Insights from Nordic Female Investor Meetup 2018

On Monday we attended Nordic Female Investor Meetup, which took place at Minc and Studio in Malmö. The aim of the event is get more women into investing and entrepreneurship. The ambition is that at least 25% of investors in Sweden are females.

Jeanette Andersson, Business Advisor at Minc, and Ann-Sofie Hörlin, Investment Manager at Almi Invest, encouraged women to become investors and business angels for startups, yet also warned them of potential risks. According to their research, only two out of ten startups will prove successful and their return on investment will exceed the initial investment by 5-10 times.

Statistically, only 4% of VC is invested into all female teams in Sweden and only 14% into female and male teams. However, there has been a steady growth of VC-funded startups with at least one female founder or co-founder: from 9% in 2009 to 17% in 2017.

The other part of the event was Pink Capital, a pitch of startups, who have female founders or co-founders:

Anatomic Studios, a startup developing customized prosthetic covers,
Panion, an app connecting people with the same interests with the help of keywords,
HoofStep, a 24/7 monitoring of horse’s head’s movements to discover early signs of illness, injury or social health issues.
StoryTourist, a service allowing you to use literature instead of tour guides,
HiveNetwork, a paperless solution for administration of small business in developing countries,
Worldsmarathons, a website simplifying ticket purchasing for marathon events in the world,
Terst, a device measuring pets’ water intake, helping owners notice if pets drink too much,
The Faves, an app simplifying multi-brand buyers organise their orders and budget,
Riteband, online stock market for music rights.

Pitching o’clock! We’ve invited nine female founded startups for today’s pitch event, Pink Capital. In the panel are representatives from @backingminds, Norrsken and @SchibstedGrowth 💰 #cphftw #nfim18 pic.twitter.com/Ykkexsf825

— Minc (@mincmalmo) September 17, 2018

This year the speeches focused on:

implementing AI without neglecting the ethical aspect, by Anna Felländer (Senior Advisor at Boston Consulting Group),
differences in risk taking and communication between men and women, by Gunilla Sydsjö (Linköping University),
importance of keeping in mind the exit strategy, when starting a business, by Elisabeth Brevenson (Founder of Beepsend),
the reason why Mindshift is investing in female-led businesses, by Heather Henyon (Founding General Partner at Mindshift Capital),
the strategies for inclusion and diversity for VC funds, by Kristina Söderberg (SEB VC),
reasons why it is tricky for women to become business angels, by Boel Swartling (Angel Investor, Working Chairman),
facts and myths about women’s fear of financial risk (panel discussion),
the entrepreneurship journeys of BoostThyroid, Djunked and Riteband,
strategies for increasing the number of female-founded tech companies (panel discussion).