How More Women Are Stepping Up To Fund Women Entrepreneurs In 2018

We love to see women truly investing in women, and this article from Forbes makes a case that 2018 can be a stellar year for women with capital funding women entrepreneurs. Read on to discover how a growing movement to stand up to sexism and reduced opportunities for women has been galvanized by diverse funding models, a focus on underrepresented entrepreneurs, angel investors, efforts to bridge the gap in venture capital and elsewhere, and women putting their money to work for their causes—and for other women—to truly make a difference.

By Geri Stengel, WOMEN@FORBES

Evidence has found that women business owners start and raise less capital than their male counterparts. Yet, the credit risk of women-owned firms that are six or more years old are indistinguishable from their male counterparts, according to Small Business Credit Survey Report on Women-Owned Firms. The under-capitalization of women-owned firms places significant limits on their growth.

Women’s activism to correct this injustice has been building, as evidenced by the rising tide of financing options for women entrepreneurs. Now, the #MeToo movement could bring a tidal wave of funding as women are inspired to stand up and speak out against sexism.

Whether you have $25 or $25 million, here’s how women have made it possible for you to help create a tsunami of funding for women entrepreneurs.

1. Jessica Jackley cofounded Kiva so people could lend small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in the developing world. In 2009, Kiva brought its crowdfunding micro-lending model to the U.S. With a little help from friends, U.S. women entrepreneurs can raise up to a $10,000, interest-free loan through Kiva. Typically, five to 30 people you know can lend as little as $25. The rest comes from the Kiva lender community. It’s not just micro businesses which need small loans but scaling businesses too.
2. Catherine Berman and Yuliya Tarasava founded CNote. It enables savers to earn 40X greater return than a saving account by investing in women- and minority-owned businesses. It’s first product provides 2.5% interest versus the 0.06% traditional banks offer. CNote invests 100% of your dollars in Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). These loans range from a few thousand dollars to $500,000.
3. Vicki Saunders created SheEO’s Radical Generosity to provide women entrepreneurs with larger interest-free loans. In the U.S., five hundred women (activators) make a tax-deductible contribution of $1,100, (including a $100 processing fee). Entrepreneurs compete to be one of five to divide the kitty. Activators not only become financiers but, similar to angel investors, share their expertise, connections and marketing support to help grow the companies they support.

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Angel investors help UAE’s women entrepreneurs spread their wings

thenational.ae - Elissa Freiha, an Emirati of Lebanese descent, and Chantalle Dumonceaux, a Canadian-American, are the founders of the Dubai-based women’s angel investment platform Womena. The pair met as students at the American University of Paris in 2008 and after graduation, both showed an interest in angel investing: Ms Dumonceaux, 27, joined Gust, a New York-based platform which manages group venture capital deal flow, and Ms Freiha, 26, became an active angel investor. In 2013, the women moved to the UAE together to set up their own manager-led investment platform. In total Womena has invested US$462,000 into companies in the UAE, most recently joining fund-raising rounds for comparison site Souqalmal and online insurance platform Bayzat. Elissa Freiha (EF): When looking at the global start-up environment, Silicon Valley is the main one but it’s very saturated, and Europe tends to be very traditional. The UAE has a lot of dynamics that made it an ideal breeding ground for early stage angel investment. There’s a lot of funding here that’s not yet stimulated, and most importantly, Dubai has this insatiable desire to innovate and grow bigger, despite all of the challenges that we go through in this region.

How This VC Is Leveling the Playing Field for Multicultural Women

By Samantha Miles

This article first appeared on SWAAY. 

Curious. Dedicated. Provocative. Renata George describes herself in these three words, but truth is, we’d be kidding ourselves stopping here describing this dynamic woman.

An entrepreneur – turned angel investor – turned VC, she’s mastered navigating the ins-and-outs of the entrepreneurial journey. And now, after being dedicated to entrepreneurs for years, George founded Women.vc – a not-for-profit initiative to advance women in the investment industry.

But she isn't stopping there.

She’s also an avid academic, and she’s combined her background in media and journalistic judgment with hard-hitting research to point out the disparity when it comes to women, especially multicultural women, looking for fundraising. While this fact is sadly nothing new for most budding entrepreneurs, George’s approach is truly revolutionary, in that it offers insightful new findings.

We sat down with this incredible disruptor to dish about the groundbreaking work she’s doing for women’s progress.

“I never thought I’d work for the benefit of women,” says George, who describes her brain as “part male,” and adds that most of her friends are men. “I always thought that I would be working with men, but ironically,  since my first business, women were my success story, and it turned out I have something valuable for them to offer.”

Now, she’s become a prominent advocate for women, having proved among other findings, that the net return from women’s portfolio companies is on par with, if not better than, the industry average. For an area dominated by men, this is big news.

Just a taste of what she’s achieved for women in capital markets.

