Sunday, 27 September 2026Independent · Women-led business, policy & culture

Section

Startups

Founders building companies — without the hype.

Spark Festival’s Female Founder Exchange Shows Why Access Still Matters

Spark Festival’s Female Founder Exchange Shows Why Access Still Matters

Spark Festival’s 2026 programme put founders across Sydney and regional New South Wales into a week of free sessions, workshops and community events. Among the more pointed items was UNSW Founders’ High Tea, High Conversations: Female Founders Mentor Exchange, a Parramatta gathering for women founders from Western Sydney to meet senior mentors across entrepreneurship, investment, technology, health and leadership.

SheMeansNews Desk·27 September 2026·3 min read

Ariella Heffernan-Marks’ Ovum Award Turns Trust Into the Main Metric

Ariella Heffernan-Marks’ Ovum Award Turns Trust Into the Main Metric

Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks has been named Best New Founder at the Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards, giving Ovum another public marker in a year when the women’s health AI company has moved from early traction to a more serious infrastructure question.

27 September 2026·3 min read

WOW Health Adds Funding and Data Tools for Women's Health Founders and Investors

WOW Health Adds Funding and Data Tools for Women's Health Founders and Investors

WOW Health, the World of Women's Health platform, has expanded its discovery product with venture-capital trackers, mergers-and-acquisitions tracking, founder resources and a library of women's health datasets.

5 August 2026·4 min read

Whitney Wolfe Herd's Bumble Faces August 5 Earnings Test After Women-First Reset

Women in Business

Whitney Wolfe Herd's Bumble Faces August 5 Earnings Test After Women-First Reset

Whitney Wolfe Herd's Bumble is due to report second-quarter 2026 results after the market closes on 5 August, giving investors another look at the founder CEO's attempt to return the company to its women-first foundation.

5 August 2026·4 min read

HumanX and Crunchbase Say Female-Founded European AI Startups Get More Deals but Less Capital

HumanX and Crunchbase Say Female-Founded European AI Startups Get More Deals but Less Capital

HumanX and Crunchbase have released new European AI funding data showing that female-founded AI companies are winning a meaningful share of deals but still receiving a smaller share of capital.

4 August 2026·4 min read

Efrat Rapoport's June Raises $20 Million to Automate Enterprise AI Deployment

Efrat Rapoport's June Raises $20 Million to Automate Enterprise AI Deployment

Efrat Rapoport's new company June has emerged from stealth with $20 million in pre-seed funding, putting a woman co-founder at the center of one of the current enterprise AI questions: how companies turn agent promises into working systems.

3 August 2026·4 min read

Joy Tang's Markable Adds AI Video and 3D Product Tools for Creator Commerce

Joy Tang's Markable Adds AI Video and 3D Product Tools for Creator Commerce

Joy Tang's Markable is adding new AI creation tools for the creator-commerce market, giving influencers and online sellers a faster way to turn product ideas into shoppable content without relying on a full production team.

4 August 2026·6 min read

Entreprenista Lists August Grants for Women Founders as Capital Gap Remains Wide

Entreprenista Lists August Grants for Women Founders as Capital Gap Remains Wide

Entreprenista's August roundup lists 13 grants open to women founders, a practical route to capital while priced equity rounds remain lopsided.

1 August 2026·6 min read

Jennifer Hyman Will Become Babylist CEO as Founder Natalie Gordon Moves to Executive Chair

Jennifer Hyman Will Become Babylist CEO as Founder Natalie Gordon Moves to Executive Chair

Babylist is handing the chief executive role to Rent the Runway co-founder Jennifer Hyman while founder Natalie Gordon shifts to executive chair.

29 July 2026·6 min read

Daisy Ramirez Launches BelongHere AI Companion App on iOS From Charlotte

Daisy Ramirez Launches BelongHere AI Companion App on iOS From Charlotte

The solo-built app pitches Presence AI for loneliness rather than novelty chat, arriving in a crowded and sensitive AI companion market.

1 August 2026·6 min read

Franziska Kirschner's Intropy Raises $11 Million for AI Spare Parts Platform

Franziska Kirschner's Intropy Raises $11 Million for AI Spare Parts Platform

Felix Capital led the London company's seed round to build an AI-native operating system for an unglamorous but vast spare parts industry.

