SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Today, Revel, a West-coast based community and event platform for midlife women, is pleased to announce its acquisition of The Woolfer, the largest NYC-based social platform and website for women over 40. The newly integrated company, which will be called Revel, will become the most significant multi-platform community of women 40 +.
Revel has also announced a $3.5M Seed round led by August Capital. Additional investors include Forerunner Ventures, Y Combinator, Maveron, Alexis Ohanian, Villi Iltchev, Chris Bennett, Elizabeth Weil, Andy McLoughlin, and Gordon Sween.
Nina Lorez Collins, Founder of The Woolfer, will stay on as Chief Creative Officer of Revel. The Woolfer — which originated as a closed Facebook group in 2015 called "What Would Virginia Woolf Do?" — has seen significant organic growth, now reaching a tight-knit online community of over 25,000 women who live all over the country. Collins describes Woolfers as "a highly engaged and fiercely feminist group of likeminded women who gather in-person and virtually for open and honest discussions about everything from books, health, and relationships, to the funny and real aspects of aging." What started as an ironic question that Collins frequently asked herself as she entered perimenopause — and inspired her book: What Would Virginia Woolf Do? And Other Questions I Ask Myself As I Attempt to Age Without Apology published in April 2018 — has developed into a platform that helps tens of thousands of women navigate and take agency over their aging.
Today’s over 40 women are 83 million strong in the US. Studies have shown Gen Xers and Boomers have significant buying power and influence on other generations. They are even spending one-third more annually than millennials. Yet this group of women often feel overlooked, and seek communities and media that address who they are and what they are interested in.
"Our demographic has demonstrated that we want to be heard. We’re more settled in who we are than ever before and we’re very comfortable expressing ourselves. We’re also extremely busy, juggling careers, children, and elderly parents. Communities like The Woolfer and Revel help us problem solve and share what we’re going through with support, humor, and grace, and crucially, without judgement," added Collins.
When Revel launched in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2019, the platform allowed members of the community to self-organize in-person events with fellow members. The pandemic convinced Revel’s co-founders, Lisa Marrone and Alexa Wahr, to embrace virtual events sooner than planned, and by the end of 2020, Revelers were organizing more than 50 virtual events on the site each week, on topics ranging from a monthly Investment Club to a weekly Purpose & Age Conversation Group. Today the Revel community is over 5000 members strong, largely based in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Washington DC. Its acquisition of The Woolfer means doubling the size of their community and expanding their national footprint by adding women all over the country.
Revel has had technology at its core since the very beginning. In addition to a female-led engineering team, Revel designs the platform from the ground up, bucking the trend of designing for millennial/Gen Z audiences. User research is a pillar of the company’s design process, and Revel’s goal is to offer its users a safer, more intimate, more bespoke space to connect than other platforms like Meetup or Facebook
"We are thrilled to bring the Woolfers in to the Revel community. More members means more creative energy on the platform and more fun and interesting events, making us a richer and more vibrant space overnight," said Wahr. "Our shared mission is to ignite an empowered, confident, and supportive community of women worldwide, who defy outdated stereotypes about what is possible as women age — and this acquisition is a huge step forward towards achieving this vision."
Within the next few months, Revel will build a "Groups" feature, which is akin to the Community features "Woolfers" currently enjoy on their app and Facebook group. The fully integrated website is expected to launch in October as a one-stop destination for conversations and events and content for women over 40.
What Revelers can expect:
- A scalable tech platform (built by a female led engineering team) so that Revel can deliver on its mission to ignite an empowered, confident, and supportive community of women worldwide
- Former Woolfer members will now be able to self-organize events – no matter where in the country/world she lives! – using all the event creation tools that Revel has built
- More support of a larger staff which will enable more great programming & events, more community moderation, more stimulating voices.
- A new newsletter called "The Weekly Reveler" and a podcast, "Raging Gracefully"
About Revel
Revel was founded in 2019 by CEO Lisa Marrone and COO Alexa Wahr, two women in their mid-thirties whose vision quite literally extends beyond their years. Revel’s mission is to ignite an empowered, confident, and supportive community of women worldwide, who defy outdated stereotypes about what is possible as women age.
Early on, Revel earned a coveted spot with Y Combinator, a start-up incubator program that has helped launch more than 2,000 companies, including tech brands such as Dropbox, Airbnb, DoorDash and Instacart. The commitment from Y Combinator caught the attention of other big-name investors, including Forerunner Ventures. To date Revel has received $6M in Seed funding. Revel initially launched in the San Francisco Bay Area and has since expanded to Los Angeles, San Diego, and the Washington DC Metro Area. The acquisition of The Woolfer will expand Revel’s footprint across the United States. For more information, go to hellorevel.com.
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SOURCE The Woolfer
