Good morning! Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard addresses the Signal chat leak, Olympic track and field will require DNA sex tests from female athletes, and a retail tech startup speaks to the power of the female-founder ecosystem.
- Circle back. Anu Duggal founded Female Founders Fund more than a decade ago with the idea to "build [her] own ecosystem" for women, developing a universe of female founders that could serve as an alternative to men's golf-course dealmaking.
A deal Female Founders Fund just struck proves that the ecosystem is steadily taking shape. The venture capital firm invested in its first repeat founder: Mariah Chase, who cofounded the plus-size fashion brand Eloquii, and is back with a retail tech startup called Ekyam.ai. Ekyam raised a $2 million pre-seed round, for which Female Founders Fund served as the lead investor, Fortune is the first to report. Greycroft, also a past Eloquii investor, also participated. Duggal calls the investment a "full-circle moment" and her "thesis coming to life."
