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The last few months have been incredibly busy, and we’re excited to announce that West Tenth has just completed a $1.5M seed round led by Better Ventures along with Stand Together Ventures Lab, Kapital Partners, The Community Fund, Backstage Capital, Wedbush Ventures, and Gaingels. You can find the official announcement here.
The investment comes at a time when the pandemic — and its devastating effect on women’s economic futures — has driven millions more women towards micro-entrepreneurship.
West Tenth is supporting those micro-entrepreneurs by helping women turn non-traditional talents into businesses they run from home. Through our easy-to-navigate app, West Tenth is connecting their home-based businesses to the people in their own communities who can benefit from their talents. It’s a place to discover and work with local home bakers, family photographers, home organizers, baby sleep consultants, home florists, and much more.
West Tenth was born out of the recognition that women have always looked to home-based business ownership when traditional employment fails to recognize their value or can’t give them the flexibility they need. We are dedicated to helping women who find themselves outside of the workforce turn their talents into businesses that lend value to their local communities, and remove some of the barriers that women face when becoming entrepreneurs.
Our mission is even more critical in the current economic climate where women have been disproportionately affected by the recent recession. In the words of our co-founder and CEO, Lyn Johnson:
“Even before COVID, 28 million women in the United States did not participate in the workforce. Women often struggle to return to work after they’ve been away for family reasons and this last year has made that problem even more pressing. But no one seems to recognize the incredible skill sets women develop inside the home. Our mission at West Tenth is to help women monetize domestic talents by creating a platform that connects them with the people in their community who could benefit from their skills.
We are looking forward to using this funding to continue supporting our community of home-based business owners through education channels including the newly launched “The Foundry by West Tenth”, expansion to additional markets within the U.S., and adding new members to our product team.
“We are proud to back founders whose mission is to democratize access to opportunity and prosperity. West Tenth provides a platform and community for women entrepreneurs to build their own businesses, at a time when women have left the workforce in record numbers. We are excited to support their mission to enable these women to turn their skills and talents into successful home-based businesses,” said Lyndsey Boucherle of Better Ventures and lead investor.
West Tenth is accepting new home-based businesses every day from women across the U.S. If you’re interested in joining the West Tenth community, you can download the West Tenth app from the App Store or Google Play and submit some information about your home-based business. If you’re a consumer interested in supporting home-based businesses, you can download the West Tenth app and connect with home-based businesses in your community now!
Make sure to visit www.westtenth.com or check out West Tenth on Instagram by following @w10th for the latest information.
- The West Tenth Team