Media
CNBC: Investors see growth opportunity in Femtech devoted to women’s health
Yahoo Finance: ‘The dollars are massive’ when you invest in women’s health
Bloomberg: Getting More Women in Tech
Bloomberg: Why Only 2% of VC Money Went to Women
CNBC TechCheck Profile
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Bloomberg: Data Shows Female Founded Companies Perform Better
CBSN: Bringing diversity and equity to the venture capital funding process
Bloomberg: Maven Clinic Raises $110M to Transform Women & Family Care
Cheddar News: Addressing the Gender Health Equity Gap
CNBC: TechCheck chats with Maven
Marie Claire: Getting Down to Business with Deena Shakir
NBC Bay Area: Green Investing- Using Money to Make a Difference
Bloomberg: Equal Pay Day in the US
Al-Sa’at (The Hour): Axis of Laughter
Profile Features
Rock Health: Honorees of the Top 50 in Digital Health
Rock Health
December 8, 2021
Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, where she invests in transformative technologies improving lives and livelihoods.
WSJ: Nine Women Shaping Venture Capital’s Today and Tomorrow
WSJ Staff
October 8, 2021
Venture capital’s rising tide hasn’t lifted all boats. The proportion of female venture-capital investors increased only slightly in 2020, with women representing just 13.3% of all check-writers, according to an analysis by the nonprofit All Raise.
Business Insider: Lux Capital's Deena Shakir has risen to become one of the few Arab American women in VC.
Margaux MacColl
October 5, 2021
It's a memory that still gives the Lux Capital partner Deena Shakir goose bumps.
Shakir, an Arab American whose family immigrated from Iraq, was standing in her high school's gym when she heard the World Trade Center had been attacked. Her home was later vandalized, racial slurs written in chalk on her driveway.
TechCrunch: Lux Capital’s Deena Shakir is helping judge Startup Battlefield at this year’s Disrupt
Connie Loizos
August 28, 2021
Deena Shakir is a partner at Lux Capital, where she looks to invest in technologies that are streamlining analog industries while also improving lives and livelihoods. Among the companies she has backed, for example, are Shiru, which is leveraging computational design to create enhanced proteins to help feed the world; and AllStripes, which aggregates and analyzes medical records, then sells the de-identified data to pharma companies to help them develop medicines.
Business Insider: Meet the 30 Leaders Under 40 Changing Healthcare
Allison DeAngelis, Andrew Dunn, Blake Dodge, Jade Khatib, Megan Hernbroth, Mohana Ravindranth, & Shelby Livingston
August 16, 2021
Deena Shakir didn't have a linear path to venture capital, but now that she's writing checks, she wants to make sure she's supporting digital-health founders with a similar winding path. As a general partner at Lux Capital, a $4 billion Silicon Valley firm, Shakir typically funds Series A- and Series B-stage digital-health companies such as SteadyMD and Galileo.
TechCrunch: Lux Capital’s Deena Shakir Sees Space and Frontier Tech Going Mainstream Right Now
Connie Loizos
December 14, 2020
Deena Shakir joined Lux Capital as a partner last year after spending seven years with Google, the last of them with GV, Google’s venture unit.
Kauffman Fellows: Deena Shakir on Embracing Entrepreneurship for Global Impact
Kauffman Fellows
November 9, 2020
In 2008, graduating senior Deena Shakir delivered an encouraging message during her Harvard Oration, reminding her class that they were not only united in their mutual experiences at Harvard and graduation date, but also by the challenges–and opportunities–ahead.
All Raise: Lux Capital Partner Deena Shakir’s Unconventional Path
Sri Muppidi
August 17, 2020
Deena Shakir is a Partner at Lux Capital, where she invests in transformative technologies streamlining analog industries and improving lives and livelihoods.
Think Outside the Odds: How to Craft Your Career by Existing in Hyphens
Vedika Dayal
August 18, 2021
“Did you bake the cookies?” He asked her.Deena Shakir was one of the few female partners at Google’s venture capital arm, GV, at the time.
Forbes: How This Lux Capital GP Went From The Obama Administration To Google To Investor
Paulina Karpis
November 20, 2019
A few weeks ago, Lux Capital Partner Deena Shakir found herself showing a preschool class how to turn seed funding into a unicorn. This may seem impossible (after all, kids this age might not even understand the concept of money yet), but it was career day at her children’s preschool, and she wanted to share what she does.
