By Business & Finance 
Elva Carri, Áine Mulloy and Pamela Newenham, co-founders, CirlCrew
In our Ones to Watch section, we highlight some of the top movers and shakers. This week we feature GirlCrew.
What is it?
GirlCrew is a social network for women to make new friends. Members can participate in online group chat and offline events, and many friendships have formed throughout GirlCrew’s network of more than 100,000 women. It operates through an app available on iOS and Android, and desktop, across the UK, Australia, Ireland, Canada, Belgium and the US.
Who’s behind it?
GirlCrew was founded by Elva Carri, Áine Mulloy and Pamela Newenham, The app launched in the summer of 2017.
How is it funded?
GirlCrew raised a seed round of almost $1 million from investors, including LinkedIn’s CEO, Jeff Weiner; Wrigley’s CMO, Orla Mitchell; Reddit’s Director of Data Science, Joe Gallagher; Aegis Corporate Strategy’s Managing Director, Hazel Hutchinson; PCH’s CEO, Liam Casey; Stanford University’s adjunct professor, Stuart Coulson; and Enterprise Ireland.
The funding will be used by GirlCrew to expand across the US, city by city, with thousands of women already on waiting lists to get the app.
GirlCrew also makes money from a number of different channels, including advertising, events, partnerships and subscriptions. It has a premium subscription offering, where it charges a monthly fee. Premium members get four hosted events per month as well as various discounts and their own private group.
The company also organises careers events called GirlCrew Pro in conjunction with Microsoft.
Future plans?
The US and UK are the main target markets in the first half of 2018. However, there is demand for GirlCrew everywhere and there is a waiting list of more than 100 cities worldwide where women have requested GirlCrew. The social network plans to make it really easy for women to find recommendations.
Ultimately, it aims to initiate an initial price offering (IPO).
