[Funding alert] Women's leadership network Chief enters unicorn club with $100M in Series B round

Chief, a US-based private network for women in leadership, has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by CapitalG, an independent growth fund of Google parent company, Alphabet, at a valuation of $1.1 billion. With this, the company has entered into the unicorn club.

The round also saw participation from General Catalyst, GGV Capital, Inspired Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, and BoxGroup. 

As part of the deal, CapitalG General Partner Laela Sturdy has joined the Chief board of directors.

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The company said the fresh capital will be used to invest in its platform, including the addition of more personalisation features that better connect members and serve them relevant business insights, as per a TechCrunch report.

Founded by CEO Carolyn Childers and Lindsay Kaplan in 2019, Chief’s platform now has more than 12,000 female business leaders - largely C-suite executives and vice presidents - in its network, from companies including HBO, American Express, Nike, Google, Goldman Sachs, NASA, Apple, IBM, Netflix, and Lockheed Martin. Another 60,000 women are on its waitlist, the TC report added.

The company is also committing $1 million a year to non-profits that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in executive leadership.

Earlier this year, CapitalG also participated in a $80 million Series C funding round of Jakarta and Bengaluru-based Lummo (formerly BukuKas), a software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup that helps small companies get online, much like Shopify, along with Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital India. It also backed Gurugram-based financial technology company Aye Finance in June 2020 in a Rs 210 crore Series E funding round, along with Aye’s existing investors LGT Lightstone, Falcon Edge Capital, A91 Partners, and MAJ Invest.

CapitalG also led a Series B round of $15 million in Bengaluru’s afterschool math learning platform Cuemath in 2017, shortly before the edtech startup pivoted to an online coaching model.