Huffpost: 10 Inspiring Arab-American Leaders To Watch In 2017
Maimah Karmo
August 16, 2017
Arab Americans have been an integral part of American society from its founding years. They have served in Congress and in the Cabinet, founded and led Fortune 500 U.S. -based firms, fought in all major U.S. wars, and made contributions to the arts, media, and science- among all other areas of American society.
Hockeystick: How Deena Shakir Is Building Bridges Between Silicon Valley and the MENA Region
Katie Rankin
February 7, 2019
Ten years ago, Deena Shakir was working at the U.S. State Department in the office of Secretary Clinton. As part of her role as a Presidential Management Fellow, she was helping launch an effort around diaspora entrepreneurship.
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TechCrunch: Amira Yahyaoui wants Mos to be a ‘radical’ fintech startup
Natasha Mascarenhas
February 3, 2022
Human rights activist and Mos founder Amira Yahyaoui couldn’t afford to go to college, so when she first launched a platform to connect students to scholarships, the innovation felt full circle. Since its 2017 inception, Mos has opened access to a pool of over $160 billion in financial aid to the more than 400,000 students within its community.
TechCrunch: Edtech’s search for the magic metric
Soulaima Gourani
February 5, 2022
If there’s one sector that is incessantly in pursuit of Magic Metrics, it’s edtech. For the past two years, I’ve spoken with every top investor and founder in the industry and each of them have made their own, independent arguments for what is considered an effective outcome in education.
Forbes: How Arab Women are Making Waves in Tech
Soulaima Gourani
January 19, 2022
Arab-Americans are at the forefront of realizing technology's most significant potential, providing positive changes to America and the Arab World. However, like many other hyphenated "x-Americans," their capacity to accommodate two distinct worlds can be exhausting, primarily as perceptions sway with every negative news story feeding us a "them" versus a "us" mentality.
Forbes: Nature Is Sexist. Can Advances In Longevity Biotechnology Help Restore Reproductive Equality?
Alex Zhavoronkov
January 12, 2022
Evolution is a great concept. As AI scientists we use it all the time to develop better algorithms rewarding and punishing them according to their actions in simulated environments. But when nature does it to us it feels very cruel.
Bloomberg: Startup Investors are Bracing for a Value Correction
Newsletter
December 17, 2021
It’s been an active four quarters for technology IPOs. If you rewind the clock to Q4 2020, we’ve seen megawatt public debuts from tech shops of all sorts. Airbnb recovered from COVID-19-induced lows to list, while Roblox delayed its IPO and went out with a direct listing. DoorDash went public. C3.ai had an explosive offering late last year as well.
Fortune: Female founders are crashing the billionaire clubJanice Bitters Turi
November 29, 2021
Spanx founder Sara Blakely has it. On this November morning she’s at her Atlanta office, lounging on a red, white, and black paint-splatter-patterned couch and dressed, appropriately enough, in Spanx’s new loungewear. “Mick Jagger just asked me to send him these,” she says by way of introduction, gesturing at the cozy-looking set.
Crunchbase: VC Investment Soars For Fertility Services Even As Birthrate Dips
Janice Bitters Turi
October 20, 2021
Deena Shakir, partner at VC firm Lux Capital, spends a lot of time thinking about the future of fertility. Lux Capital, which specializes in early-stage investments in science and technology, has led funding rounds for multiple fertility and related startups in recent years. Shakir, who helped lead the charge on those investments, also spends her free time writing think-pieces on the subject.
TechCrunch: What You Should Know About Public Markets
Alex Wilhelm
October 18, 2021
It’s been an active four quarters for technology IPOs. If you rewind the clock to Q4 2020, we’ve seen megawatt public debuts from tech shops of all sorts. Airbnb recovered from COVID-19-induced lows to list, while Roblox delayed its IPO and went out with a direct listing. DoorDash went public. C3.ai had an explosive offering late last year as well.
