Purplewashing in Singapore, the Most Active PE Investors in South Africa & the Latest Funds in Europe
Global Invest Her
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Issue # 375?- 4th of March 2023
As the headline of this week’s InvestHer Newsletter suggests, we are covering a lot of diverse topics from around the globe.
Before diving into this week’s headlines though we note that?Sanna Marin no longer serves as the Prime Minister of Finland after losing the country’s general elections this weekend,?Earth Day?is coming up in the month of April and speaking of placing Mother Earth front and center,?Ireland has a new sustainability accelerator programme and everyone is invited.???
We also hope you’ve already?Saved the Date?for?the InvestHer Summit?happening in?Paris, June 29th-30th 2023!?Get your ticket at our?EARLY BIRD?rate now ???? Oh, and below you can learn more about one of our Partners,?WEConnect International???
In other news, we focus on?Sustainable Innovation?in our?Founder Spotlight, learn more about?One of Europe’s First Female Solo GP Funds, who?The 10 most Active PE investors in South Africa are, and more about the?State of CVCs in Japan.
Finally, Happy Easter and Passover weekend to all who celebrate???
Until next time and Thank You for Reading,?
? InvestHer Founder Directory Spotlight?
Meet our 3 Featured Founders from the InvestHer Founder Directory, all with a Focus on Sustainable Innovation
Manon Martin, Founder,?Les Aimants,?is heading up the first bridal line powered by 3D fitting technologies. This start-up was designed by women for women and established in New York, now disrupting the bride’s shopping experience when it comes to timeline, customization, and alterations.?
Olivia Pedersen, Founder & CEO,?Sustaio?provides consumer climate impact intelligence & data through the Sustaio Score, the consumer climate score; which is like a credit score for sustainability. The mission is to empower people to achieve climate-smarter living through financial incentivization.
Liane Thompson, CEO,?Aquaai Corporation?provides affordable, quality underwater data, easily accessed on a web dashboard using bio-inspired, autonomous fishlike drones. FaaS - Fish as a Service? Businesses, governments and scientists increasingly need reliable environmental data to adapt to accelerating devastation brought on by the climate crisis, yet it's extremely costly to harness information from waterways, which covers 71% of the planet. Aquaai's end-to-end solution is the affordable tool they seek.
?? InvestHer Summit -?Meet our First InvestHer Summit Partner!
This week we are excited to introduce you to one of our?Partners joining the?InvestHer Summit?in?Paris, on the 29th?and 30th?of April???
WeConnect International?is a Global Network that connects women-owned businesses to qualified buyers around the world to help drive money into the hands of women business owners, effectively enabling them to compete in the global marketplace.
The InvestHer Summit is an Action Summit and we believe Community is capital, because community changes everything we’re thrilled to have?WEConnect International?join us in making real commitments to fund more women entrepreneurs ??
Interested in partnering with us for the InvestHer Summit and work with us to help get 1M women entrepreneurs funded by 2030?
Find out more at?https://www.investhersummit.com/partners?and we’d love to hear from you as well, email us at?[email protected]
Already ready to walk the walk on Diversity and Inclusion?
Sign Up here?→?https://bit.ly/InvestHerSummit-PartnerForm
Women Founder?News
With a track record of having 95 out of 100 LP’s agreeing to invest in her fund?you’d have to say that Gloria B?uerlein is off to a good start. Berlin-based Gloria B?uerlein is a VC turned operator turned angel investor according to the article cited here and as she has just raised her own fund of €21.5m she is proving that the trend of one-person VC parties, i.e., solo general partners is indeed here to stay.
领英推荐
In this article we are introduced to 20 women founders who have all raised more than $1M even though start-ups launched by all-women teams only raised 1.9% of all VC funds in 2022. Curtesy of the?Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab, a startup accelerator which helps underrepresented founders gain access to capital, the gap is indeed diminishing and this year, the Lab celebrates 20 women alums of the program who have raised more than $1M, a milestone achieved by fewer than 2,500 women in the U.S.
?We say congratulations to Danish climate and fintech firm?Agreena?as they recently announced a Series B raise of €46 million according to the article cited here. The fresh capital will be used to further scale operations of this soil carbon platform. Supporting farmers in planning, tracking and validation, the platform is helping to facilitate their regenerative journey as they transition from emitting CO2 to drawing it down and storing it within their soils.
Global?Funding News
African Rainbow Capital?has long been viewed as the most active investor in South Africa with several high-profile deals completed. Investments in the region seem to have reached a peak in 2018 with a significant decrease in deals during the following years. It seems to hold steady though as it remains above the $4 billion mark. African Rainbow Capital is not alone, and these are the 10 most active investors in South Africa according to Pitchbook data in the article cited here.
Good news for start-up founders in France, Denmark, and Sweden as?Emblem, a European fund, recently announced its latest raise of €50 million allocated to invest in seed stage companies. The firm is expecting to raise as much as €75 million by the end of 2023 and its founders Bénédicte de Raphélis Soissan and Guillaume Durao are optimistic about the future. The focus on markets such as Paris, Copenhagen and Stockholm is a calculated move as they are deemed three of the most interesting start-up hubs after London and Berlin.
Investing in women’s sports is a massive, missed investment opportunity according to LA VC Kara Nortman of the?Monarch Collective, a $100-million fund led by Nortman and Miami VC Jasmine Robinson. The new sports fund includes investors such as tennis legend Billie Jean King and is focused on investing in women’s sports teams, leagues, and related revenue streams, such as media. The idea is to prove that more funding for women’s sports will drive greater returns on investment and spur additional financing.
Investor Insights
Whom are the corporations at the heart of Japan’s VC market In the article cited here it’s noted that while VCs may take a backseat to institutional investors in the US and the UK, in Japan they are very much in the front. It seems like large corporations are the biggest players with cash reserves and government support allowing for an even stronger foothold in the domestic venture market moving forward. Read on to learn more about Japan’s start-up ecosystem, the latest market trends as well future opportunities and challenges in VC.
Co-Founder and Managing Partner at?SoGal Ventures, Pocket Sun is noting progress and challenges for women in Singapore’s regional tech start-up ecosystem. In this article she note, “a lot of people feel that it’s a pipeline problem. I think we’ve seen in other parts of the world that it really is not. It might take some time, but it’s really about putting intentional efforts into supporting different demographics.” As vocal sexism remains in the region this type of behavior drives women founders away from potential investors and Pocket Sun continues by saying, “you lose opportunities to women-led companies when you say sh*t like that. Sometimes it’s not a pipeline problem. It’s your problem”.?
Show Me the Money
London-based VC?Anamcara, led by solo female general partner, Annelie Ajami, join the ranks of Gloria B?uerlein?as she recently closed her first $10.6m fund to back early-stage B2B software startups. According to the article cited here female investors are severely underrepresented in the European Venture Market, however a change is now noticeable, and the hope is that we continue to see progress in this direction.