The Global Support Ecosystem for Women Entrepreneurs and Investors

By Joshua Henderson

[*Note: 2018 IEEE Entrepreneurship Star, Gitte Pedersen co-founder of the mission-based Female Equity, a nonprofit which provides Female Founders equal opportunity to funding, and Genomic Expression, is highlighted below.]

Maintaining this list over the last five years has been a labor of love, and one that has allowed me to witness the exponential growth of this support ecosystem for women that build and invest in early-stage companies. Over the last 12 years as the Vice President of Springboard Enterprises, a global network of women innovators transforming industries, I’ve met the leaders of many of the organizations included in this list and I’m honored to be part of a community of exceptional people that recognize this is not only a valuable mission but a lucrative one: there is big money to be made in finding and funding companies led by diverse teams.

Since the last edition of this list, there is a significant amount of new funding in the hands of women, including funds that do and don’t focus on investing in women-led teams. I love how Jane VC’s Ann Bordetsky put this in a recent post on women-led VC funds: “The most exciting and transformative trend happening in the Tech community right now is a new generation of venture funds — founded, raised and led by experienced, badass women. This wave of Wonder Women will reshape Silicon Valley as we know it.”

COVID-19 is also reshaping the startup world and the way that all of us connect with and support those on the herculean mission to build a viable business. Communities are convening in new, virtual ways and evolving their support models. In the coming months, I will update this post to call out those organizations with virtual engagement opportunities.

If you’re part of a woman-led company, I hope this list makes your life easier by pointing you to valuable virtual resources and human capital you didn’t already know about.

Go to Medium to read the complete article.