A Call To Be More Involved
If you’ve ever been interested in fixing the gender gap issue women face in our world, being an angel investor and an active one at that, could just be a step in the right direction.
Alicia Robb, CEO of Next Wave Impact, recently narrated her encounter with a young female founder at a summit she attended last year. The young lady told her that she had gone to give a presentation at a pitch event and, upon arriving at the meeting, one of the men in the room had asked her to go and fetch coffee for everyone. She also mentioned how a male colleague had spent most of his time making advances at her while at a meeting. Another entrepreneur here in Nigeria had been asked by a potential investor about how she going to manage her business with her family and questioned her competence stating that ‘This is a male-dominated sector and I don’t see how you can cope as a female”
Stories like these are quite sad, yet would keep recurring if nothing is done. One thing that can, however, be done is involving more women angel investors in raising capital for small businesses. The huge gender gap in start-up funding is still quite alarming. In the US, for instance, female entrepreneurs still receive less capital funding than their male counterparts despite owing more number of businesses than males. We believe that this gap can be traced to the bias faced by females in raising funds because of their gender, and closing this gap is one cause Rising Tide Africa intends to push this further year.
Studies show a direct relationship exists between the number of funded women businesses and the number of female angel investors.
According to a study conducted by the University of New Hampshire’s Centre, the number of female-owned businesses increased from 3% in 2004 to 22% in 2016 as more women became involved in providing funding for start-ups increased within the same period (from 5% in 2004 to 26% in 2016).
We are not promoting sentiments or empathy, but we believe that having more women in the pitch room increases the chances for a female-owned business to be funded; that having more women on-board the angel-investment train will lead to increased diversity among the kind businesses that will end up being funded.
Being a female angel investor goes beyond being merely part of statistics. The impact is required. What will you do differently to help start-ups, starting with Nigeria? How will you create more impact this year with your title? How will you be more involved?
RTA operates under the four MINE pillars: Mentoring, Investment, Networking and Education. You can become more involved by joining y of these pillars. Let this year be our year of visible impact. Send a mail today to info@risingtideafrica.com and let us know how we can work together.
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Mail: info@risingtideafrica.com
