A Denver co-founder and CEO was named on a national list of female founders to watch.
Liz Giorgi, who co-founded Soona with chief product officer Hayley Anderson, was among 34 female founders on the list. Anderson, who is based in Minneapolis, was also included on the list.
Giorgi and Anderson founded Soona, a same-day content studio, in 2018. The studio has raised $56.1 million to date, including a $35 million Series B last year, and now has 140 employees and four studios in Denver, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and Austin.
Soona has had a busy six months. It made its first acquisition in June, acquiring social media content company Trend for an undisclosed amount. And last month, Soona launched what Giorgi called the startup’s most ambitious product. The new analytics platform uses artificial intelligence to tell clients how their images are performing online.
This national list of female founders to watch from American Inno is intended to spotlight some of the county’s promising women-led businesses. It comes as funding is declining for startups led by all-women founders.
According to TechCrunch, businesses led by all-women founders raised only 1.9% of all VC funding last year, down from 2.4% in 2021. (Companies with at least one female founder raised 17% of all venture capital funding in 2022 and 2021.)
Giorgi has been vocal about women-led businesses raising funds for years, often shining a spotlight on Colorado female founders.
Giorgi and Anderson also spearheaded a movement requiring potential investors to disclose prior allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination. Soona implemented this legal requirement in 2020. Two years later, 60 other businesses adopted the practice. Giorgi previously told the Denver Business Journal she views the requirement as a method to take back power as a startup founder, especially as a woman in the industry seeking investments from mostly male firms.
The two Soona co-founders were also named one of the country’s top-funded women entrepreneurs by Crunchbase in 2022.
