FORBES – Oct 27 – VCs now take their pitches over a safely-distanced Zoom call. But VC funding for female founders has dropped to a three-year low. Firms invested ~$434M in Q3, the lowest figure since the Q2 of 2017, according to PitchBook data. The Q2 total also amounts to a 48% drop in funding from Q2, when female founders received $841M across 132 deals. There are VC firms that focus exclusively on female founders, such as Female Founders Fund (FFF). Founded in 2014, the NYC-based firm has raised two funds to date (~$6M and ~$25M) and counts 40+ companies in its portfolio. One deal FFF closed during the lockdown is Lex, a text-based social app for queer, non-binary and trans communities. Other investors that joined in alongside FFF include Peanut's Michelle Kennedy and the Bumble Fund. Through her app, Lex founder Kell Rakowski is reframing the dating experience from a visual-based to a text-based experience, bringing back old-school personal ads to social media. The current version of Lex has zero photos and no swiping. The NYC-based startup recently closed its seed round of $1.5M, which was led by FFF.
by Bérénice Magistretti
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