Who’s Hiring, Who’s Funded, and What’s Next
Meet Emilee, WWV Labs’ New Growth Intern, Female Founders Have Raised $533M This Summer—So Far, Don’t Miss This Week’s Top Startup Opportunities!
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.
Welcome to the new readers who have joined us since the last issue!
If you haven’t yet, join our community of 10,352+ readers by subscribing below.
*We deliver in-depth research, but your inbox may limit our message. To read the full newsletter, please access it through our Substack site here.
Happy Monday! We’re back with some major updates at Her Hustle!!
First, meet Emilee Youn, our new Growth Intern at WWV Labs! Emilee is a rising junior from Roslyn High School in NY with a passion for coding, marketing, and startups. She’ll be leading this newsletter every week this summer (yes, including this one!) — so if you’re a female founder or student who wants to be featured, reach out to her or me directly.
I also just crossed 20,000 followers on LinkedIn (insane!!) — thank you for being part of this growing, mission-driven community. Every follow, share, and comment helps amplify the stories of female founders and students who deserve the spotlight, and I’m endlessly grateful for your support.
And in even bigger news: I’m officially moving to Amsterdam next week to begin my Fulbright Fellowship, where I’ll be researching how Big Tech platforms censor women’s health content — an issue that affects billions globally. While I’m there, I’ll also be expanding WWV Labs across Europe, deepening our impact and learning from the incredible female entrepreneurial ecosystem abroad.
WWV Labs is going global — and you’re coming with us!
Valentina Ratner, Co-Founder of AllSpice, a GitHub-style platform for hardware teams, raised a $15M Series A led by Rethink Impact.
Joan Nguyen, Co-Founder of Bumo, closed a $10M seed round led by Offline Ventures and True Ventures for her childcare app offering last-minute daycare and camp slots in 200+ U.S. cities.
Sonia Kastner, Founder of Pano AI, an AI-powered wildfire detection company, raised a $44M Series B led by Giant Ventures.
Sa Wang, Co-Founder of blockchain platform IOST, raised $21M in funding led by DWF Labs, Presto, and Rollman.
Sandrine Cousquer-Okasmaa, Founder & COO of Tensec, a cross-border financial services platform, raised $12M in seed funding.
Jarah Euston, Co-Founder and CEO of WorkWhile, an AI-powered labor platform, raised a $23M Series B led by Rethink Impact.
Angela McNeal & Mayada Gonimah, Co-Founders of Thread AI, an AI-powered enterprise platform to build and manage workflows and agents, raised a $20M Series A led by Greycroft.
Isabella Hughes & Semira Nikou, Co-Founders of Better Sour, a sour gummy brand, raised $12M in a round led by Taste Tomorrow Ventures.
Diti Sood, Founder of Bolo AI, an enterprise AI platform for the heavy industry sector, raised an $8.1M seed round led by True Ventures.
Jalene Anderson-Baron, Co-Founder of Future Fields, a biomanufacturing company, raised a $8M Series A led by Amplify Capital and BDC’s Climate Tech Fund.
Margaret Kleveland & Katherine Kleveland, sisters and Co-Founders of DÔEN, a women’s vintage-inspired clothing brand, raised $25M Series A from Silas Capital to expand retail.
Jazmine Coleman, Founder of Quilt Health, a complex disease treatment startup, raised $6M in seed funding from MaC Venture Capital, Underscore VC, and others.
Sarah Huggins, Co-Founder of Hiive, a pre-IPO secondary trading platform, plans to raise $100M this year.
Stina Larsson, Co-Founder of Studio555, a social interior design gaming app, raised €4M seed round led by HOF Capital and Failup Ventures.
Delphine Groll, Co-Founder of Nabla, a clinical AI assistant platform, raised a $70M Series C led by HV Capital and Highland Europe.
Caroline Cochran, Co-Founder of Oklo, a nuclear fission startup, received $100M investment from Palantir to integrate data analytics into small modular reactors.
Genna Elvin, Co-Founder of Tadaweb, a “small data OS” startup, raised $20M in funding led by Arsenal Growth and Forgepoint Capital.
Salma Bakouk, Co-Founder & CEO of Sifflet, an AI-native data observability platform, raised $18M in funding from EQT Ventures and Mangrove Capital.
Diana Virgovicova, Founder of Xatoms, an AI and quantum chemistry company discovering water-cleaning materials, raised a $3M pre-seed.
Stephanie Vaughan, Co-Founder of Veda, a DeFi vault infrastructure platform, raised $18M in funding led by CoinFund.
Miranda Wang & Jeanny Yao, childhood friends and Co-Founders of Novoloop, which upcycles plastic waste into materials, raised a $21M Series B led by Taranis.
Linda Zandt-Sloot, Founder of Tibo Energy, an energy optimization startup, raised €6M seed round led by KOMPAS VC.
Lynn Durham, Founder and CEO of Stalicla, a precision medicine startup, raised CHF 2M in a corporate round with Addex Therapeutics.
Kait Stephens, Founder and CEO of Brij, an AI-powered marketing platform, raised $8M in funding led by Bright Pixel Capital.
