In L.A. Inno's first Female Founders to Watch list, we're spotlighting entrepreneurs we think you should have on your radar in 2023.
VC deal flow in L.A. for female-founded companies has been up-and-down since 2015, when the total deal value for women-led startups was more than $370 million, according to Pitchbook.
Last year it rose to a record high of $1.5 billion across 166 total deals, which was still just 14% of the total amount of venture funding raised in L.A. last year.
Funding for female founders nationally remains an uphill battle. Last year startups founded by all-women teams collectively raised less than 2% of all VC funding last year. And as the venture funding environment continues its downward slide, that could make things even more challenging for female founders.
To give a snapshot of some impressive women founders to know in L.A. — both seasoned entrepreneurs and new business leaders — we've compiled a group of 13 female founders to watch. Dive into our list below.
Shao-Lee Lin, founder and CEO, Acelyrin
The largest venture deal of 2022 for an L.A. female founder was $300 million for Acelyrin, a biotech research company. The firm is led by Shao-Lee Lin, its founder and CEO. That $300 million Series C raise, which closed last September, followed a $250 million Series B raise in November 2021.
Lin is a physician, scientist and biopharma expert. She got an M.D. and Ph.D. from The John Hopkins University School of Medicine and has degrees in chemical engineering and biochemistry from Rice University.
She previously held executive roles at AbbVie and Horizon.
Renee Dua, co-founder, SmartDreams
Renee Dua is a practicing nephrologist, a doctor who specializes in kidney conditions, and the co-founder of several companies, alongside her husband and business partner, Nick Desai. Those companies include Heal, Renee and most recently, Smart Dreams.
Her first startup, Heal, provides medical house calls to the elderly. Renee, the name of her second venture, is a personal digital health concierge that enables seniors and chronically ill patients to take care of a variety of medical tasks in one place. Smart Dreams, which launched at the end of March, is a generative AI app that lets children create their own bedtime stories.
Beyond these ventures, Dua has also served as chief of medicine at Valley Presbyterian and Simi Valley Hospitals, two of LA’s largest medical facilities.
The biggest challenge she's faced as a female founder was, admittedly, that she didn't initially believe she could accomplish what she has done. The act of believing in herself and being encouraging, rather than disparaging, affects many women, she suspects. When she started believing in what she could do, others rallied around her to see her succeed, she told L.A. Inno. In turn, she makes it a point to motivate others to believe in themselves and what they can achieve.
Heal raised almost $200 million to date and was sold to Humana. Renee has raised more than $8 million in seed funding. Smart Dreams, as a new startup, has been self-funded.
Cathy Tie, founder and CEO, LockeBio
Tie recently re-located herself and Locke Bio’s HQ to L.A. Locke Bio is a digital health platform company that streamlines the launch of integrated, branded telehealth services.
Locke Bio allows e-commerce brands to sell prescription drugs direct-to-consumer, helping them compete with giants like Amazon. The platforms offers patient intake onboarding, e-commerce payment processing and more features for online firms to offer drug delivery. It's used by companies like Mailbox Meds, a men's sexual health e-commerce platform.
Tie, a Thiel Fellow, was previously a partner at Silicon Valley VC firm Cervin Ventures.
She founded her first company, Ranomics, a genomics testing company, at the age of 18.
She told L.A. Inno that some of the top challenges she's experienced as an entrepreneur are "having to constantly balance being highly creative and managing the day-to-day business operations within the bounds of standard business playbooks. I overcame this by compartmentalizing tasks, and learning to outsource to people I trust, effectively."
Karen Caswelch, co-founder and COO, Archytas
Caswelch is the co-founder of Archytas, which makes robotic arms that are used for industrial automation for small- and medium-sized businesses. The arms are manufactured and assembled in micro-factories that can pop up anywhere, providing employment in underserved areas.
“As an African-American woman, I've seen the impact of job loss in both urban and rural communities and want to be a part of making a difference," she told L.A. Inno.
Archytas presented its product and go-to-market strategy to a panel of global additive manufacturing industry leaders in Barcelona last fall. They chose Archytas as the grand prize winner of the BASF Forward AM Innovation Award.
Caswelch and her co-founder self-funded the business initially, to the tune of how $2.1 million. They recently opened a seed round with a target of $2 million.
Caswelch recently joined a cohort, FoundHers, that is being run by Octane's accelerator in Orange County.
"We've been getting fantastic advice to address the items we can fix and are continuing to talk to potential funders," she told L.A. Inno.
Rachael McCrary, founder and CEO, Gather Labs
McCrary is a seasoned entrepreneur and innovator in the fields of technology and fashion. She's also an EMT. Prior to launching Gather Labs, she created the RxBra, an FDA-approved post-surgical compression bra, which supports and accelerates patient recovery.
She raised $1 million in funding for that company during a Tech Week in Santa Monica in 2015 and parlayed that experience into a design collaboration with Drew Barrymore for the "Dear Drew" intimates and loungewear collection. She’s also helped guide design and operations for major brands like Maidenform, Skechers and Saramax Apparel Group.
Gather Labs creates a laboratory that offers same-day lab results for over 100 diagnostic tests. It aims to reduce the average wait time for lab results from the typical 2-10 days down to under 24 hours.
