Investors and Female Entrepreneurs, with Sanjukta and Heather

Attention all investors and female entrepreneurs – this podcast is for you. Did you know that less than 2% of investment goes to female-led businesses? And even if there’s just one woman in a group of male founders, their chances of investment drop compared to all-male teams. But fear not, Social Impact Pioneers Heather Matranga and Sanjukta Mitra are here to offer practical solutions to the gender financing gap.

Heather, VP and Managing Director of Impact Investments at Village Capital, shares tools for investors to mitigate bias in the investment process, from decision-making tools to new investment models (check out links below to the Smarter Systems toolkit) and introduces a pilot financing facility for Women in Tech alumni as part of Futuremakers by Standard Chartered. Meanwhile, Sanjukta is the Liabilities Product Head of Business Banking India for Standard Chartered Bank. She drives equitable access to financial support for women and small businesses, with networking and business leads platforms, as well as banking services tailored to female-led businesses (take a look at the links below for details).

Together, these women are on a mission to expand the reach and scale of financial services, creating accessible banking and financing to lift participation and create economic inclusion. Whether you’re an investor, a female entrepreneur, or simply passionate about helping women reach their potential, this podcast is for you. Don’t miss out on the practical solutions to accelerate female-led business growth and success.

Links:

Standard Chartered Bank, Lifting Participation
Futuremakers by Standard CharteredStandard Chartered Bank, SC WIN
Village capital
Smarter Systems Toolkit
Pitchbook: companies founded solely by women garnered just 0.9% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in Europe
Pitchbook: companies founded solely by women garnered just 2.1% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the US

Solutions for Women Entrepreneurs – 38% of all MSMEs are women owned

“Potential” and the Gender Promotion Gap – revealing that investment evaluating potentially harms women and benefits men

Constructed Criteria: Redefining Merit to Justify Discrimination – showing that that evaluators redefine what success looks like in a candidate to fit the characteristics displayed by candidates of their preferred gender

Male and Female Entrepreneurs Get Asked Different Questions by VCs — and It Affects How Much Funding They Get

If you like this conversation, do take a listen to:

Scaling Green Tech Solutions for Smallholder Farmers, with Audrey and Khadija

What Does it Take to be a Female Entrepreneur? With Naom and Natasha