Good day. The Federal Reserve is now likely to conduct just one interest-rate cut this year, down from prior projections of three cuts. How does the current Fed stance inform your investment, fundraising, liquidity and other plans in the venture market? Email responses to vcnews@wsj.com.

Last week, we asked what steps would help expand gender diversity in the venture and startup ecosystem. Here are edited excerpts from some of the responses.

Alyse Dunn, founder and CEO of the startup CareCopilot: “I'm convinced that the following two things will help. First, an authentic and enthusiastic commitment from individual investors to admit and resolve their personal biases. Most investors who I've met are good, honest people who are genuinely disappointed by the lack of funding going to female founders. Most investors are also adamantly unwilling to admit that they, as individual people, are contributing to that lack of funding with the decisions that they make every single day.

“Second, peer coaching between male and female founders. When I was conducting my first fundraise, I had the luxury of having many close relationships with (white) male founders. They illuminated the bold (and occasionally unethical) strategies that they used to conduct their raises. For example: My male peer told me how he would artificially double the 'committed' amount when speaking with prospective investors. I chose not to do that, but just learning how differently men were comfortable doing things like this was illuminating.”

Sharon Seemann, partner, marketing at YL Ventures: “Founders can expand gender diversity by developing dedicated, structured strategies with milestones for employee advancement and clear metrics for success based on merit and full gender-based transparency. It should be clear that founders should not compromise on quality for the sake of balance, but rather ensure that the scouting pool they choose from is made up of men and women in a balanced way.”

Lindy Fishburne, founder and managing partner at Breakout Ventures: “Forty-five percent of our investments are founded by a woman or have a female CEO because they are the best people for those roles and because social network theory is real. As a venture fund owned and managed by two female GPs, we have an advantage in meeting the best founders in the market, many of whom are women who want female investors on their boards. Increasing the number of female investors and fund managers is key to increasing support for female entrepreneurs.”

And now on to the news...

New funds for a changed market. Index Ventures could join a select group of venture firms that are hauling in megafunds this year, but its new vehicles reflect the scaled-down plans of today’s private-market investors.

• The global firm is looking to raise $1.5 billion for Index Ventures Growth VII, a fund that would back later-stage private companies, according to people familiar with the situation. That would be less than the amount Index collected in 2021 for its $2 billion sixth late-stage fund.
   
• Index is also raising $800 million for its next early-stage fund, Index Ventures XII, the people said. Its last fund in this category was $900 million in size.
   
• The downshift in Index’s growth strategy isn’t because of a lack of demand for the firm’s funds, but rather a reflection of market changes where fewer mature, private tech companies are raising large financings, people familiar with the situation said.

The founder and head doctor of telehealth company Done Global were arrested and charged with fraud, accused by federal authorities of conspiring to provide easy access to Adderall and other stimulants, The Wall Street Journal reports. Done founder Ruthia He and clinical leader David Brody allegedly arranged for the prescription of more than 40 million stimulant pills and targeted “drug seekers,” spending tens of millions of dollars on “deceptive” social-media advertising, according to the Justice Department.

• Attempts to reach Ruthia He were unsuccessful. She was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Los Angeles. In a brief appearance in federal court Thursday in San Francisco, David Brody pleaded not guilty.

Funds

Northleaf Capital Partners closed its Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund III at its 370 million Canadian dollar hard cap to invest in Canada-based venture capital and growth funds, and also make direct investments in later-stage companies.

Friends & Family Capital closed an oversubscribed $118 million third fund, bringing the firm’s total committed capital to over $350 million.

People

New Enterprise Associates said Partners Andrew Schoen and Blake Wu were elevated to the firm’s Venture Capital Investment Committee, and Alex Sharata was promoted to partner. Schoen and Wu joined NEA in 2014. Before joining the firm in 2020, Sharata was at Vista Equity Partners.

Bessemer Venture Partners promoted Alexandra Sukin to vice president. She joined the firm's analyst program in 2019.

Amber Therapeutics, a U.K.-based startup developing a treatment for mixed urinary incontinence, completed a $100 million Series A round. New Enterprise Associates led the round, which included participation from F-Prime Capital and others. NEA’s Tiffany Le and F-Prime’s Kevin Chu joined the company’s board.

Santa Ana Bio, an Alameda, Calif.-based startup developing targeted therapies for patients with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, emerged from stealth with $168 million in funding, including a $125 million Series B round. GV led the latest investment, which included additional support from Series A lead Versant Ventures and others.

Apex, a Los Angeles-based satellite bus manufacturing startup, scored $95 million in Series B funding co-led by XYZ Venture Capital and CRV.

AccountsIQ, a cloud-based accounting platform with offices in Dublin and London, landed €60 million in Series C funding from Axiom Equity.

Canary Technologies, a San Francisco-based hotel-guest-management technology provider, closed a $50 million Series C round led by Insight Partners.

Echion Technologies, a U.K.-based developer of niobium-based, fast-charging battery materials, picked up a £29 million investment led by Volta Energy Technologies.

Learn to Win, a Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of personalized enterprise training software, landed $30 million in Series A funding led by the Westly Group.

Moleculent, a Stockholm-based developer of technology to study the communication between cells in human tissue, closed a $26 million Series A round. ARCH Venture Partners led the investment, which included participation from Eir Ventures. ARCH’s Sean Kendall and Eir Ventures’ Magnus Persson joined the board. Patrick Weiss from ARCH was appointed chairman.

Companies such as IKEA are mapping chemicals in wood to know their provenance and keep illegal timber shipments out.

A court ruling against the SEC’s new private-fund rules ignores how much individuals invest in these funds. (🔒)

A new pitch to revive chewing gum sales.

🎧 Listen to Target’s supply-chain chief describe how the retailer coped with a steep overstocking problem while resetting its supply chain.

• Microsoft’s Nadella is building an AI Empire. OpenAI was just the first step.
   
• Apple sued by employees alleging unequal pay for women
   
• Ford Motor expands EV sales, service to all U.S. dealers
   
• Mini projectors show big movies easily. But how’s the picture quality?

This newsletter was compiled by Yuliya Chernova, Matthew Strozier and Zachary Cole.

WSJ Pro Venture Capital is a premium service of The Wall Street Journal. We cover venture capital and the global startup ecosystem. Share your tips, comments and questions: vcnews@wsj.com

The Team: Matthew Strozier, Yuliya Chernova, Brian Gormley, Angus Loten and Marc Vartabedian.

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