Female entrepreneurs and founders have always been overlooked as well as under-represented by venture firms when it comes to accessing venture capital. However, this has led to the emerging trend of venture firms that focus on investing in female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses to address this gap
Below we’ve curated a list of some of the VC firms that focus on investing in female founders and women-led businesses across the UK.
Fund F
Fund F invests in gender-diverse founder teams who are solving the biggest challenges of the 21st century including climate, female health, finance and insurance and human resources.
Fund F are convinced that technology will continue to define how we all live, work & interact with each other. Hence the venture firm invests in companies that address a huge market, while creating an impact by improving the lives of millions of people.
Visit Fund F to learn more about their fund
Angel Academe
Angel Academe is a network for professional women with extensive business experience who support tech entrepreneurs. It is an award-winning angel network with investors, made up of mostly women who back ambitious tech startups with at least one woman on the founding team. Angel Academe members have invested in 35 tech startups/scale-ups including such as EnterpriseAlumni, The Dots, Nuggets, Applied, Doppel, Higher Steaks.
According to Angel Academe, the network makes it easy, fun and rewarding for women and men who want to be part of a diverse angel community.
Visit Angel Academe to learn more about their network.
Fund Her North
With a total investment capacity of over £140 million, Fund Her North is a unique community of vocal influential women investors and successful, inspirational entrepreneurs, united to tackle the many barriers facing women accessing investment.
Every quarter, 6 start-ups are invited to pitch to their combined networks of investors and funding partners at a virtual pitch event facilitated by Fund Her North. These events are open to the public to encourage more entrepreneurs to apply for funding.
Pitch events are delivered by two investment groups, NorthInvest, a not-for-profit organisation based in Leeds that helps tech and digital start-ups across the North of England raise angel investment and access crucial expert support to help them fulfil their potential, and Manchester-based GC Angels, a leading Angel service driven by experienced equity specialists.
Visit Fund Her North to learn more.
NorthInvest
NorthInvest have facilitated over £8m in funding for early stage start-ups and delivered over 630 free investment readiness coaching sessions to entrepreneurs. With an angel network of over 130 private investors, 14% of which are women. NorthInvest views collaboration across the funding and investment community as a crucial step in addressing the gender investment disparity and encourage more women to become angel investors.
Visit NorthInvest to learn more.
GC Angels
GC Angels responds to the early-stage equity market gap, scaling investment activity and unlocking innovation across the North. GC Angels actively invests in women founders, with over 40% of their capital going to a business with a female founder, and champions greater representation of women in the Angel community.
Visit GC Angels to learn more.
Ada Ventures
Ada Ventures is a venture capital fund, backed by entrepreneurs and a group of global, mission-aligned investors. The fund invests in overlooked founders and overlooked markets. Ada Ventures is named after Ada Lovelace, the pioneering computer programmer, and mathematician, who was never recognized during the time she lived for what she contributed to the advancement of technology and science.
Visit Ada Ventures to learn more.
January Ventures
January Ventures (previously known as Jane VC) invests early and opens doors for the visionary founders of the future. They invest in the US and Europe in pre-seed and seed stage tech companies. According to January Ventures, they believe the founders of the next decade will look fundamentally different i.e. more female, more diverse and more distributed. They back founders based on their tenacity and ambition, not their pedigrees or who they know. Their vision is an equal opportunity tech ecosystem. Some of their portfolio entrepreneurs and brands include BeautyStack, PlanetFWD, Office Together and many more.
Visit January Ventures to find out more.
Diversity VC
Diversity VC is non-profit partnership, made up of interested individuals working in venture capital, who seek to increase diversity of thought in the venture industry. According to Diversity VC, their ultimate objective is for the venture capital industry to represent the rich tapestry of society, which Diversity VC in turn believe will generate better decision making and higher returns. According to Diversity VC, they run events throughout for VCs and entrepreneurs.
Visit Diversity VC to find out more.
Investing Women
Investing Women is an active and vibrant female-led angel investment syndicate. The network is changing the landscape of funding in Scotland for and by women entrepreneurs. According to Investment Women, it is focused on building women’s involvement in investing, provide the knowledge, education and community to support existing and potential female angels and help them on their investment journey.
Visit Investing Women to find out more.
Volulez Capital
Voulez is Europe’s first VC for Female Founders, investing in outstanding female founders building scalable businesses and creating real value. Acoording to Volulez, they invest in products and services that improve the lives of women, of working parents, of children and of families. The firm was founded by Anya Navidski, an entrepreneur and a mother to help address gender imbalance in the VC industry.
Visit Volulez Capital to find out more.
Female Founders Fund
Female Founders Fund is an early-stage fund investing in technology companies founded by women. They also invest in e-commerce, media, platforms, advertising, and web-enabled services businesses. Founded in 2014, the fund has built a recognized brand investing in female-run internet and software startups. Female Founders portfolio include female entrepreneurs and brands such as BentoBox, Peanut, Zola, Landit just to name a few.
Visit Female Founders Fund to find out more.
Astia
Astia is a global network of women and men that invests in women-owned companies. It was founded in Silicon Valley and invests in high-growth companies with women leaders, following their successful completion of our Expert Sift process. According to Astia, it consists of a community of experts committed to levelling the playing field for women entrepreneurs by providing access to capital and networks for the companies they lead.
Visit Astia to learn more.
Impact X
Impact X is a London-based firm that supports under-represented entrepreneurs across Europe particularly the Afro-Caribbean diaspora. Its members and investors are all seasoned professionals from an ethnically diverse background. Many have worked with some of the largest brands in the world. According to Impact X it’s a double bottom line venture capital firm, founded to support under represented entrepreneurs across Europe. Their portfolio includes Beautonomy, YouNeek Studio, Afrocenchix, Marshmallow, Raylo are among a few.
Visit Impact X to find out more.
BBG Ventures
BBG Ventures is an early-stage fund whose mission is to back big ideas that reshape the way people live. According to BBG ventures its focus is on female founders who intuitively understand the dominant consumer, enabling them to transform the collective or individual lived experience of the 99%. Female founders are poised to do giant things and BBG Ventures exists to give them that first, crucial investment. Their portfolio includes Mented, Blueland, Spring Health, Zola to mention just a few.
Visit BBG Ventures to find out more.
Gaingels
Gaingels is the leading investment syndicate that is in support of diversity and representing the LGBTQ community and allies in the venture capital space. According to Gaingels it’s a venture syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies, investing in companies with LGBT+ founders and C-suite leaders at all stages of growth, as well as in more established companies resolved on building more inclusive teams, with a global portfolio of 130+ companies.
Visit Gaingels to find out more.
Included VC
Included VC is a Fellowship for individuals from diverse communities which are often overlooked or excluded, providing access, opportunity and knowledge into the world of Venture Capital. This fully-funded 9 month fellowship comprises: masterclasses, mentoring, foundational learning, executive coaching, simulation investment committees and in-person retreats. According to Included VC Fellows, they all share a passion for entrepreneurialism, technology, and creating significant impact through venture investing. They share their belief that entrepreneurs and the VCs that invest in them can come from anywhere and that includes any gender, ethnicity, geography, upbringing, age, neurodiversity, disability or belief system.
Visit Included VC to learn more.
The above list is not a complete list. However, if you know of any that you feel we’ve left out or would like to suggest to us please feel free to contact us at [email protected].