Fund Raising
Karmijn Kapitaal announces the first close of its first private equity fund. Over 30 investors have invested in the fund. Karmijn's focus on companies with a balanced management team of men and women is new and unique in Europe.
The Next Women is organizing it's next Pitch Event on February 24, 2012 in Amsterdam in the beautiful Elicium (photo).The pitch events are designed to improve access to financial and professional networks for women entrepreneurs and to enhance and accelerate a faster growth of their business.Therefore, The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation supports this upcoming pitch event, because female entrepreneurs are a potential for growth.
It’s been a great 12 months for Lisa Falzone. Last year she
raised $3.7 million in her series "A" funding round; then last month at the Macworld
– iWorld event, her company Revel
Systems was officially announced as the winner of the Best iPad Business App of the Year Award.
A new report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) looks at how new businesses and start-ups have
been raising money since the crisis.
With banks reluctant to provide loans to start-ups and venture capital firms preferring to invest in later stage companies, a growing class of experienced entrepreneurs and business people are stepping in to fill this funding gap.
These “angel investors” not only provide funding but also leverage their expertise to provide mentoring to the entrepreneurial teams in which they invest, according to a new OECD report.
100 interviews with entrepreneurs, policy makers and academics from 32 countries.
Financing High-Growth Firms: The Role of Angel Investors looks at angel investment around the world and includes over a hundred interviews with entrepreneurs, policy makers and academics from 32 countries.
Amadeus Capital Partners, Van den Ende & Deitmers and Business Growth Fund invest $25m in Unruly.
One of the world’s fastest growing social video distribution companies, Unruly, has attracted $25m funding from Amadeus Capital Partners, Van den Ende & Deitmers and Business Growth Fund.
Unruly has delivered a number of high profile social video campaigns for global brands, including Evian’s “Roller Babies” (the most viewed online advertisement ever) and T-Mobile’s “Life's for Sharing”.
Can you elaborate a bit on: "How did you fund it, with how much money, and what is the business model? This is for a lot of people great to read, how you did it, what route you chose, which hurdles etc. as for many this is a thing to consider when starting out. Also, on how you are dealing with the growth is interesting.
This is what I asked Charlotte Semler-West, serial entrepreneur and founder of Charlotte & Co, and prior thereto, founder of Myla. She replied:
I chose the fund the business start-up myself. I had previously founded and run a VC backed business start-up and I really didn’t want to go that way again. I can say the following….(probably more than you wanted!!!) (see further down in the interview, ed. SGB)
The
Startup Genome is looking for a critical mass of women to participate in the
Startup Genome Project in order to aid their discovery of the DNA of women- led
startups. By joining the project, you will be adding the dimension of
quantitative data to their quest.
The Startup Genome has already learned that approximately 70% of the startups in their dataset scaled prematurely. I am very interested to see if the same pattern holds for women, because through the interviews I have conducted over the last year, the consensus has been that women tend to be perfectionistic, moving slower but more surely than their male counterparts. Is it possible that the more careful nature of women may cause them to fail less?
The Pipeline Fellowship, which trains women philanthropists to
become angel investors, has opened a call for applications from women social
entrepreneurs interested in presenting their businesses to its Boston and NYC
Pipeline Fellows.
Women-led startups will
present to investors who “get” their social mission, as well as their
for-profit business structure, and will have the opportunity to secure an
investment (up to US$50k) from the Pipeline Fellows.
One of our well read posts at The Next Women is Help for Startups! A Semi-Complete List of Startup Accelerators. Natasha Starkell, CEO of GoalEurope is providing some in depth analysis of the startup accelerators in Eastern Europe.
My personal view is that the accelerator programs have become MBA 2.0
for entrepreneurs. Compared to a standard MBA degree, which covers
generic topics from macroeconomics, to general management and corporate
finance, accelerator programs have a more focused approach to teach and
prepare tech entrepreneurs to do one thing very well: build and grow
their tech businesses. Of course they are as good as their mentor
network.
This week I did my first
official investment pitch in Amsterdam at The NextWomen Pitch Event, along with 9
other slightly nervous women.
Organised brilliantly by Simone Brummelhuis, we got the chance to practise our pitches in the afternoon, followed by the real thing in the evening to a room full of people with 6 potential investors.
Upcoming Events
24 Feb 2012 - 13:00 - 17:00Amsterdam, Netherlands
22 Mar 2012 - 09:00 - 19:00London, UK
24 Mar 2012 - 13:00 - 17:00London, UK
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