Business Insider: VC money used to be trapped in Silicon Valley
Emil Skandul
October 23, 2021
With the pandemic still ongoing and employees reluctant to return to the office, remote work has dramatically impacted where startups and their employees are located. The digitally-enabled workforce is everywhere: They are timezone hoppers, part-time urbanists and ruralists, beach-bound coffee shop nine-to-fivers, and office loyalists.
BizWomen: Food startups draw celebrity women investors
Caitlin Mullen
October 5, 2021
Health and wellness, another category popular with women celebrity investors, often overlaps with food and beverage; Paltrow invested in THC-infused drink company Cann last year and has referred to cannabis as a “hero ingredient of the future.”
Axios: A generational shift on women's health
Tina Reed
October 9, 2021
When it comes to women's health, Americans — and the advertisers that market to them — are getting blunter.
MedCityNews: Investors see promise in digital health
Elise Reuter
September 22, 2021
VCs at MedCity INVEST Digital Health said there’s no shortage of interesting digital health companies, even ones that can prove their innovations are effective.
Female founders are flourishing in New York. A top angel investor explains why.
April Joyner
September 10, 2021
For women seeking to build billion-dollar companies, the Big Apple is the place to be. New York City led the US in the number of VC deals since 2017 going to startups founded exclusively by women, according to data from PitchBook.
Business Insider: WFH Warriors
Candy Cheng
July 19, 2021
It goes without saying, working parents have had a tough year.
Between school closures, online learning, and preparing endless meals — while trying to maintain Zoom calls and meet work deadlines — it's no wonder parents are leaving the workforce in record droves.
Business Insider: About 40 VCs passed on funding Maven Clinic
Candy Cheng
August 24, 2021
In the winter of 2016, Maven Clinic founder and CEO Kate Ryder addressed a group of male VCs to pitch her startup, a first-of-its-kind virtual clinic dedicated to women's and family health.
Business Insider: Meet the 24 Biotech Startups That Top VCs Say Are Poised To Take Off
Allison DeAngelis & Andrew Dunn
August 2, 2021
Every day seems to record a fundraising and launch a new company in the biotech industry. Businesshala spoke with some of the smartest and most plug-in venture capitalists in biotech to pinpoint the most exciting startups.
TechCrunch: Maven’s comprehensive approach to women’s health earns it unicorn status
Natasha Mascarenhas
August 17, 2021
For Kate Ryder, the founder of women’s health clinic and benefits platform Maven, business is personal.
Morning Brew: 2021 is a Unicorn Frenzy
Jordan McDonald
June 28, 2021
Unicorns are supposed to be rare beasts of fables and folktales, but in the current venture capital landscape, they’re abundant. Just five months into 2021, there were 199 new companies that reached unicorn status (a private company with a $1+ billion valuation), eclipsing the 163 companies that reached unicorn status in all of 2020, according to Crunchbase data shared with Emerging Tech Brew.
Fierce Health: Maven Clinic nabs $110M funding round and a boost from Oprah to reach unicorn status
Heather Landi
August 17, 2021
Maven Clinic, a female-founded company focused on women's and family health, has reached unicorn status, a first for the sector. Its $110 million series D funding round also was backed by a female investor, Deena Shakir, partner at Lux Capital, and got a boost from Orpah Winfrey as a new backer.
Business Insider: Gen Z women are using everything from CBD tampons to custom birth control to take command of their periods.
Margaux MacColl
May 21, 2021
"Getting your period under control? Big flex," Aavia's website declares.
STAT News: There’s a Gold Rush in Health Tech. Here’s How The Smart Money Stays Ahead
Damian Garde
May 12, 2021
Investors are pouring into the health tech sector, with venture funding roughly doubling in 2020. That’s good for individual companies, but when valuations begin to depart from reality, it takes discerning investors to pick winners in the space.
TechCrunch: This Startup Wants To Bring Clarity To the Complex World of IVF
Natasha Mascarenhas
May 6, 2021
About 180 million people globally suffer from infertility. In the United States, one in eight families have trouble conceiving. The statistics are only getting worse, as male infertility and miscarriages continue to increase.
TechCrunch: Should Startups Build or Buy Telehealth Infrastructure?
