Happy International Women’s Day from TechNexus Venture Collaborative! As we celebrate the achievements of women, we want to highlight the incredible female-founded companies in our portfolio. According to Pitchbook, female founders received nearly $3.2B in VC funding for Q1 in 2023. As a company committed to inclusivity, diversity, and equity, we recognize the importance of investing in rising stars with unique experiences and perspectives. In honor of International Women’s Day, we’ll be highlighting the amazing female-led companies and entrepreneurs who are revolutionizing industries and making a difference. Join us in celebrating these remarkable women and the female-founded companies in our portfolio.
Atypical Artists | Founder: Lauren Shippen
To make the most compelling stories, one needs to empower a diverse and passionate set of creators. Atypical Artists, an-all-in house production studio, has cultivated fresh narratives across a wide breadth of entertainment mediums, from a core background of fiction podcast storytelling. Their team’s expertise in making audio drama podcasts from soup to nuts has Atypical Artists uniquely poised to help push the medium even further and bring audio storytelling to a whole new group of listeners.
Domino Sound | Founders: Alexandra di Palma & Kenya Denise
A queer, disabled Black woman-owned multimedia production company, network, and creative agency — making progressive, fresh & fierce media content. Domino Sound is a podcast studio that aims to bring equity to the world of podcasting by promoting acceptance, inclusion, and awareness through authentic storytelling. They have produced original shows and branded podcasts, and provide production services to clients. Their slate includes Food 4 Thot, Akimbo with Seth Godin, Raising Rebels, Scream, Queen!, The Color Grade, and The Cheat Code.
Dot Dot Dot | Founder: Laurie Segall
They’re transforming how artists and fans connect through the power and intimacy of audio. Osiris Media has created deeper connections for music fans, by creating and curating music and culture podcasts and experiences, and helping like-minded advertisers get in front of engaged customers. They’ve created deeper connections for music fans, by creating, curating music, and culture podcasts and experiences, and helping like-minded advertisers get in front of engaged customers.
Easol | Founder: Lisa Simpson
Want to manage your own experience business? Easol has provided an all-in-one toolkit for Experience Creators. A travel and experiences marketplace intended for creative entrepreneurs and independent brands. The company’s platform tools help discover and book unique trips, yoga retreats, trail running weekends, and music festivals by balancing human curation with clever algorithms, enabling travelers to travel to exciting places of their choice.
Frequency Machine | Founder: Stacey Book
Dive deep into stories from around the world. Frequency Machine has produced an extensive array of cinematic narratives and travel shows. Every project explores an astounding story. Sometimes that’s a single-episode format filled with fascinating tales from around the world — beer smuggling in Jerusalem, Game of Thrones conflict tourism in Belfast, doomsday prepping in Helsinki. Sometimes that’s a multi-episode arched series that unveils a thrilling story — like the exploits of the greatest conmen the world has ever seen.
Giide |Founder: Allison Kent-Smith
Speak to your audience in a way they’ll listen. Giide has developed an audio creation and publishing platform that aligns with the way modern media companies and large enterprises communicate. They give everyone in an organization the ability to create, publish, share, and track hyperlinked interactive audio. Their platform has double the analytics output of traditional audio or podcasts. With their help, one can track more than bookmarks and shares.
The Queer Family Podcast (FNA If Ovaries Could Talk) | Founders: Jaimie Kelton & Robin Hopkins
Put Your Eggs In Our Basket. The Queer Family Podcast is a podcast where two lesbians chat about making babies and non-traditional families. Each episode highlights and normalizes LGBTQ families for the rest of the world to see as well as acknowledging that they’re just like other parents who are trying not to yell at their kids when they refuse to put their shoes on and they’re 25 minutes late for school. Prominent guests such as Judy Gold, Iowa State Senator Zach Wahls, Staceyann Chin, Ophira Eisenberg, and Bravo TV’s The Abbys.
