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The teams at Rebel Girls, Dinosaur Polo Club, and Wisdom share how their experiences shaped the vision for their apps and games on the App Store. Apple

How She Grew Incredible Health Into A $1.65B Industry-Changing Company. Just Go Grind by Justin Gordon

Brightflow AI and CircleUp are now working together to help brands apply for business loans. PYMNTS

The certified B Corporation aims to reach an audience of 50 million girls by 2025 as it continues to publish new books and expand into new media and storytelling formats. Fast Company

Kelly Ifill was raised in an entrepreneurial Caribbean household in Brooklyn. Her grandmother ran a cleaning business, her uncle and cousins had a contracting company, and her aunt operated a landscaping enterprise. “You look at the tapestry of small businesses in America, and it almost mirrors the systems that my family has started. That’s the stock that I come from,” Ifill says. Like her family members, Ifill was determined to build something that she was passionate about, and that fulfilled the needs of fellow business owners. Atlantic Re:think

Kathryn Thiele, AIA, CSI, CDT, Founder and CEO of Buildstock, chairs the AIANY Emerging New York Architect Committee, where she helped to launch the AIANY TORCH Mentorship Program, a scholarship program, and hosts many events. Thiele is a licensed architect with over 10 years of experience in ground-up construction for high-rise buildings. Launched in January 2022, her company Buildstock recently closed its pre seed funding round and is actively hiring and working towards a 2023 Q1 live release with customers. AIA

Carrot Fertility won an Anthem Award for their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, recognizing the work they’re doing at Carrot to destigmatize menopause in the workplace. Anthem Awards

Juniper Square, the leading provider of partnership enablement for the private funds industry, today announced it has raised $133 million in growth capital. This investment was led by Owl Rock, a division of Blue Owl, with contributions from existing investors Ribbit Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Felicis Ventures and new investors Fifth Wall and Pappy Capital. Designed to provide GPs and LPs with a universal system to manage their private partnerships, Juniper Square will utilize this investment to accelerate innovation, expand its fund administration services and fuel rapid growth in private markets. Juniper Square

Idoru is an innovative and hyper-real, avatar-creation app that believes in the power of self-expression and its ability to change the world. Now open to the public to download for free, the platform serves as a unique medium for creativity, discovery and empowerment. Hypebae

Throughout his time as a lead product manager at Google and for the Affirm launch on Amazon.com, Tikue Anazodo noticed that checkout products – including the ones he helped build – were primarily catering to merchants, not consumers. New solutions were aimed at solving problems and easing pain points for merchants, and “the consumer in this equation had been, in a sense, left behind,” he said. That realization sparked a conversation with Ahmad Ismail – who shares a similar background of working at Google and Affirm – about how to create a consumer-focused smart wallet. After a few months of daily conversations about the idea, the two cofounded Kudos in 2021. Martech Record

I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise to you that, as former pastry chef and lover of all things delicious, I too am a MAJOR Brightland fan. So, I pulled a few strings (wink wink) and got a sneak peak (or should I say sneak taste) of this all new vinegar. And let me tell you folks, in just a few days, I’ve already used up a fourth of the bottle! Yes, it is that good. It is that unique, and that dynamic, and that fresh! Kitchn

A pair of Houston-based founders hit a major milestone as their digital creator platform went live out of its beta stage at the end of January. Clutch co-founders Madison Long and Simone May told the Houston Business Journal they are seeing immediate growth. Houston Inno

Female-focused telehealth startup, Teal Health, is popping up today to announce an $8.8 million seed round with a roster of heavy hitting investors on board — including (Serena Williams’) Serena Ventures, (Chelsea Clinton’s) Metrodora Ventures, and (Laurene Powell Jobs’) Emerson Collective. TechCrunch

These days it’s hard to imagine an experience in the digital world without some form of personalisation, whether it’s modifying your Google page, curating a specific playlist or a game character, we all want a personal experience that reflects who we are. In fact the idea of personalising your digital space has been around since the days of Winamp music players where you could modify the interface to your liking, and when games such as Sims were introduced to the world, the industry changed. As much as we have advanced in creating digital versions of ourselves, we still are yet to get a platform that represents our truest self…One company that is making strides in the digital world is Idoru. AFROPUNK

Notch has raised $10 million in its efforts to help the hospitality sector go digital. The company, which makes software for the food service industry, announced the funding — led by investment platform Portage — in a news release Thursday (Jan. 18). It comes as the restaurant industry is stepping up its efforts to drive digitization. PYMNTS

Phil Libin has already launched and sold several startups. His latest venture is mmhmm where he is working with his team to take virtual meetings to another level. On the Dealmakers Show Libin shared his journey of creating things, selling his first company for $26M, fundraising, and bringing efficiency to making new products. Plus, his insight on the main thing to unlocking team productivity, remote work, and the future of work. Alejandro Cremades Blog

As Courtney Caldwell stood more than 19,000 feet above sea level, she felt at peace. She was surrounded by glaciers and pure white snow. The scene looked like uncharted territory with few people and no sense of time or a reason to rush, just like heaven. Buffalo Inno

Four Sharks Circle This Eco-Friendly Outdoor Protection Company – Shark Tank ABC

Just short of a year after first demonstrating its autonomous hybrid-electric cargo vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft called the Chaparral, San Francisco Bay-area startup Elroy Air’s order book just grew by more than $100 million, the company announced Wednesday. Forbes

Engineer saw how diapers were made, thought she could do better—now she has a $250,000 ‘Shark Tank’ deal. CNBC