Newsroom
A curated view of the venture capital and investment stories we are tracking — across women-led ventures, wellness and health tech, emerging-economy capital, and AI technology. Sources are linked so you can read further.
Women-Led Ventures
Women remain drastically underfunded, yet female-founded companies consistently outperform on revenue-per-dollar invested. New funds are emerging to back the female economy.
Cybersecurity startup Pluto Security launched from stealth after securing $42 million in funding to protect employee-built AI tools. The female-led company operates across Israel and the United States with over 50 employees.
Nigeria is now home to 128 active healthtech companies according to a 2026 TechCabal Insights industry report. Half of these operating startups launched within the past five years despite broader venture financing headwinds.
Angel investment network Golden Seeds crossed $200 million in cumulative capital deployed into women-led companies since its 2004 inception. The firm maintains nine active chapters and angel investor members across 28 states and Washington D.C.
Venture capital investment into Irish women-led startups reached €200.01 million in 2024, reflecting a 39% annual increase according to PitchBook data. Additionally, female-led fund WakeUp Capital was allocated €25 million under the Irish Innovation Seed Fund program.
A World Bank initiative in Morocco helped generate over 4,000 direct jobs through private capital mobilization. Women-led businesses secured 27% of the total project financing, exceeding targeted gender milestones.
Seed-stage venture fund Five35 Ventures has added five new and follow-on investments across logistics, mobility, health, and grocery tech. The pan-African fund is targeting a $30 million final close to back technology companies with gender-diverse leadership.
Alitheia Capital has launched an initiative to bridge capability and capital deficits for more than 300 women-led businesses in Nigeria. The private equity firm manages over $250 million in assets focused on gender-diverse and growth-stage enterprises across Africa.
HerCapital Africa has supported 70 female founders with business development resources and financing pathways. The initiative operates under the Mumsbooth Empowerment Initiative to increase economic inclusion for female-led ventures.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation announced 3,200 entrepreneurs for its 2026 entrepreneurship cohort across Africa. Women founders represent 51% of the newly selected cohort receiving seed capital and training.
Wellness & Health Tech
Wellness and digital health continue to attract meaningful capital, from metabolic health wearables to longevity and obesity-care platforms.
Nigerian genomics startup 54gene raised $4.5 million in seed funding to focus on African DNA research and healthcare solutions. The transaction represents one of the largest seed investments recorded for a health tech company in Nigeria.
Venture funds including TRB Advisors and Saviu Ventures are deploying capital into health and tech platforms across Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, and Senegal. Portfolio companies like MDaaS Global continue expanding tech-enabled diagnostic centres into underserved communities.
Financial wellness startup Immediate has completed a $13 million Series B funding round. The capital raise follows multiple institutional funding rounds completed since the company was founded in 2019.
AI assistant startup Instinct is in discussions to raise at least $200 million in a new round valuing the company at over $2.5 billion. The potential round follows a $75 million Series A led by Kleiner Perkins at a $500 million valuation.
Wellness retailer Healf secured a nine-figure growth investment from SEMCAP Beauty & Wellness to scale its consumer health platform.
Wearable metabolic-health startup Ultrahuman is raising roughly $60 million in a Series C led by Qualcomm Ventures, with Alpha Wave and others participating.
Fierce Healthcare’s 2026 fundraising tracker tracks the venture capital flowing into health tech and digital health, including a $75M round for Happy Health.
Emerging Economy
Africa’s industrial and capital-markets story is accelerating — anchored by large-scale bets from figures like Aliko Dangote and backed by pan-African institutions.
Dangote is structuring a Kenya-based investment vehicle letting African savers pool capital directly into Dangote Group companies and earn dollar dividends.
East African nations were offered a combined 30% equity stake in Dangote’s planned Kenyan oil refinery, opening regional access to roughly $1.5B of the project.
Africa’s richest man makes the case for domestic capital leadership, arguing that home-grown industrial investment is what draws global capital in behind it.
AI Technology
AI continues to absorb the lion’s share of global venture capital, with mega-rounds concentrating in a handful of foundation-model and robotics companies.
General Intuition, building foundation models for AI agents that move through space, is raising at a $6B pre-money valuation to push into robotics.
Stability AI raised $76M for purpose-built AI products across music, gaming, and entertainment for professional creatives.
AI-focused funding has pushed global startup investment to record levels, but the gains are highly concentrated — the U.S. alone captured nearly 80% of financing.
Editorial Note
This newsroom is an editorial summary of publicly reported developments, curated for the sectors Sothes LLC follows. Each entry links to its original source for verification. Figures and timelines reflect what was reported at the time of publication.
If you are building in women-led ventures, wellness, emerging markets, or AI, we would like to hear from you.
