The tech entrepreneur who founded Peanut has secured funding from a women-only venture capital firm.
Michelle Kennedy founded Peanut earlier this year, which is a Tinder-style app that helps connect mothers with like-minded people.
She has received funding from New York-based venture capital firm, The Female Founders Fund, after being told by men in the industry that mums do not need her product as they “sit around all day.”
Kennedy, who played key roles in the success of Bumble and Badoo, has attracted 160,000 UK and US users to Peanut since it launched in February this year.
Regarding men in the industry, Kennedy said: “One said, ‘Mums don’t need this, they just sit around and drink coffee all day.’ Another said, ‘I’d better not give my wife this, she already spends enough time on her phone.’ These are appalling and infuriating assumptions.”
Kennedy stated that the main focus of creating the app was to prove men wrong, as statistically 85% of household spending decisions are in fact taken by women.
She co-founded the mother app, with Greg Orlowski, the co-founder and former chief technology officer of Deliveroo.
The app enables mothers to swipe up and give another mother a “wave” to connect with you and swiping down allows you to skip their profile.
It also lets women create group chats and organise face-to-face meetings.
Data from venture capital database Pitchbook suggests that female-founded companies typically receive less than 3% of venture funding.
Read more here.