George has been recognized on Forbes USA as one of “The Top Women in Venture Capital and Angel Investing” in 2012. And while that already grounds for one strong and effective female leader, her work goes beyond investment in research, and into the hands of budding entrepreneurs.

So where did it all begin? Coming from a family of doctors, her parents expected her to pursue medicine.

George, however, had other plans. “I was a rebel,” says George, who switched from medical faculty  to financial management after 3 years of studying in Medical  University once she realized medicine is not her calling. Instead, she decided to learn from  a female professor teaching financial management, a rarity at the time.

“When I told my mom what I’d done, she cried for a week,” George recalls. “Later on, however, she said that I did the right choice, and she has been very supportive throughout all my career path”.

In just three years, George graduated from two universities with degrees in financial management and government relationships, having finished both on external basis.

She started working in various media platforms from radio to newspapers, then, established her own publishing house with five magazines in the portfolio, and successfully exited the business. After 10 years in media, George became an angel investor.

Renata George by Sam Saraf

“I went through the hell of being a solo entrepreneur without any investors. But only due to this experience I knew what entrepreneurs need and how I can help them”.

George developed a diverse CV rather quickly, working in government innovation and entrepreneurial pursuits for companies around the world. She soon noticed that many of her portfolio companies started  entering the United States market. “That was a time I realized I could contribute to their success having a broad international experience ,” she says. “At some point, I felt it made sense to move and work in United States.”

George’s countless conversations with American innovators and businessmen, coupled with her multicultural background led her to an epiphany. “I realized I cannot belong to any country,” she says, adding that she had developed an understanding of how many different cultures approached business.

“I realized I can be a connector for [various cultures] to Silicon Valley, because I have traveled so much and learned a lot about people  [as well as] their ways of doing business,” she says. “But it was only in the United States where I figured that I can definitely bring value to diverse groups here, including women and other underrepresented groups.”

Launching a seemingly simple project.

She began by making a list of female investors in the United States, who would serve as touchpoints for women entrepreneurs. She also built up  educational courses and newsletters about venture capital investing.

“Entrepreneurs can learn how venture capitalists think and then speak the same language with them,” says George, who wrote The Manual For Finding A Perfect Mentor For Entrepreneur and Networking Done Classy. “Knowing how your opponent thinks makes a huge difference in negotiations.”

Despite her momentum, there were still voices in George’s life that she felt challenged women’s value.

In an interview a male general partner of a prominent firm said, he cannot find professional women to hire in their firm. “Most of the people took it as an offense to all women, but I personally was not offended. I assumed that he probably meant something different, and decided to dig into the issues.”

With that in mind, George was motivated to prove this opinion wrong or right with  data that hadn’t existed before. “Without data you are just another person with an opinion. I decided to take the other road.,” says George, who used a database to crunch some numbers and evaluate female investors’ success levels. “I wanted to check our performance for myself first of all, so me and several women investors decided to check on how well we’re doing.”

George’s findings, which were released in the summer of 2016, showed what everyone wanted to know, but were afraid to ask female venture investors’ performance was on par with, or better, than men’s. “I can’t do everything, but I prefer doing what I can [with this information],” says George, who was finally armed with proof that there is no logical, or economic reason for stifling females in capital markets. And now, with the dramatic shift in the post election political climate, George’s platform is even more timely. “The social climate made diverse groups, especially those who were born outside the U.S. feel insecure, and we realized we can help them too, so we’re broadening our efforts,” she says.

“It may sound controversial, but when people think about themselves as about a cultural, political or business asset, it’s a whole different approach,” says George, who will also be focusing on education through events and information dissemination to help push the needle towards equality. “We want to switch the diversity agenda from personal to professional. Diversity is not merely about gender, ethnicity or sexuality. Behind every different person, there is a value to the community, society and corporations. The problem, though, is not only leaders should see and believe in it, every single person should recognize his or her value to people around. Once you accept it and learn to articulate it clearly, other people will notice that too.”

These days, George is focused on building on a community of multicultural, trustworthy individuals to learn from and support each other. “We want to show people of different gender, ethnicity and sexuality who made it to the top, who represent those diverse groups by their own example. We also encourage professionals among them to provide complimentary advice and mentorship to address current challenges of those who are still on their way to success, such as immigration issues and civil rights. Of course, we focus on assisting entrepreneurs too. Members of our community  can actually reach out to these professionals and ask for help.”

This initiative is called Diversity.Capital and dedicated to prove that diversity is a political, cultural and business asset. Renata George is one of the co-founders of the project, which is currently opening branches throughout the United States. Iman Oubou, SWAAY founder, was one of the first supporters of Diversity.Capital and helms the community of influencers and shakers in New York.

