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A digital pharmacy with $110 million in venture capital is the most funded company on Forbes 30 Under 30 2021. The women-founded companies on the list fall far short of that.
MFr. It is the demographic group that received the highest funding for the Forbes 30 Under 30 2021 list. companies founded by people under 30 who have publicly announced funding of $15 million or more – and none of these women are BIPOC. Although these winners work in 12 sectors, enterprise technology represents 26% of these companies. This shows that venture capitalists still largely throw their money, smarts, and pedigree behind B2B-focused male founders.
The only 100% female-founded company with more than $15 million in funding is remote conferencing startup Run The World. Founded by Facebook alumni Xuan Jiang and Xiaoyin Qu in October 2019, Run The World has become the venue for more than 10,000 virtual events, including those hosted by OpenTable and Andreessen Horowitz (which, along with Founders Fund, helped fund of the company’s $15 million). In the increasingly crowded space of video conferencing platforms, Run The World has won over enterprise customers with features like a “virtual cocktail party” that splits people into one-on-one five-minute conversations, making small talk at the buffet easier in couch-age socialization.
Social distancing also helped make Medly Pharmacy the best-funded company founded by 30 under 30s in 2021 with $110 million in venture capital backing. It makes sense. Medly is a digital pharmacy, an essential innovation in the era of Covid-19. Founded by 25-year-old Chirag Kulkarni, the company is dispensing same-day prescriptions, serving 70,000 patients by July this year and expects more than $200 million in revenue in 2020.
But no one proves that a big idea, rather than big revenue, can attract big venture capital funding quite like Matthew Roberts, whose pre-launch coffee company is endowed with $50 million. Like Keurig, Cometeer coffee is packaged in individual pods, only Cometeers are frozen in liquid nitrogen at -321 degrees, delivered to consumers on dry ice for $64 a month, and must be melted for consumption. The company is backed by Flatiron Health founders Warby Parker and Allbirds, and intends to launch in early 2021.
Alternative coffee seems like the perfect beverage for Prime Roots, an $18 million company-backed alternative meat and seafood company, the top-funded female-founded company on the Forbes 30 Under 30 2021 list. Prime Roots makes a turkey alternative — complete with breasts and wings — as well as bacon, beef, and other meat-based favorites. Co-founder Kimberlie Le, who is the company’s main foodie, discovered the environmental tax on meat consumption while graduating in microbiology at Berkeley, and dropped out to start Prime Roots as a Thiel Fellow . Today, the fake meats are available at San Francisco-area organic grocers and to all American consumers online.
The only 100% female-founded company with more than $15 million in funding is remote conferencing startup Run The World.
While venture capital backing is just one route to a successful startup, the 2021 Forbes 30 Under 30 Big Money list proves that women, especially BIPOC women, may not have access to this route. It deserves the attention, controls and ultimately the unlocking of venture capitalists who have the power to decide who succeeds in the entrepreneurial economy.
For a link to our full Big Money list, Click here and for full 30 Under 30 coverage, Click here.