Madeline Fraser, Co-Founder and CEO of Gemist, a platform for jewelry brands, raised $6M from Entrada Ventures and Collide Capital.
Isabel Alvarez-Martos, Founder of Cellugy, a biotech company focused on sustainable materials, received €8.1M in grant funding.
Maria Jensen, Co-Founder and CEO of Antler Bio, which developed EpiHerd for gene expression in dairy farming, raised $4.3M led by The First Thirty Ventures.
Nithya Nareshkumar, Founder of DataBahn.ai, a security-focused data pipeline company, raised $17M Series A led by Forgepoint Capital.
Mackenzie Burnett, Co-Founder of Ambrook, an accounting platform for farmers and ranchers, raised $26.1M Series A to expand financial tools for agriculture.
Carina Hong, Founder of Axiom, a math-problem AI startup, is raising $50M in a new funding round expected to be led by B Capital, at a ~$300M valuation.
July 15 | 👩💻 Women Tech Meetup: TechCrunch All Stage (Boston)
July 16 | 💸 Funded Female Founders - YC Founders & Early Stage VCs (SF)
July 17 | 🗽 NYC Tech Ladies Meetup (NYC)
July 18 | 🤝 Austin Female Founders & Friends (Austin)
July 24 | ☕ Founder Coffee Meet (NYC)
July 25 | 🚀 Women Founders Network: Invest In: Your Journey as a Founder (San Antonio)
July 31 | 💼 Women in Tech (NYC)
August 4 | 🎉 Internapalooza (SF)
Hosting an event for women in entrepreneurship?
Share the details with WWV Labs Her Hustle’s community by filling out this form!
Zinnie Zhang, CEO of Enttor, hit 100K+ LinkedIn impressions in 48 hours—proof that authentic, strategic storytelling pays off for founders building in public.
Sie Ventures just won Accelerator of the Year from the UK Business Angels Association after helping female founders raise £200M+.
CapitalT, the female-led VC firm, hit first close on their €50M Fund II—doubling down on early-stage bets in climate tech and the future of work.
Delphine Le Grand shares her journey as a Type B person, redefining ambition as soft, impactful, and rooted in connection—rather than driven by hustle or comparison.
💁♀️ 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 1,000+ fellows from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, UC Berkeley, and other top universities today!
👩💻 Daniela Andrade dropped a curated list of 15+ recently funded, female-founded startups actively hiring for women seeking roles at high growth, female-founded startups!
💸 Daniella Pierson, Founder & CEO of The Newsette, launched Chasm—an initiative offering micro-grants to young female entrepreneurs, starting with a $20K check.
🚀 Columbia's Project 2.8 is now accepting applications for its no-equity, women-led startup incubator—apply by July 28 if at least one founder is a woman affiliated with Columbia (student, alum, faculty, or staff).
🚨 8 top startups—including Vercel, Antler, and SwiftSku—are hiring for growth, GTM, and community roles right now, with direct links to apply in Andrew Yeung’s post.
💸 Foreground Capital is hiring an Investment Associate—apply now to join a growing VC firm focused on women’s health and shaping the future of femtech.
🚀 Accelerator season is heating up—apps are closing fast for a16z Speedrun (July 28), SPC (Aug 3), YC (Aug 4), and more—perfect timing if you're a founder ready to fundraise this fall.
🎉 Partiful is looking to bring on passionate and community-oriented college students to help lead on-campus growth efforts.
🚀 Peak XV’s Spark Fellowship offers early-stage female tech founders a $100K equity-free grant plus mentorship, events, and a community. Applications are rolling, so founders can apply anytime to get support!
💁♀️ GoSkills’ ‘Be the Boss’ Scholarship provides year-round funding to women entrepreneurs ready to execute their business ideas, offering resources to help bring those ideas to life — apply now!
👩💻 Khosla Ventures is hiring an AI co-founder for a stealth startup with major funding, world-class teammates, and equal equity—ideal if you’ve got RL or agent-building chops and are ready to build big.
🔬 Humba Ventures just launched a new deep tech fellowship for scientists, engineers, and researchers — apply by July 19 to work alongside VCs backing what gets built next.
🗽 Mercor is hiring top-tier operators and engineers in both NYC and SF ahead of its 2026 office launch—roles include Strategic Project Leads, ML Engineers, and more.
🚀 Interested in breaking into VC? Check out this curated list of 55+ scout programs—with open applications at funds like Ada Ventures, Republic, and BLCK VC—to start sourcing deals and building your track record.
📊 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
🧘♀️ Fempower Health just dropped The Health of Women Playbook—a data-packed resource decoding women’s health trends and insights to help founders, operators, and investors build smarter in femtech.
📄 Old Girls Club Founder Mallory Contois just dropped a free, high-impact resume template + tips based on reviewing thousands of resumes—perfect for standing out in your next job or fundraise.
🚀 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.
💁♀️ Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on women in entrepreneurship.
📈 Partner with WWV Labs if you are a startup interested in hiring top female talent.
🌟 Promote yourself to 10,352+ subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter.
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 & The WWV Labs Team