1 August 2026·6 min read

MileOne Women Entrepreneurs Rock Series Builds Business Support for Laredo Founders

Women in Business

MileOne Women Entrepreneurs Rock Series Builds Business Support for Laredo Founders

MileOne's PNC-backed series links founder visibility in Laredo to coworking, incubator and cross-border support for women-owned businesses.

27 July 2026·6 min read

Founderland Extends July 24 Deadline for EUR 10,000 Forward Grants for Women Entrepreneurs

Founderland Extends July 24 Deadline for EUR 10,000 Forward Grants for Women Entrepreneurs

Founderland's extended July 24 deadline gives women entrepreneurs across Europe and the UK one more day to apply for EUR 10,000 equity-free Forward Grants.

24 July 2026·6 min read

Arti Modi's Consumer Genius Recognition Puts a Woman Co-Founder in the Performance Marketing Spotlight

Women in Business

Arti Modi's Consumer Genius Recognition Puts a Woman Co-Founder in the Performance Marketing Spotlight

Consumer Genius co-founder Arti Modi's Visionaries Network recognition surfaces a woman leading a cross-border performance marketing business.

24 July 2026·6 min read

Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin and Michaela Seewald Launch Fashion Studio to Help Designers Keep Ownership

Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin and Michaela Seewald Launch Fashion Studio to Help Designers Keep Ownership

Vanderbilt & Seewald Global Studio pitches capital, media and commerce infrastructure to help designers scale while keeping creative ownership.

24 July 2026·6 min read

Dr Heather Pressler's BlueHuki Wins Best of DC Creative Agency as Women-Owned Firms Join Celebration

Women in Business

Dr Heather Pressler's BlueHuki Wins Best of DC Creative Agency as Women-Owned Firms Join Celebration

BlueHuki's third consecutive Best of DC agency win puts Dr Heather Pressler's women-owned digital marketing firm in the current small-business spotlight.

21 July 2026·6 min read

Funded Female Founders V Brings Women Founders and Investors to San Francisco

Funded Female Founders V Brings Women Founders and Investors to San Francisco

Startup Grind's Funded Female Founders V event puts venture-backable women founders in the same San Francisco room as early-stage investors.

21 July 2026·6 min read

Paige Parker's Women-Owned Happenstance Whiskey Expands to New Jersey With Fedway

Paige Parker's Women-Owned Happenstance Whiskey Expands to New Jersey With Fedway

Happenstance Whiskey, led by founder Paige Parker, has expanded into New Jersey as the women-owned Nashville brand reaches seven states.

20 July 2026·6 min read

Anastasia de Jong Launches A Tall Box Denim Brand for Tall Women

A Tall Box founder Anastasia de Jong is opening preorders in August for a premium denim brand built for women 5'9" and above, with fit-first design across three body-shape-conscious cuts.

14 July 2026·6 min read

Anna Joo Fee's Goodfin Launches QSBS Venture Fund for Private-Market Investors

Anna Joo Fee's Goodfin Launches QSBS Venture Fund for Private-Market Investors

Goodfin, led by founder and CEO Anna Joo Fee, launched a Qualified Small Business Stock venture fund targeting Section 1202 tax treatment for accredited investors in early-stage, Y Combinator-backed startups.

14 July 2026·6 min read

Serafina Lalany Opens Onward FX Applications for Physical Economy Founders in Arkansas

Serafina Lalany Opens Onward FX Applications for Physical Economy Founders in Arkansas

Onward FX opened applications for a fall founder-funder cycle in Little Rock, matching physical-economy startups with investors and corporate partners across energy, defense, industrial technology and aerospace.

13 July 2026·6 min read

WIPO Highlights Navalayo Osembo-Ombati and Chantal Epp in Women Sport and IP Session

WIPO Highlights Navalayo Osembo-Ombati and Chantal Epp in Women Sport and IP Session

A WIPO session on Women, Sport and IP put founders from Kenya, the UK, China and Brazil at the center, showing how trademarks, licensing and image rights shape women-led sports businesses.

10 July 2026·6 min read

Women Who Win Opens International Pitch Competition for Zeta Entrepreneurs in Nashville

Women in Business

Women Who Win Opens International Pitch Competition for Zeta Entrepreneurs in Nashville

Zeta Phi Beta's Women Who Win initiative launched its first International Women Who Win Business Pitch Competition at Grand Boule in Nashville, adding capital and visibility to a growing entrepreneurship platform.