Gather Labs has raised $800,000 to date from angel investors and VC firms.
Melissa Hanna, co-founder and CEO, Mahmee
Hanna is the co-founder and CEO of Mahmee, a maternal health care company that aims to improve the birth outcomes in historically marginalized communities. It does this by providing comprehensive support during the pregnancy and postpartum periods.
She has a law degree from Southwestern Law School, where she's now an adjunct professor of corporate and technology law. She also obtained an MBA from the Drucker School of Management.
Mahmee recently launched a membership offering for expecting and new parents, which will give each member their own team of nurses, lactation consultants, doulas, mental health coaches, nutritionists and care coordinators, all available seven days a week, virtually and in-person through Mahmee clinics.
Mahmee has raised more than $13 million to date. Tennis superstar Serena Williams is among its investors.
Sarah Figueroa, founder and CEO, GeoJam
Figueroa created Geojam, a fan economy platform backed by musicians like Mariah Carey, Machine Gun Kelly, Nyjah Huston and Tyga.
The blockchain startup is creating a social media platform that generates unique experiences between artists and fans. It connects to existing music streaming platforms like Apple and Spotify and rewards fans for streaming, sharing and discovering music.
Under her leadership, Geojam's platform is working to change how people interact on social media, enabling them to earn rewards for creating and sharing content.
Anja Skodda, founder and CEO, HappyBond
HappyBond produces human-grade, nutrition and food products for pets and humans. One of its missions is to extend the life of pets.
Skodda leads product development and partnerships, applying her bioengineering education and experience. For over 20 years, she's combined her scientific training and entrepreneurial drive at a variety of business ventures.
She started her entrepreneurial career in 2006, launching Bullywood in Stockholm.
HappyBond has raised more than $1.8 million in a seed round, with lead investor NQV8. Expert Dojo, an L.A. accelerator and fund, also participated. It's now in the midst of a Series A raise, with a target of about $11 million, she told L.A. Inno.
Happy Bond was one of the winners of the Pet Care innovation prize presented by Purina/Nestlé this year.
Jennifer Saxton, founder and CEO, Tot Squad
Saxton created Tot Squad, a baby services marketplace that connects new parents with health, wellness and safety services. Some of those services include car seat installation, lactation consultants and nutrition coaching.
The company offers virtual and in-home consultations, which can be purchased through Amazon and Walmart.com when buying a related baby product, or added to a registry as a gift for new parents.
Saxton is a serial entrepreneur with 10 years experience in the baby industry. She's been a child passenger safety technician since 2009.
In 2020, she sold Tot Squad's baby gear cleaning and repair arm to BabyQuip, a baby gear rental service that made an appearance on Shark Tank.
Tot Squad has raised more than $3 million to date.
Zarina Bahadur, founder and CEO, 123 Baby Box
Bahadur is a 24-year old entrepreneur who founded 123 Baby Box in 2021 as a UC Irvine student. She then got her MBA from The Paul Merage School of Business at UC Irvine. She's won first place in five national pitch competitions.
123 Baby Box recently announced the closing of its over-subscribed pre-seed round, where it raised $1.2 million. Investors included XRC Ventures, the Sunstone Fund, Salt Lake City Angels and California Crescent Fund.
The company offers a monthly subscription box, which provides parents with baby products. Every item is hand-picked by moms based on their baby's specific needs and developmental stage.
Alyson Schill, co-founder and CEO, Careit
Schill is the founder of Careit, a free online donation matching marketplace with the goal of unifying the network of charities and businesses that feed various communities.
The startup allows grocery stores, restaurants and event caterers to offer up any surplus food for donation. Nonprofits can claim the food, arrange for transport, and track the donation all from within the app.
She's currently working with an accelerator program, CoLAB in Chattanooga, to create a secondary marketplace between under-represented BIPOC food producers and large commercial food purchasers. The catalyst for this project was from a partnership with the Wave Foundation in Portland, which has been working with tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest since the pandemic.
Shivani Siroya, founder and CEO, Tala
Siroya is the founder of Tala, a smartphone lending app. Tala's app provides instant, personalized credit to under-served customers.
Nearly 8 million people across Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico and India have used Tala's products to start and expand small businesses, manage day-to-day needs, and pursue their financial goals.
The company has raised nearly half a billion dollars in equity and debt financing, backed by investors including Upstart, the Stellar Development Foundation and PayPal Ventures.
Tala has been named to the Fortune Impact 20 list, CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list three years in a row, and Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for five years running.
Its HQ is in Santa Monica, with offices also in Nairobi, Manila, Mexico City and Bangalore.
Before founding Tala, Siroya held a variety of positions in health and finance firms, including with the United Nations Population Fund, Health Net, Citigroup and UBS.
Katie Wilson, co-founder, BelliWelli
Wilson is the founder of BelliWelli, a gut health snacking company made for those suffering from GI conditions.
The startup, which recently raised more than $15 million in a Series A round, makes bars that are made without processed grains, dairy and other ingredients that could irritate the gut. Its products are found in Sprouts, Gelson’s Markets and Bristol Farms.
Prior to starting BelliWelli, Wilson was a matchmaker at Three Day Rule and became the chief dating expert at Match in 2018.
