The first Frontier Founders & Funders breakfast by BACKED VC.
This International Women’s Day 8th March 2024, we hosted the first in the Frontier Founder series, igniting action beyond conversation.
The room took on a real energy as 30 change-makers met on a sunny Friday morning, to talk about 3 things that will move the dial: cash, customers and connections.
On a day that generates a huge amount of froth every year, this roundtable breakfast stood out as a beacon of what this day can be used for. As one of our guests shared afterwards: “It was inspiring, I made loads of contacts and have a good list of follow-up actions!”
Bringing together guests across the innovation ecosystem, we were there for free-flowing, inclusive conversation, focussed around catalysing action and moderated by journalist Jane Wakefield.
Three topics really stood out:
- In response to the continued funding challenge for female founders (2% of women-led companies secure VC funding — *noting that BACKED is well above this!), one of BACKED’s Frontier Founders Emma Sinclair from Enterprise Alumni, launched the #BeMyAngel campaign this month to encourage more women to start investing, to be truly part of the change. Particular thanks to our other founders Liisi Laaniste from CoSyne Therapeutics and Julia Salasky from Legl for sharing their time.
- We celebrated the UK Government policy reversal on angel investors — with support from the likes of Jenny Tooth, UKBAA who spoke about their role and the impact this will have on the ecosystem. Thanks also to Marla for extending an invitation to her angel community, HERmesa’s “Open House” , which took place this week.
- Looking to the root cause of some of the inequality of women in tech, we invited Claire Thorne from TechSheCan and DeepScienceVentures to explain how we can change the ratio of women in technology by providing free learning resources to inspire children to consider other career routes.
A huge thank you to all the attendees, from entrepreneurs, investors, angels, policy-drivers, journalists, corporates to philanthropists, who generously shared their insights, challenges, and aspirations. To you all — your asks and offers have laid the groundwork for a collaborative future we’re eager to build upon at the next edition in the Summer.
So, what’s next?
Let’s keep the momentum going! 🚀
In June, we will be hosting the second edition of Frontier Founder. Register your interest here. Or get in touch with BACKED’s Head of Brand, Communications and Marketing, Clare Hunter who spearheaded this idea.
Special thanks to Patricia Suhrcke and Ina Yulo Stuve from AWS for their unwavering support and offers of further support. 👏 And to the Allbright Club for hosting.
This initiative is about finding and supporting founders with generation defining technology in frontier sectors such as biotech, fintech, blockchain and advanced manufacturing. Together, we’re redefining the ecosystem.
Further reading
#InternationalWomensDay #Innovation #WomenInTech #FrontierFounders #BACKEDVC