Kerning Cultures Network | Founder: Hebah Fisher
Kerning Cultures Network tells the kinds of stories in which they can actually see themselves. They have produced podcasts focused on celebrating and promoting Middle Eastern culture. They are the first venture-funded podcast company in the Middle East. Their podcasts are a digital revival of the region’s longstanding oral storytelling tradition. As children of the Middle East, they’ve grown up with media that doesn’t represent them. Their current line-up includes both English and Arabic podcasts, across genres, producing quality media that speaks to Arab youth in both languages.
Meet Cute | Founder: Naomi Shah
Immerse yourself in a romantic comedy in the time it takes to jog a mile, do the dishes or take a bath! Meet Cute has created a podcast focusing on romantic comedies. They produce and distribute original romantic comedies in podcast form that focus on providing the happiness and hope that have become synonymous with the timeless genre. Meet Cutes are short rom-coms that take you from Meet Cute to Happily Ever After in 15 minutes. Listen to Meet Cute, your audio best friend, for stories that inspire hope.
Sonoro | Founder: Camila Victoriano
Open your ears, expand your mind. Sonoro Studios has created the world’s best audio content in Spanish. They support leading Latinx voices and stories that inspire and empower. Their offices in the US and Mexico, serve the 500 million people around the world who speak Spanish. Sonoro collaborates with world-class storytellers to create content across a range of verticals that can be distributed broadly. Founded by experienced entrepreneurs and media executives, the Company is backed by leading investors, including Lerer Hippeau, Founder Collective and Podfund.
Swaypay | Founder: Kaeya Majmundar
Get rewarded for sharing your favorite brands. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok make billions off their user’s posts, and the Swaypay App exists to cut them into those earnings. Swaypay re-routes ad dollars back into the consumer’s pocket by democratizing influencer perks for all. Creators and social media users can earn up to 100% cashback on their favorite products by posting them on TikTok.
Symbl | Founder: Surbhi Rathore
Human conversations are messy. Their APIs are simple! Symbl has developed a conversational Intelligence API platform intended to empower developers to eliminate the complexity of creating conversation-driven experiences and provide untapped insight and action through human-to-human discussions. Their platform helps to empower developers to analyze voice and text conversations and extract actionable outcomes in real-time contextually, enabling clients to identify actionable insights across domains and channels in real-time.
The Dyrt | Founder: Sarah Smith
Camping starts here. Find camping for tents, trailers, RVs, and cabins with reviews and photos from campers like you. The Dyrt has provided a campground search and review application designed to offer reviews and information on campsites. Their application offers guidance for adventure trips, camping contests and camping games, enabling users to review campgrounds, earn points and win prizes. You can also plan your next summer trip with The Dyrt’s PRO trip planner.
The NewsWorthy | Founder: Erica Mandy
News made fast, fair, and fun in just 10 minutes. The NewsWorthy has provided a wide variety of the day’s news in less than 10 minutes each weekday. Award-winning broadcast journalist and former CBS news reporter Erica Mandy is on a mission to help people stay informed in a convenient, unbiased, and less depressing way with the daily news podcast. The NewsWorthy has been named a ‘Best Podcast’ by Harper’s Bazaar, recommended as a ‘Best News App’ by Fast Company, featured as a ‘Can’t Miss’ podcast on Stitcher, and more.
Kanarys | Founder: Mandy Price
Kanarys empowers organizations to build more equitable workplaces through a data-driven approach. Kanarys is transforming diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) with machine learning technology and natural language processing to serve as the “canary in the workplace” to help you detect DEI issues confronting your organization.
Bluedot | Founder: Selinay Parlak
What’s good for the planet should be good for your wallet. Bluedot allows for you to charge and earn rewards on EV driving with a single card. Track all your EV expenses and earn cash back wherever you spend. Bluedot card works at over 1000 public charging stations in California and provides up to 20% cash back as Oxygen Points any time you pay with Bluedot. Bluedot is dedicated to providing smart electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions for smart cities and SME owners. They re-define the EV driver experience and reshape the way private and corporate fleet companies join the e-mobility movement.