It’s hardly news that female founders don’t do as well as their male counterparts when it comes to raising capital. There are many reasons for this, such as closed networks and unconscious bias. So we have done the hard work for you and selected a shortlist of the Top Fifteen Investors For Female Founders. These are companies that openly support investing in female founders.
How do we know? All of the following businesses have participated in our Rare Birds ‘Meet the Investors’ events that are organised in order for women entrepreneurs to meet the investment community, make connections and get advice.
So if you go knocking on these doors, you’re more likely to get an audience.
Scalare
Scalare’s long term, hands-on partnership model provides early-stage investments and critical resources on the continuing growth journey – right from initial engagement to successful exit. With a focus on companies and founders delivering systemic change to drive a better future through innovation and purpose, Scalare is looking for people wanting to scale and disrupt globally.
AirTree
AirTree like to back founders right from the start of their journey and stay in it for the long haul. Focussing on tech startups, in 2022 AirTree launched a new fund with $200 million dedicated to seed stage companies and $50 million to Web3 projects. They are super excited to back the next generation of future builders. If that’s you, get in touch.
Tractor Ventures
Tractor Ventures specialises in non-dilutive, strategic funding. This means that they don’t take equity in your company, but instead lend you the capital that you repay as a percentage of your monthly revenue. This is not a one-off, but can be renewed and renegotiated as you grow. Tractor also invests through its Scale-Up Support program with the ability to buy warrants. To learn more about the process, check out their website.
fundsquire
Fundsquire also offers non-dilutive funding options to small and medium sized businesses. It empowers startups to take control of their funding timeline now, rather than waiting for the tax man – simply, through R&D Tax Credit Loan, Grant Advance Funding, or Revenue-Based Financing.
OIF Ventures
OIF and its investor network have supported founders from inception to IPO and beyond. Whether it’s structuring your org chart, designing comp plans, setting up an ESOP, expanding offshore or building a GTM motion, they’re right there in the weeds with you. OIF also work with founders to expand to the US and to secure their next round of capital from top-tier US VCs. From your pitch deck and legal to introductions that count they have the contacts and knowledge to guide you.
Sydney Angels
Sydney Angels screens investment opportunities for its members who then form syndicates that invest in a company. Beyond capital investment, founders also benefit from access to the angels’ knowledge and networks. An angel investment round is usually small ($200-500k) and often the first external investment in a startup. Sydney Angels then offers follow-on funding to successful portfolio companies.
Equity Venture Partners
Having backed the likes of Deputy, Pratice Ignition, Shippit and SiteMinder, Equity Venture Partners is a venture firm focused on early-stage B2B software and marketplace companies. It is looking for best-in-class early metrics, an engaged customer base, and strong revenue growth.
Cogent Ventures
As well as providing funding, Cogent Ventures has worked side by side with some of Melbourne’s biggest startup success stories, spending over a decade figuring out how to build better digital products, quicker. They will only invest if your values align and you go through a discovery period of working together.
R&mpersand
The team at R&mpersand believes early stage tech founders need support as well as funding and so it becomes part of your team as you build and grow. It is particularly interested in companies building unique technology, with scalable business models, and with strong founders at the helm. It is also very forward about wanting to close the gap in investment for women.
PieLAB
Looking to invest in established businesses with a turnover of $3–15 million per annum, PieLAB’s ideal partner would be either a business owner who would like to step back or step out of their business straight away or staged over a period of time, or a general manager, CEO or senior team member who would like to step up and own some of the business they run.
Blackbird Ventures
Blackbird likes to invest in founders with a big idea and lots of ambition from pre-seed to pre-IPO. It invested $250,000 in Canva when it was just an idea and has since invested more than $100 million.
Afterwork Ventures
The team here is interested in investing in startups at their earliest stages when funding is often hardest to come by. Because of this, they have pretty strict criteria about who they fund. But if you have a personal connection to the problem you’re solving, are a talented human magnet for more talent and ambitions for $100 million+ turnover then give them a call. They promise they will be straight up and make the process simple.
Parc Capital
Parc combines operational experience with commercial analysis and financial rigour to provide insightful stewardship to founders and management teams throughout the life of each investment. Investments go beyond dollars and cents to embrace the full business journey so that entrepreneurs gain real partnerships and shareholder value.
Folklore
Folklore calls itself a “first cheque to forever” investor, getting in at an early stage and in it for the long haul. They are sector agnostic, but are mostly keen to invest in disruptors in SaaS, Healthcare or Robotics and Automation. Folklore is also very community focused, so as well as the investors you will also be able to tap into the knowledge and experience of a network of founders, operators, investors and advisors who you can access from your very early stages through to hyper growth.
Acorn Capital
Acorn Capital’s investment philosophy is to generate long-term outperformance through its distinctive research and investment capabilities and to identify attractive opportunities in less efficient markets. It deliberately embraces diversity as it believes it can lead to the identification of market inefficiencies within capital markets that can be exploited to generate outsized investment returns.
