pre-Seed round raised by a European female-founded company, led by Redalpine.

• Linda Sejdova (Czech Republic, UK) - CEO of snuggs, a femtech brand for sustainable period underwear, closed a $5.2M round led by TripleB.

• Syracuse University’s Blackstone LaunchPad awarded $6,500 in prizes at its 4th annual Afropreneurship Business Competition, recognizing female student founders including Olutosin Alabi (Diabetech - $1,500), Asha Breedlove (HBeatzCU - $1,500), Sydney Moore (Thrive Insights - $1,000), and Lindy Truitt (Safe Sip - $1,000) for their innovative ventures.

Source: Mira Murati

• Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati has launched Thinking Machines Lab, an AI startup focused on making AI systems more customizable and open-source, joining a wave of ex-OpenAI leaders building the next generation of AI innovation.

• Marta Oliveira (Germany) - Co-founder of ATMOS Space Cargo, a space cargo infrastructure startup, raised $13.1M from the European Commission’s EIC Accelerator Program.

• High school future female founders Alexandria Noyd and Adelina Parikh were awarded Young Entrepreneur Scholarships for their business plans—Noyd’s Hygiene Haven, a school-based resource providing students with essential hygiene products, and Parikh’s biofilter innovation, an affordable solution for clean water access in communities.

• Tumi Adeeko, a PhD Materials Science & Engineering student at Case Western Reserve University, is revolutionizing haircare with MAWE Technologies and her invention, the Electric Unbraider, a tool designed to dramatically reduce the time and effort needed to remove braided hair.

• Katya Fisher (Miami, FL) - Founder of Aracor AI, an AI-powered legal tech startup, raised $4.5M in pre-seed funding from Fuel Venture Capital.

• Stanford-founded accelerator Foundess is incubating 500 founders from 15 countries through its Hatch W25 program, backed by Anthropic, Notion, and Silicon Valley Bank, to drive female-led innovation.

Source: Tech Crunch

• Crystal Brown (Detroit, MI) - CEO of CircNova, Inc, an AI-driven RNA therapeutics startup, raised $3.3M in funding from South Loop Ventures.

• Aja Beckett (Portland, OR) - Founder of Shotsy, an app tracking GLP-1 medications, secured $2.3M in seed funding led by Adverb Ventures.

• Vienna Sparks leads MabLab in the 2025 Rice Business Plan Competition, competing among 42 top student-led startups for over $1 million in funding.

• Anu Sharma, Talia Borgo CNM, WHNP, RN, and Sarah Reynolds (Berkeley, CA) - Founders of Millie, a maternity care clinic, raised $12M in Series A funding co-led by TMV and Foreground Capital.

• Saudi billionaire Lubna Olayan’s Dara Holdings is doubling down on female founders, backing UAE-based startups with major investments—including a $10M seed round for AI-driven Qeen.ai and a $5.5M raise for BioSapien.

• Pamela Pure (Denver, CO) - CEO of Posterity Health, a digital male fertility clinic, secured $13M in Series A funding led by Georgetown Equity Partners.

• Giorgia Longobardi (Cambridge, UK) - CEO of Cambridge GaN Devices Ltd, a power devices developer, closed a $32M Series C round from British Patient Capital and others.

Source: UMKC

• Diana Kander (UMKC ‘02), a New York Times bestselling author and founder of 10 companies, has been named UMKC’s 2025 Defying the Odds Alumni Award winner, recognizing her journey from Soviet refugee to serial entrepreneur, consultant, and Fortune 500 advisor.

• Debbie Marr (Portland, OR) - Co-founder of AheadComputing, a microprocessor technology startup, raised $21.5M in seed funding from Eclipse Ventures.

• Tara Darbyshire (Newport Beach, CA) - Co-founder of SmartSuite, a work management platform, raised $38M in funding led by Canapi Ventures.

