83% of deals that UK Venture Capital firms made last year had no women at all in the founding teams. Although investment in female-founded startups is increasing, the progress remains slow. However, there is a new wave in the VC world; more investors are starting to purely focus on female founders, helping to close this funding gap and drive change.
With this in mind, we look at five female-founded Venture Capital firms that address this issue by supporting female entrepreneurs and making a change.
Founders Saloni Bhojwani and Samira Ann Qassim founded this London-based Venture Capital firm in 2019 as the first fund in the UK exclusively dedicated to female entrepreneurs. Coming from diverse backgrounds, Saloni and Samira want to see women excel. They look for women who produce grit, savviness and a drive to succeed from their origin story.
Pink Salt Ventures support innovative women that create companies with strong values at their core. The fund has supported innovative female-led companies such as Jude, Juno Bio and Alena.
“We get female founders because we are female founders.” Anya Navidski started Voulez Capital with a vision of building it with the foundation of Fair Venture Principles inspired by the founding father of the VC industry, Georges Doriot.
Voulez Capital is building a VC firm with a difference. This is achieved through its inspired approach when it comes to investment. Voulez Capital only invest in companies with at least one female founder or co-founder that are in an established startup stage that it can lead through to success. Through a variety of industries this VC firm like to invest in, one point stays true which is the companies stance on tackling larger challenges facing our society and planet. Having these values and standards in place has helped Voulez Capital to become a front-runner in the Female VC industry.
Merian Ventures is one of the few firms focused on women in DeepTech. Founded by Alexsis de Raadt St James with the purpose to untap the economic potential of female founders and co-founders. With female-founders being underrepresented in the technology sector, Merian Ventures are dedicated to making a difference towards having more female representation within the tech industry.
With a diverse team of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, technologists, analysts and finance professionals, this performance and data-driven VC firm invests in female founded and co-founded companies in both the UK and US.
“We back founders based on their tenacity and ambition, not their pedigrees or who they know.” Jennifer Keiser Neundorfer and Maren Tomas Bannon founded January Ventures with the belief in an equal opportunity tech ecosystem. This VC firm focuses on women who dream big and want to make a difference.
Being featured in media outlets such as Forbes, Financial Times and Business Insider, January Ventures have an innovative approach to investment. No revenue, pitch deck or warm introduction is required. It believes venture should be transparent, open and accessible. Although based in the US, January Ventures are active in the UK and have supported female-founded businesses such as UK fintech company Bloom Money and sextech company Kama.
Anu Duggal founded Female Founders Fund in 2014 with one simple belief: women will build the companies of tomorrow. With a team of female entrepreneurs, operators and builders, this fund’s team are focused on investing in women building category-defining businesses and who are motivated to challenge, shape and redefine their market.
Being featured in media outlets such as Forbes and Entrepreneur, Female Founders Fund have created a strong female community and have invested in many female-led startups that have become front-runners in their sectors such as UK tech company Peanut which was featured in Vanity Fair.
If your VC firm would be interested in discussing how our team of experts could help promote your vision to support female-founders, why not get in touch today.
