A female angel syndicate has helped founders across the North to raise over £2.4m since it was founded last July.
Women Angels of the North was set up by Fund Her North in response to figures announced in The Rose Review of 2019, which identified that only 1% of venture capital funding went to female founders. In the latest report, those figures had risen to 6%.
Since it was established in 2021, Women Angels of the North has closed seven deals leveraging £2,406,000 for six businesses, including: Safer Date, Atelerix, Rarecan, Chu Lo and Dear Bump.
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Safer Date was the recipient of the group’s first funding round and has recently closed on its second round of funding with the help of Women Angels of the North.
Safer Date was founded by Elaine Parker following a harrowing online dating experience that spiralled out of control with a man that had a long history of domestic abuse. It is a dating app which fully identifies every member to eliminate fake profiles, catfish and scam accounts, and which offers the most comprehensive global criminal background checks possible.
Safer Date initially raised a £225,000 funding round in October 2021 and is currently in the process of raising a second round, with Women Angels of the North supporting the overall raise.
Elaine also accessed support from the Innovation SuperNetwork and NorthInvest to navigate her first fundraise, benefitting from advice on creating a pitch deck and readiness training. The funding round enabled Elaine to develop, test and subsequently launch the app to market.
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She said: "The funding landscape can be a tricky one to navigate, not least as a woman, and it was important to me that I was able to work with people who understood my story.
"The fact that there is an organisation out there like Women Angels of the North, who are there to support female founders, is incredibly valuable, and I’m grateful for their support."
Jordan Dargue, co-founder of the Women Angels of the North syndicate and investor in Safer Date, added: " I’m so excited to be celebrating the first birthday of Women Angels of the North.
"It’s rewarding to look back on the businesses that we’ve been able to support, including Safer Date, and see tangible evidence that our work is having an impact.
"As the North’s only female angel syndicate, the need for more women backing women is glaringly obvious, and I’m really proud of the work we are doing to drive this agenda forward and create better conditions for female entrepreneurs.
"We’re also looking forward to celebrating our achievements at our Women Angels of the North Conference on 30 June, where we’ll continue to drive the conversation forward around investing in female-founded businesses.
"We’re expecting to draw over 120 from across the region, discussing the most pressing issues when it comes to growing a business, as launching our Women Backing Women campaign – more details to come."
Fund Her North was founded by:
- Helen Oldham, founding board director of NorthInvest
- Jordan Dargue, founder of Dargue Associates and director of NorthInvest
- Jess Jackson, head of investment at GC Angels
- Charlotte Ashton, founding director of Implicit Advisory
- Samantha Piddington, head of corporate finance at Deepbridge Capital
- Chi-chi Ekweozor, entrepreneur and founder of Assenty Ltd