• Tetiana Aleksandrova (Palo Alto, CA) - Co-Founder and CEO of Subsense Inc., a non-surgical brain-computer interface company, raised $17M in seed funding from Golden Falcon Capital.

• Halkbank has provided over $2.2 billion in funding to 250,000+ women entrepreneurs in Türkiye, solidifying its role as a key driver of female-led business growth in the region.

• Amanda DeLuca (San Francisco, CA) - Founder of Riley, an AI-powered baby-tracking and parenting support app, raised $3.1M in seed funding led by True Ventures.

• Rachel Edenfield (Louisville, KY) - Founder of Swell, a mental health care provider, secured $1.6M in funding from Keyhorse Capital, Bluegrass Angels, and others.

• February 25 | 💡 WWV Labs Startup Culture: The Myths vs. The Reality (Virtual)

• February 25 | 🥳 Harvard $1M Moonshot Launch Party (Cambridge)

• February 26 | ☕ Women's Breakfast Club at the AlgoRanch (Denver)

• February 26 | 👩‍💻 Women Tech Meetup w/ Lawformer & SG (SF)

• February 26 | 🤝 UCLA Founders Mixer (LA)

• February 27 | 🚀 Yard Sale @ Harvard (Boston)

• February 28 | 👩‍⚕️ IWH: February Monthly Women's Health Careers Networking (Virtual)

• March 3 | 🎬 Show Her the Money Screening & Panel (Atlanta)

• March 4 | 💰 Brex Social Club: Women’s History Month with Fintech Mavericks (NYC)

• March 6 | 👸 Female Leaders of Austin (Austin)

• March 6 | 👩‍💻 Women in Tech: Data Science and AI Trailblazers (San Diego)

• March 6 | 💰 Women Innovation Summit: Pitch Competition (Toronto)

• March 6 | 🌟 Redefine Possible | International Women’s Day Summit (SF)

• March 7 | ☕ Coffee Meet Up: AI in Women’s Fertility Wellness (SF)

• March 7 | ✨ BFN Be Her Summit (Toronto)

• March 11 | 🤝 Founders & Funders Happy Hour (NYC)

• March 13 | 🤝 Gen Z NYC Founder & Creator Mixer (NYC)

• March 18 | 👩‍💻 Women in AI Meet-up (Boston)

• March 21 | 👩‍💻 Go Beyond 2% - Women's Leadership Conference (SF)

• March 27 | 👩‍💻 C10 Labs and Springboard Enterprises Presents: International Women's Month AI Hackathon (Boston)

• March 28 | 👩‍⚕️ IWH: March Monthly Women's Health Careers Networking (Virtual)

• March 29 | 🤝 Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship Summit (Boston)

• April 23 | 💰 Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit (NYC)

Hosting an event for women in entrepreneurship?

Share the details with WWV Labs Her Hustle’s community by filling out this form!

• Harvard student Peggy Yin and her team’s AI-powered platform, Future You, was named one of MIT’s Top Research Stories of 2024 for demonstrating how a 30-minute chat with your AI-generated future self can reduce anxiety and strengthen emotional resilience.

• BCG’s report confirms what we already knew—women-founded startups raise less than half the funding of male-led ventures ($935K vs. $2.1M) but outperform them, generating 10% more revenue over five years.

• Fintech Is Femme founder Nicole Casperson is scaling big in 2024, expanding a private fintech membership, launching a new podcast, and hosting the Fintech Is Femme Leadership Summit on April 23 with 800+ attendees—all while proving that the right partner fuels both business and personal success.

• Cindy Gallop redefines DEI—calling it 'Driving Excessive Income'—and doubles down on her long-held belief that investing in humanity, not just diversity, is the key to better business.

Source: Elsa Bismuth

• Stanford student Elsa Bismuth and her team took home the Google Award at TreeHacks 2025 for developing an AI-powered nurse documentation system—built from scratch in just 36 hours.