Natasha Mascarenhas
May 17, 2021
Digital health in the U.S. got a huge boost from COVID-19 as more people started consulting physicians and urgent care providers remotely in the midst of lockdowns. So much so that McKinsey estimates that up to $250 billion of the current healthcare expenditure in the U.S. has the potential to be spent virtually.
Mobi Health News: AI-Enabled Fertility Company Alife Scores $9.5M in Seed Funding
Mallory Hacket
May 3, 2021
Artificial intelligence fertility startup Alife announced today it has raised $9.5 million in Seed funding. Lux Capital led the round with participation from Amplo, IA Ventures and Springbank Collective.
Wall Street Journal: Lux Capital Leads Seed Financing for Fertility-Tech Startup Alife
Brian Gormley
May 3, 2021
Lux Capital has led a $9.5 million seed financing for Alife Health Inc., a startup planning to use artificial intelligence to give patients their best shot at success when undergoing in vitro fertilization.
Business Insider: Women Struggling To Get Pregnant Face Huge Bills For Infertility Treatments.
Margaux MacColl
May 3, 2021
Data shows that one in eight women struggle with infertility. And in vitro fertilization, the most popular treatment they seek to help them conceive, can cost $20,000 per cycle and often takes several attempts.
Crunchbase: Alife Health Aims To Improve IVF Outcomes With $9.5M Seed
Christine Hall
May 3, 2021
Investors infused $9.5 million of seed funding into fertility technology company Alife Health, which is building a modern operating system for in vitro fertilization (IVF) designed to improve reproductive outcomes.
Crunchbase: Creating A Safer Birth Control: Adyn Raises $2.5M Seed
Christine Hall
April 19, 2021
In addition to birth control, adyn is considering other hormonal use cases, including menopause, as well as leveraging data to understand if a diagnosis of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) or endometriosis could be made with less invasive diagnostic methods. Meanwhile, Lux Capital Partner Deena Shakir said in a statement that adyn is offering better options for women related to family planning and control over their health.
TechCrunch: Investors Still Love Software More Than Life
Alex Wilhelm
March 6, 2021
Despite some recent market volatility, the valuations that software companies have generally been able to command in recent quarters have been impressive. On Friday, we took a look into why that was the case, and where the valuations could be a bit more bubbly than others. Per a report written by few Battery Ventures investors, it stands to reason that the middle of the SaaS market could be where valuation inflation is at its peak.
Protocol: 2020 Facilitated a Digital Health Surge. What New Pain Point Has Been Revealed?
Kevin McAllister
February 25, 2021
Data ownership questions, infrastructure improvements and longevity have become focal points, according to members of Protocol's Braintrust.
Crunchbase: Why More Startups And VCs Are Finally Pursuing the Menopause Market
Christine Hall
January 21, 2021
“Part of the problem is who is around the table controlling the dollars,” Deena Shakir, partner at Lux Capital, told Crunchbase News. “There is something much deeper there, like ageism and sexism, but if it was driven by market opportunity, hopefully that will mitigate biases.”
TechCrunch: VCs Dispense With Niceties During Capitol Riots
Connie Loizos
January 6, 2021
Deena Shakir of Lux Capital used to work for the Obama administration and is transparent on Twitter about her political perspective. But she says of today’s events that they “are not about politics.
Wall Street Journal: Health-Tech Startup H1 Grabs $58 Million in Second Venture Financing This Year
Brian Gormley
December 17, 2020
H1 Inc. has secured $58 million for its second venture financing this year to help drug and medical-technology companies spot the top doctors in their sectors. New York-based H1 says it has created profiles of more than nine million physicians and other medical professional
Orrick: Learning From 2020- We Can’t Lose Ground
Kate O’Laughlin
December 7, 2020
Three leaders in the tech and venture ecosystem connect with Orrick’s Kate O’Laughlin to discuss the year of stunning change, its impact on women and PitchBook’s recent All In takeaways.
TechCrunch: Leading VCs Discuss How COVID-19 Has Impacted the World of Digital Health
Arman Tabatabai
March 31, 2020
Given significant volatility and the rapid changes seen in the worlds of healthcare, venture and startups broadly, we wanted to understand which inefficiencies might have been brought to light, what new opportunities might exist for founders looking to reduce friction in healthcare systems, how digital health startups have been impacted and how health tech investing as a whole has changed.