Essential Read: Impact with Wings

We know many of you are sure to be interested in the new anthology book now available for pre-order on Amazon, Impact With Wings: Stories to Inspire and Mobilize Women Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs. We discovered it through the recommendation of Lionesses of Africa, an online community fostering women’s entrepreneurship in Africa.  Read an excerpt of Lionesses' endorsement here, and click through to learn much more about the book and its authors, female impact investors who came together to co-found Wingpact, a global community of investors and entrepreneurs united in a vision to get more women involved in angel investing and entrepreneurship. 

lionessesofafrica.com - Look out for the launch shortly on Amazon of the wonderfully titled Impact With Wings: Stories to Inspire and Mobilize Women Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs. It’s an anthology of personal stories and research written by six female impact investors. This book's purpose is to enlighten and inspire women to step into angel investing and/or entrepreneurship, as it is through investing in each other that we can begin to tip gender imbalances and bring more women forward.

“As women achieve greater financial success, they are looking for projects they can support on behalf of women. Impact with Wings covers a timely topic of interest for more women than ever. It is an extremely valuable and thought-provoking narrative, coupled with practical information on financing.” --- Dr. Marsha Firestone, President/Founder, The Women Presidents’ Organization

The authors of Impact with Wings ask a fundamental question in their book - will you settle for leaving half the world’s wealth on the table? Discovering angel investing transformed the lives of the six women who cofounded Wingpact, a global angel investment and entrepreneur community. In a world where women’s capital remains underused, angel investing—providing money, human capital, and expertise for startup or early-stage companies—offers a potent and often overlooked opportunity for women to impact the future. The authors, all of whom are well-established in the global business and investment community, share their personal stories and insiders’ insights, offering a clarion wake-up call intended to activate new women angel investors and spur women to invest in female-founded companies.

Can a rise in female angel investors help close the funding gap?

managementtoday.co.uk - Research last month from the Women’s Business Council and Deloitte found the proportion of women starting their own firms fell in 2014, despite a record number of new company registrations. There are a range of reasons why – limited access to mentors and networks, lack of self-confidence and a ‘lower appetite for risk’ among some female entrepreneurs.

The lack of female investors out there may also play a part. There are numerous routes to funding but angel investment is still mainly driven by men. Considering we often hear that investors invest in those with characteristics they see in themselves, it’s not surprising to note there can be a pattern to the ‘type’ of businesses that receive funding. A study of 220 UK start-ups by Startup DNA found male entrepreneurs are 59% more likely to secure angel investment.

The situation is improving, though. Women now represent one in seven angel investors in the UK, double the rate in 2008, according to the UK Business Angels Association and the Centre for Entrepreneurs. But that’s still a big disparity. Rich lists might still be populated primarily by men, but the gap is closing. CEBR research back in 2005 suggested women now own 48% of Britain’s assets.

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'Executive Women' magazine highlights MENA businesswomen

Womena is a Dubai-based, women-only angel investor group serving the Middle East and North Africa, or the MENA region. Through professional networking, investment guidance and thorough research on startups in the region, Womena connects promising startups in the growing economy with high-net-worth women investors. Here, Womena shares insights on the importance of pitching when raising funds for a startup. womena.co - Womena is happy to announce that we have a new ally in our journey to increase women’s opportunities and empowerment in the MENA region. Enter Executive Women, a magazine that serves as the perfect resource to women in business and female angel investors.

Executive Women provides a platform to highlight the achievements of inspiring women who are changing the face of business in the MENA region, including educators, humanitarian pioneers, media personalities, entrepreneurs, scientistsand business leaders. In addition, Executive Women offers useful tips and coaching on business subjects such as leadership,management and career advice, as well as curated content on social events, fashion and culture. The website even offers a monthly personal development and wellness to do list.

The magazine was launched by the UAE chapter of the CEO Clubs Network Worldwide, one of the largest business networking clubs in the world. It’s accompanied by the CEO Clubs Business Women, a social club designed to provide MENA businesswomen with business opportunities, business development and support, as well as special women international delegations and networking events for ladies at all levels- from start-ups and sole traders through to director level.

Womena will be partnering with Executive Women throughout the coming year, so keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events!

To learn more about Executive Women, head over to their website or contact them directly here.

Visit Womena.co to learn more about Womena’s efforts, "like" the group on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter.

Angel Series Workshops on February 20 and April 23

Womena is a Dubai-based, women-only angel investor group serving the Middle East and North Africa, or the MENA region. Through professional networking, investment guidance and thorough research on startups in the region, Womena connects promising startups in the growing economy with high-net-worth women investors. We're honored to join forces with Womena in investing in women worldwide, and we're delighted to pass on news of their upcoming Angel Series Workshops Feb. 20 and April 23.   

womena.co - Join WOMENA for our two workshops in the Spring for both aspiring angel investors and entrepreneurs looking to raise funds. Participants can benefit from attending either workshop, but we recommend attending both to maximize value. Participants will leave the workshop with sufficient knowledge of angel investment to start on their fundraising or investing journey.

The event is open to all, regardless of background or financial experience. Tickets are free for WOMENA members. Investors should contact WOMENA for more information about membership.

Visit Womena.co to learn more about Womena's efforts, like the group on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.