Feminvest Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Feminvest Ventures is a gender-lens venture platform built around a clear ownership thesis: back women-led companies and help shift capital toward founders who have historically been underfunded. The firm's own language consistently emphasizes female ownership, women-led startups, and a broader mission to accelerate women's ownership across the Nordic ecosystem. That framing matters. Feminvest is not presenting itself as a narrow sector specialist; it is applying a social and ownership lens to early-stage companies that can also produce commercial returns.
The most important pattern across the public materials is that the fund treats community as part of its sourcing and value creation engine. Feminvest describes itself as a Nordic hub and community for female entrepreneurs and investors, and the venture arm appears to draw deal flow, validation, and support from that broader network. In practice, that means the thesis is both financial and ecosystem-driven: identify women-led businesses with strong product-market potential, then amplify them through introductions, visibility, and trust-based support.
Public examples point to a recurring preference for businesses that can become category-defining in their own verticals. Digiclean, Charly, Imagi, Paebbl, DAAR, and Understatement span industrial tech, HR/financial planning software, edtech, climate materials, beauty, and consumer apparel. The commonality is not sector purity. It is a combination of female leadership, a credible commercial wedge, and a product that can create visible market change. The fund seems to like founders who are not only building companies, but also shifting norms around who gets capital and ownership.
Stage Focus
The clearest stage signal is early-stage. Third-party coverage and Feminvest's own announcements point to a focus from pre-seed through Series A, with the most visible activity centered on seed investments. The public record does not suggest a growth-stage or later buyout-style orientation. Instead, the fund appears to concentrate on companies that are still building distribution, establishing early revenue, or proving that a new category can scale.
That stage posture shows up in the company mix. Digiclean's seed round, the Charly and Imagi investments, and the Paebbl deal all sit in the early-stage window. The firm also appears willing to back a mix of software, consumer, and deeptech businesses so long as the founding team and ownership profile fit the mandate. The public materials do not support a more precise claim than early-stage, but the consistent direction is clear.
Check Size
A Sifted report and other public references point to an initial check range of roughly 2-5 million SEK, which is approximately USD 200k-500k depending on FX. That is a meaningful early-stage check size, but still small enough to fit a high-conviction, concentrated first check strategy. The firm also references follow-on capacity, so the public check size should be read as the likely initial entry point rather than a hard maximum for all situations.
Because the fund is still relatively young and its exact fund size is not publicly disclosed in the sources reviewed here, it is safer to treat the check range as directional rather than exact. The available evidence supports a modest first check with flexibility for follow-on participation when a company is performing well.
Lead Tendency
Feminvest Ventures appears to do both. Some of the public language suggests it can be a first believer or first backer, which is consistent with leading or anchoring early rounds. At the same time, the firm also shows evidence of investing alongside other funds and benefiting from syndication. The cleanest summary is that it is an early-stage investor that can lead when conviction is high, but does not seem constrained to only leading every deal.
Recent Activity
The recent record is active and materially informative. In June 2026, Feminvest Ventures celebrated Digiclean's EUR 2.5M seed round and noted that it had been the company's first backer. In the same month, the firm highlighted Digiclean's selection for the Next Impact Europe 50 and announced that portfolio company Charly had formed a partnership with SPP. Also in June, DAAR was launched into all H&M stores across Sweden, which is a strong retail distribution milestone for a consumer brand.
Earlier, in April 2026, Feminvest announced new investments in Charly and Imagi. In December 2025, it invested in Paebbl. In October 2025, it welcomed Lotta Cederbom as a partner, and in May 2026 it promoted Mareauline Bernitz to General Partner. That combination of investment and team activity suggests a fund that is still building momentum and expanding its operating capability while continuing to deploy capital.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio shows the fund's thesis in action.
- Digiclean: industrial process-fluid optimization and sensor-driven efficiency with visible traction in industrial sites.
- Charly: a B2B SaaS platform for employer-supported financial planning around parental leave and long-term financial inequality.
- Imagi: secure AI and computer-science tooling for schools, with public signals of adoption across schools and districts.
- Paebbl: carbon-negative building materials and CO₂ mineralization for construction and infrastructure.
- DAAR: a consumer beauty brand that has moved into broad H&M distribution in Sweden.
- Understatement: a Stockholm-based women-focused underwear brand that fits the broader women-led consumer portfolio.
The portfolio mix is notable because it is not pinned to one wedge sector. Feminvest is backing companies where female-led ownership and strong market pull matter more than pure category adjacency.
Team
- Michaela Berglund, Founder & CEO: the public face of Feminvest and the clearest source of the firm's ownership mission.
- Mareauline Bernitz, General Partner: publicly tied to multiple venture announcements and portfolio updates.
- Lotta Cederbom, Partner: joined during the firm's expansion phase.
- Rebecca Mboge, COO & Marketing Manager: supports the broader platform and community engine.
Decision Process
The public evidence points to a partnership-oriented process. Feminvest repeatedly uses founder-friendly language and frames itself as a trust-based partner rather than a purely transactional capital source. The public submit-pitch path also suggests inbound is possible, but the materials do not support a claim that the firm is purely open-door or purely committee-driven. The safest read is a collaborative process with relationship depth and community access as important inputs.
Founder Preferences
Feminvest clearly prefers women founders and women-led companies. The public materials also suggest several softer preferences: strong commercial potential, visible category or distribution advantage, and teams that can use community as a growth asset. The fund seems especially aligned with founders building in areas where the ownership story, product story, and social impact story reinforce each other.
There is also a strong preference for founders who can credibly serve complex or under-addressed use cases. Charly addresses a family finance problem around parental leave and pensions. Imagi solves a school AI/compliance issue. Paebbl tackles the carbon cost of construction materials. That pattern implies a founder profile that is both mission-driven and commercially grounded.
Geographic Focus
Feminvest is based in Stockholm and operates as a Nordic platform, with public positioning that emphasizes the Nordics repeatedly. The firm's footprint is clearly Swedish and Nordic first, but the portfolio shows selective international exposure through companies with broader commercial markets, including the US and continental Europe. The geographic center remains Sweden and the Nordic region, with international reach when the company thesis warrants it.
Sources
- https://www.feminvest.se/en/ventures/
- https://www.feminvest.se/en/about-us/
- https://www.feminvest.se/article/feminvest-ventures-invests-in-charly-and-imagi/
- https://www.feminvest.se/article/stockholm-22-december-2025
- https://www.feminvest.se/article/digiclean-selected-as-one-of-the-next-impact-europe-50/
- https://www.feminvest.se/article/feminvest-ventures-celebrates-digiclean%27s-eur-2.5m-seed-round-as-a-first-backer-of-the-company
- https://www.feminvest.se/article/feminvest-ventures-gor-sina-tva-forsta-investeringar-digiclean-ett-b2b-saas-green-techbolag-och-daar-ett-lonsamt-konsumentvarumarke./
- https://www.feminvest.se/article/mareauline-bernitz-appointed-general-partner-at-feminvest-ventures/
- https://www.feminvest.se/en/article/feminvest-vaxlar-upp-lotta-cederbom
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/feminvestsweden/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/feminvest-ventures/