Good morning, Broadsheet readers! U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai made an important deal with Japan, Makiko Ono is the first female CEO of a public Japanese company worth more than ¥1 trillion ($7.55 billion), and two sisters take their company public. Happy Wednesday!
– A new home. Last week, an unusual IPO took place on the Nasdaq. Rhonda Wong and Race Wong, two sisters born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore, took their company public.
The pair are cofounders of Ohmyhome, a Singapore-based property tech platform that handles home purchases, sales, and rentals along with mortgages, renovations, and legal services. Since 2016, the company has supported 11,000 transactions.
The sisters moved back and forth between Singapore and Malaysia often during their childhood; they say their frequent moves inspired them to enter the property tech and real estate category. “We’ve always worked together. It never crossed our minds not to work together,” says Race Wong, the company’s COO.
Race and Rhonda Wong, cofounders of Ohmyhome.Courtesy of Ohmyhome Still, going public on a U.S. exchange was far from an obvious choice. The company’s IPO was small; it raised about $11 million priced at $4 a share. The listing was the first for a Singaporean company this year, a slow year for IPOs amid the market downturn. The market debut attracted some scrutiny in the Asian business press, with publications questioning why the startup would pursue an IPO and calling attention to a 2022 transaction that involved a family member and accounted for much of the year’s revenue (the company disclosed the transaction in its prospectus).
The two cofounders are honest about the main reason for their IPO: Their company is in need of capital. Rather than raise a private round, they elected to go public.
They say that listing on the Nasdaq is helping them build brand awareness for Ohmyhome, more so than private funding would. “It provides us with a reliable reputation, it expands our reach, it helps us work with developers and helps us reach out to customers better,” Rhonda Wong, who serves as CEO, says. With that brand awareness, they hope to become a partner for American businesses looking to expand in Singaporean real estate.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Kinsey Crowley. Subscribe here.
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- FDA to blame. A former FDA official said that the agency's siloed organizational structure and delayed response to sanitation concerns contributed to the baby formula shortage last year. The agency is undergoing massive turnover, with the director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Susan Mayne, announcing earlier this week that she will retire, as it struggles to define its role in food supply chain issues. Washington Post
- Quiz for founders. The Tory Burch Foundation is releasing a platform aimed at guiding female founders through deciding what type of funding is best for them. Foundation president Laurie Fabiano said that it aims to educate and support women entrepreneurs as they navigate funding for their companies. TechCrunch
- Trade framework. U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai has led a new trade agreement with Japan focused on minerals critical for electric vehicle manufacturing. The deal provides a framework for other countries and the EU, which the U.S. does not have free-trade agreements with, to bring them into the investment in clean energy ushered in by the Inflation Reduction Act. New York Times
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Tanya Giles is resigning from her role as chief programming officer for streaming at Paramount Global. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has appointed Lara Khouri as COO. Group gaming platform Immersive Gamebox named Katie Davidson as commercial director. Erica Gessert will join freelancer marketplace Upwork as CFO. Small business marketing company Vista has promoted Emily Whittaker to executive vice president of commerce and Christina Wick to senior vice president of product experience.
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- Worthy goal? Chief, the women's networking startup, has seen infighting among members on social media since International Women's Day. Some members say they have found great community and think the company is serving its purpose. Others have noticed a lack of public support for abortion rights and racial equality and wondered if its mission of advancing corporate women is worthy enough for the $7,900 membership fee. Chief's founders said that the company is not a social activism organization in response. New York Times
- King in prime time. CNN is close to closing a deal that would put Gayle King in a weekly prime-time spot as the network experiments with strategies that will bring ratings and viewership numbers up. Cable news channels are suffering from declining viewership across the board, but CNN has seen the steepest decline, with viewers down 35% from a year ago. Wall Street Journal
- Acquiring success. Makiko Ono is the new CEO of Suntory Beverage and Food and the first female CEO of a public Japanese company worth more than ¥1 trillion ($7.55 billion). She plans to lean into acquisitions, part of what brought her success in the lower ranks of the company, with $5.4 billion earmarked over the next few years for acquisitions that reflect consumers' growing taste for health-focused beverages after the pandemic. Japan Times
- Early signs. Carla Zaldua Aguirre and her team at startup Accexible have found a way to detect early signs of Alzheimer's. The program, which is accessible via computer, app, or phone, detects differences in speech patterns with 90% accuracy in just a few minutes. Currently, the app is being piloted for 10,000 patients and 40 practitioners in Spain, the U.K., and Colombia. Wired
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The women changing fashion Elle
Building Generative A.I. before it was cool with Angela Hoover from Andi TechCrunch
Kelly Ripa battled outrageous sexism as she became daytime’s top star Variety
Gladys Bentley was a gender outlaw Harper's Bazaar
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“I’ll walk away from anything. I always feel like I can make something else.”
—Kara Swisher told Vanity Fair
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