10 July 2026·6 min read

Te Kahukura Boynton Wins Moodi Female Founder Fund Top Grant for Māori Millionaire

Women in Business

Te Kahukura Boynton Wins Moodi Female Founder Fund Top Grant for Māori Millionaire

Moodi named Te Kahukura Boynton and Māori Millionaire as the top recipient in its 2026 Female Founder Fund, backing trauma-informed financial literacy for Māori and underserved communities.

4 July 2026·6 min read

Westpac Female Founder Awards Move Into July Judging After Entries Close Across Australia

Westpac Female Founder Awards Move Into July Judging After Entries Close Across Australia

Westpac's 2026 Female Founder Awards have closed applications and are moving into July judging, with a $30,000 Founder of the Year prize and a $120,000 paid ad campaign on the line.

4 July 2026·6 min read

Edition Opens 2026 Female Founder Grant for Women Building Tech Ventures in Aotearoa and Australia

Edition Opens 2026 Female Founder Grant for Women Building Tech Ventures in Aotearoa and Australia

Design and technology studio Edition has opened its second Female Founder Grant, offering $15,000 and strategic support for women building technology ventures in New Zealand and Australia.

29 June 2026·6 min read

Kripa Anand and She and Success Awards Close Canada Nominations for Women Entrepreneurs

Women in Business

Kripa Anand and She and Success Awards Close Canada Nominations for Women Entrepreneurs

Canada's new She and Success Business Awards closed nominations on 30 June, launching a national programme for women entrepreneurs, founders, executives and community leaders.

30 June 2026·6 min read

Women TechEU Opens First 2026 Cut-Off for EUR75,000 Deep-Tech Founder Grants

Women TechEU Opens First 2026 Cut-Off for EUR75,000 Deep-Tech Founder Grants

Women-led deep-tech startups in Europe reached the first weekly eligibility cut-off for the new Women TechEU 2026-2028 call on 30 June, opening a fresh route to non-dilutive funding.

30 June 2026·6 min read

Charlotte Louis Pivots SenterME Into Healthcare Workforce Intelligence in Raleigh

Charlotte Louis Pivots SenterME Into Healthcare Workforce Intelligence in Raleigh

Raleigh founder Charlotte Louis is repositioning SenterME from a consumer wellness app into a B2B healthcare workforce intelligence platform that helps employers spot burnout risk before it disrupts care.

24 June 2026·6 min read

Ariella Heffernan-Marks' Ovum Raises AUD 4 Million for Women's Health AI

Ariella Heffernan-Marks' Ovum Raises AUD 4 Million for Women's Health AI

Melbourne doctor-turned-founder Ariella Heffernan-Marks has raised AUD 4 million in seed capital to expand Ovum, an AI-powered women's health journal building a longitudinal dataset and clinical partnerships.

23 June 2026·7 min read

Liz Dennett's Endolith Wins VivaTech Female Founder Award in Paris

Liz Dennett's Endolith Wins VivaTech Female Founder Award in Paris

Liz Dennett's biomining startup Endolith has won VivaTech's 2026 Female Founder Award, putting a woman-led deeptech company at the centre of the energy-transition story.

20 June 2026·7 min read

Nisha Dua Says Emerging Venture Fund Managers Need a Clear Point of View

Nisha Dua Says Emerging Venture Fund Managers Need a Clear Point of View

BBG Ventures' Nisha Dua warns that as LP capital concentrates around established firms, emerging managers — and the women founders they back — need a sharper thesis to survive.

19 June 2026·6 min read

India Women Founders Gain Ground as Startup Study Puts Participation at 48.1%

India Women Founders Gain Ground as Startup Study Puts Participation at 48.1%

A new Sardar Patel University study covering 2016–2025 finds women now make up 48.1% of India's startup participation — a shift with real consequences for capital, credit and leadership.

14 June 2026·6 min read

Founders building quietly: a case against hype

Founders building quietly: a case against hype

Not every company should be a story. Some should just be a business. There is a generation of founders who have figured that out.

9 June 2026·6 min read

Regional women entrepreneurs: building outside the capital

Regional women entrepreneurs: building outside the capital

The most interesting founder stories are increasingly happening in places where the cost of being wrong is lower and the upside of being right is local.

9 June 2026·6 min read

The funding gap in startups, explained plainly

The funding gap in startups, explained plainly

The gap between what women-led startups raise and what their peers raise has been documented for years. Less time is spent on why it persists.

9 June 2026·7 min read