Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Kim Kardashian’s company Skims prepares for an IPO, fertility and period tracking app Flo Health is a unicorn, and there’s a new top-valued female-founded startup. Have a fantastic Wednesday!
– Healthy valuation. A few select startups have dominated the list of the highest-valued female-founded companies over the past few years—especially as markets have remained hostile to IPOs and more companies have chosen to remain private. A new funding round, however, puts a fresh name in the mix among the top female-founded and -led businesses.
Spring Health, led by cofounder and CEO April Koh, is now valued at $3.3 billion after raising a $100 million Series E round, I reported exclusively for Fortune this morning. That valuation places Spring near the top echelon of female-founded and -led startups—including Melanie Perkins’ Canva ($26 billion), Toyin Ajayi’s Cityblock ($6.3 billion), and Rachel Romer’s Guild ($4.4 billion).
“I’m very proud to be one of the few women to be leading a scaled business,” Koh told me this week. In 2021, the now 32-year-old became the youngest female founder leading a unicorn. Spring was last valued at $2.5 billion in 2023.
Spring Health is an AI-powered mental health startup that matches people with the right form of care; it mainly sells its service to employers and health plans.
Koh founded the company eight years ago after her own experience struggling to find the right kind of mental health care in college. Eight months ago, she became a parent, and she says that welcoming her daughter shaped her commitment to mental health.
“It’s given me a renewed sense of mission,” she says. “I was always very passionate about eliminating every barrier to mental health. And now I’m very passionate about building a better world for [her] and making sure if she ever struggles with her mental health that she is able to get care that works for her. I keep that in mind every day as I build Spring.”
Spring’s Series E was led by the growth-stage firm Generation Investment Management as the startup looks toward an IPO, although Koh says she’s in no rush.
For more on the round and Spring’s new valuation, read my story here.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Going public. Kim Kardashian’s apparel company Skims is preparing to lead an initial public offering, as early as the first half of 2025. The company was profitable in 2023 and brought in $750 million in revenue. The Information
- The unicorn. Flo Health, a female health app for fertility and period tracking, has been valued at over $1 billion, following the $200 million the startup raised in Series C funding. The app is the first in the “purely digital” femtech category with a unicorn valuation. TechCrunch
- Family first. Vladimir Putin is pushing Russian women to have more children, sacrificing their education and careers to raise large families, in an effort to raise Russia’s low childbirth rate and strengthen nationalism. Human rights advocates and feminists say this campaign is stripping women’s rights. Washington Post
- Abortion attitudes. Polling provides insight into how Americans feel about abortion ahead of the election. Notably, 54% of Americans identified as pro-choice in May 2024, compared to the 49% who identified that way in 2021. Forbes
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Collective Health appointed Halle Tecco to its board of directors. Tecco is the founder and former CEO of Rock Health.
Kustomer hired Lauren Gold as chief customer officer. Previously, she was senior vice president, customer success at Yext.
MindMed appointed Stephanie Fagan as chief corporate affairs officer. Fagan had been chief communications officer at Agenus.
ON MY RADAR
She’s a four-time Olympian. Her parents want her to get a real job Wall Street Journal
Women are America’s working class now Bloomberg
How a secret BJP war room mobilized female voters to win the Indian elections Wired
PARTING WORDS
“Lack of talent, lazy, Olympic champions.”
- Simone Biles’s Instagram caption after Team USA clinched gold in women’s gymnastics, an apparent response to former Olympian MyKayla Skinner’s earlier criticism of the squad.