• Chai Ventures x Unfabled brought together top investors and founders at the Women’s Health Innovators Dinner to drive funding and collaboration in the $1T+ women’s health market, spotlighting Unfabled founder Hannah Samano’s work in building the UK’s leading women’s health platform.

• Jenny Stojkovic calls out AI bias after Elon Musk’s Grok generates nearly all-male CEO images—raising alarms as Gen Beta is set to get 70% of its education from AI, shaping the future of leadership.

Dorcas Ajayi

Name: Dorcas Ajayi

School: Pennsylvania State University ‘26

Major: Computer Science

Startup: The Tech Girlies

Sector: Technology, Information and Media

Description of Startup: Our goal is to build a supportive community for students that provides and lets them know about opportunities and resources while building products that improve the job search.

Biggest Startup Achievement: We launched officially in January and in just 2 weeks of launching we grew to a 1000+ students in the community

Biggest Startup Learning Moment: Never rush the process. When I first started I made a mistake of not taking time to analyze things it wasn’t until I got cofounder that she was able to let me know my mistakes.

Advice for Female Students Interested in Entrepreneurship: Do it afraid!! Don’t let your doubts or the competition out there make you feel that passion or ideas isn’t enough to succeed.

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 800+ fellows from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, UC Berkeley, and other top universities today!

• 💁‍♀️ Applications are open for the Harvard Undergraduate Women in Entrepreneurship (WiE) 2025 Female Founder Circle, an invite-only event on April 12 bringing together 30 top female student founders for workshops, panels, networking, and a pitch competition with funding—apply by March 7 to secure your spot!

• 🎯 Jeff Becker, General Partner at Antler, is hiring for 3 venture capital roles in NYC, seeking ex-founders, technical experts, seed-stage investors, and super-connectors ready to go all in—if you're a female founder looking to break into VC, now's your chance!

• 🚀 Harvard student founders—applications are open for VentureWorks, an 8-week incubator offering $3K grants, direct VC access, and a funded NYC trip, with past cohorts raising $330M+—apply by Feb 25 for your shot!

• 💰 American University just launched a $150K student-run venture fund, Eagle Venture Seed Fund, with plans to invest $3K-$10K in early-stage startups—aiming to back two ventures by May while training the next generation of VCs. If you're a student founder in the DMV area, now’s the time to start building relationships and get on their radar!

• 💰 Pillar VC’s $1M Moonshot Competition is now open to all schools, offering student and faculty founders the chance to secure up to $1M in funding for startups in AI, biotech, climate, and more—apply by March 2 to turn your big idea into reality!

• 💰 Applications are now open for the Agora Venture Competition Spring 2025, offering DC-area female founders a shot at a $10K cash prize and direct access to top business and tech leaders in the DMV—apply by March 7 to get the funding and network to scale your startup!

• 🚀 Unusual Academy is offering student founders a shot at $25K in funding, top-tier mentorship, and exclusive access to a network of 500+ entrepreneurs—apply by February 28 to join their Spring 2025 cohort and fast-track your path to product-market fit!

• 🚀 Boston female founders—don’t miss the Women Entrepreneurs Boston Summit on March 15, featuring a $5K pitch competition (apply by Feb 25), vendor opportunities, and high-impact networking to grow and scale your business!

• 🚀 UC Berkeley’s Vaishali Jha is in the running for Entrepreneur of Impact, competing for a $25K prize to scale her AI-driven mental health app and social impact ventures—vote by Feb 27 to support innovation at the intersection of AI, healthcare, and education

• 💡 YC-backed founder Yurii Rebryk shares 10 key lessons from Airbnb’s $100B journey, from starting small and questioning industry norms to creating unforgettable customer experiences—must-read insights for every founder scaling their next big idea!

• 💰 Investor Josh Payne shares 10 red flags that make him pass on startups—lack of paying customers, no path to profitability, weak differentiation, and founders who won’t sell—must-know insights for anyone raising capital!

• 📊 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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Love,

Daniela