Investor insights

The following interview is an extract from our fourth annual Top 200 Women-Powered Businesses Report, produced in collaboration with Beauhurst.

Click here to read the full account. 

What strategies can investors employ to identify and address the unique challenges faced by women entrepreneurs?

Instead of focusing on addressing challenges for women entrepreneurs, I would reframe the goal as: How can I ensure that my fund is attracting and supporting the best founders—including women— to drive exceptional returns? We know that mixed-gender teams and women founders represent a massive, untapped commercial opportunity and tapping into this potential is key to maximising a fund’s success.

The first step investors should take is to assess your current position. Measure your fund’s diversity metrics and commit to transparency by sharing this data, for example, through initiatives like the Investing in Women Code. This holds you accountable and signals your commitment to diversity in the wider community. Next, evaluate each stage of your investment process—sourcing, due diligence, investment decisions and post-investment support—and identify actionable steps to foster inclusivity at every step. For instance, in the sourcing phase, ensure that the language on your website and marketing materials is inclusive. Create accessible pathways for founders to approach you, like inbound cold-email options, instead of relying solely on referrals, which often perpetuate existing networks. During due diligence and decision-making, aim for diversity in your investment team—particularly in decision-making roles. If budget constraints prevent you from hiring new diverse talent, consider involving external advisors or consultants to bring diverse perspectives into the process.

Finally, consider offering value-add services that specifically address the needs of women founders and benefit others as well. This might include access to coaching, mentorship, or support for childcare, as seen with Ada Venture’s Babble initiative.¹ These tailored resources can make a significant difference in enabling women entrepreneurs to thrive and, in turn, help your fund capture high-quality opportunities that others may overlook.

How can investors foster the development of networks and communities for women entrepreneurs? Could you share any experiences or strategies that have proven effective for you?

At Alma Angels, we focus on building a diverse angel network, maintaining a 75:25 ratio of women to men, reflecting our founding team. This is not a strict quota but a guiding principle, ensuring our network taps into a broader ecosystem that includes experienced male investors. We actively collaborate with VCs by sharing deals, deal flows and referrals. We also partner with great networks, such as Sie Ventures, Hermesa and Angel Academe, which connect VCs to women founders and support fundraising efforts.

Engaging as mentors in accelerators, attending demo days and partnering with these networks has proven an effective strategy for accessing pre-vetted women-led ventures and fostering a strong, supportive community.

In what ways do you measure and track the impact of your investments in women-led businesses?

At Alma Angels, we track the number of ventures we fund and since our launch in 2020, we have backed over 150 women founders. Zinc cohorts, on average, have 50% women founders and in our portfolio, more than 70% of ventures have a woman founder.

As early-stage investors at Alma Angels and Zinc, our impact lies in helping women-led businesses get off the ground and secure funding. We believe that supporting women-led businesses creates a ripple effect: fostering diverse teams, generating job opportunities for women and enabling founders to tackle issues like femtech or financial resilience that disproportionately affect women. Beyond that, we measure impact as we would with any business: by its valuation, commercial traction, job creation, growth and team. At Zinc, we also assess the impact in line with our thesis, which focuses on the health of people and the planet.

What areas of investment give you hope for gender equality in access to capital?

Increasing women’s access to equity has already begun unleashing innovation in areas related to women’s health, such as menopause, fertility and specific types of cancer—fields that have historically been under-researched and underfunded. With more women founders at the helm of these ventures, we’re seeing groundbreaking solutions emerge that would have previously been overlooked or deprioritised.

Given the strong representation of women scientists and researchers in these fields, I expect that sectors like health, pharma and life sciences will experience more growth.

More broadly, we’re moving towards greater gender equality in access to capital across a variety of sectors - not just in traditionally female-focused industries but also in fintech, energy and deeptech.

What key piece of advice would you give to founders and leaders navigating tough times?

Staying grounded in the mission helps me. Challenging times often bring uncertainty, but staying connected to your purpose is important. This clarity helps guide my decisions and keeps me focused on what truly matters. In addition, leaning on your network is equally important.

I surround myself with a strong support system of mentors, peers and advisors. Building and investing in a network of trusted relationships provides me with new perspectives and much-needed support. This includes female founders, emerging general partners, experienced leaders and professionals who are also good friends.

Another tip that has helped me is recognising that respect is more important than being liked. At a recent women founders’ event, a speaker highlighted the importance of being respected rather than liked. As a leader, communicating and making tough decisions can be challenging, but this reframe has helped me manage these situations more effectively.

Lastly, pain and reflection are necessary elements for growth. Growth = pain + reflection is a concept introduced to me by a colleague and friend. It reminds me that challenges, reflection and learning are essential for growth. However, growth rarely happens without taking difficult and sometimes painful actions. Reflecting is key to ensuring that growth follows those tough decisions.

¹Medium, “At Ada Ventures we’re supporting portfolio founders with child care. Here’s Why. , Francesca Warner, (October 2023) https://medium.com/ada-ventures/at- ada-ventures-were-supporting-portfolio-founders-with-childcare-here-s-why-9f1133c87559