Highline Beta Relaunches the Female Funders Angel Academy
More support is coming for women looking to elevate their presence in the tech industry.
Highline BETA has announced the relaunch of the Female Funders Angel Academy, an accelerator program that helps women in corporate and tech executive roles pursue angel investing and become more entrenched in the growing scene. Female Funders was acquired by Highline BETA in 2017.
The new programming for the initiative will focus on three key pillars to speed up how women can enter the investment world: blended education; investment opportunities supported by expert and peer guidance; and a curated network of women executives, investors and innovators.
“There are a handful of incredibly talented women investors today—but we need more,” said Lauren Robinson, executive director of Female Funders and COO of Highline BETA. “We talk a lot about the growth of female entrepreneurship, and we see the tides starting to shift. But without representation on both sides of the table—among both entrepreneurs and investors—we won’t see real change. Women corporate and technology executives have the networks and expertise to impact startups and to source great investment opportunities that others may overlook.”
Currently, only six per cent of deal-making VCs and 20 per cent of angel investors are women, a problem the Female Funders program wants to solve by putting the power back in the hands of women who want to become angel investors.
Female Funders is partnering with the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) to create the Angel Academy. The program will offer a cohort that looks to cover the fundamentals of angel investing. This includes what a successful deal looks like, sourcing high-potential startups, and creating an investment thesis.
After that program ends and in the years following, Angel Academy members will be able to invest in startups alongside the Female Funders syndicate and even co-invest with Highline BETA, who have invested in companies like Breather and Drop.
“We are proud to be partnering with Female Funders to reach Canada’s technology and corporate executives,” said Yuri Navarro, executive director of NACO. “Women executives have the networks and industry expertise to become exceptional angel investors and to help entrepreneurs at the most critical stages of a company’s development.”
Highline BETA is celebrating the new launch with a Female Funders & Founders Lounge at BC Tech Summit that concludes today.
