100 female founders will have the opportunity to meet with 30 leading VCs in a remote event hosted by Playfair Capital and Tech Nation.
Female Founder Office Hours will be held on Thursday 4th June and allow each founder to meet up to four investors during one hour of ‘remote office hours’ to discuss their tech business idea, ask for advice (COVID-related or otherwise) and pitch for investment.
The event follows two previous editions hosted by Playfair Capital at Warner Yard which saw a total of 400 individual meetings with 90 female founders and 25 investors taking part.
Playfair Capital and Tech Nation began working on the project several months ago, making the decision to hold a remote version of the event instead of waiting for the lockdown to be lifted.
Not only does this ensure founders get access to the investors they need, but also that the event can be truly national, reflecting the fact that talent is not just in London and leveraging Tech Nation’s extensive UK wide Founders’ Network.
Chris Smith, Playfair Capital’s Managing Partner, commented: “I’m absolutely thrilled to see our third female founder office hours event come together with the support of Tech Nation and what must be one of the largest groups of VCs ever assembled in one (virtual) room.
“We know that it’s taking longer than it should to level the playing field for female founders and we hope that by bringing the ecosystem together at scale we can give a big shove in the right direction.”
Lauren Nicholson, Founders’ Network Lead at Tech Nation, commented: “This is an exciting opportunity for all our female founder Founders’ Network members and we are delighted to be collaborating with Playfair Capital on such an important initiative.
“Female-led companies still only achieve 1p in every £1 invested in the UK and so Office Hour events like these are crucial to breaking down those barriers and creating opportunities for those teams to be supported by the investment ecosystem.
“We hope that this initiative will be a major step towards changing those statistics.”
Here is the full list of participating funds and investors:
Ada Ventures — Francesca Warner
Albion VC — Jess Bartos
Amadeus Capital Partners — Amelia Armour
Anthemis — Erica Young
Ascension Ventures — Emma Steele
Augmentum — Freddie Evans, Ellen Logan
Beringea — Carrie Babcock, Emma Biasiolo
Bethnal Green Ventures — Bethany Greer
Downing Ventures — Kathy Gromotka
Draper Esprit — Edel Coen, Diana Krantz
Episode 1 — Carina Namih
Forward Partners — Katie Kim
Frontline Ventures — Helena Cavell
Hambro Perks — Matilde Giglio
JamJar — Belinda Gurung
Mercia — Charlotte Clarke
MMC Ventures — Alexia Arts
Notion — Itxaso Del Palacio
Octopus Ventures — Akriti Dokania
Passion Capital — Robert Dighero
Playfair Capital — Alexandra Baranowski, Simon Blakey, Chris Smith, Joe Thornton, Henrik Wetter Sanchez
Samaipata — Carmen Alfonso Rico
Smedvig Capital — Peter Duffy
Soho Ventures — Monik Pham