Investment thesis
The gap in the market is the market.
Female-founded companies are systematically underfunded relative to their performance. We think that's a pricing failure, not a quality one, and pricing failures are where returns come from.
Undercapitalised doesn't mean uninvestable.
All-female founding teams take less than 2% of UK venture funding, a figure that's barely moved in a decade. The consequence is a cohort of companies that have had to reach further on less: real revenue before institutional money, disciplined hiring, slower burn.
When capital's scarce for structural rather than commercial reasons, entry valuations tend to be more reasonable and dilution more sensible. We're not backing these companies because they're led by women, we're backing them because a distorted funding market has left good businesses available on better terms.
We don't forecast returns and we won't publish target multiples. Most early-stage investments fail. The thesis is about where we look, not what we promise.
Our filter, stated plainly.
Stage
Companies with a product in market and early commercial evidence, raising to accelerate something that already works, not to find out whether it does.
Founders
At least one female founder with meaningful equity and an operational role. Not a female name on an advisory line.
Geography
UK-incorporated companies, with a preference for those able to confirm EIS or SEIS eligibility where relevant.
Sectors
Open to any sector, except deep biotech, hardware-heavy capital cycles and crypto assets, areas we can't assess honestly. Beyond that, we look for businesses that do some good in the world, not just ones that make money in it.
Cheque size
Typical member minimums of £2,000 to £10,000 per opportunity, varying deal by deal. We typically look at companies raising rounds of £150,000 to £500,000 in total.
Cadence
We're aiming for around six opportunities in our first year, then more as the pipeline builds. Fewer, better-prepared decisions is the point.
Six questions every company has to answer.
These are our own questions, not a substitute for the ones you'll want to ask yourself.
Is the problem real and expensive?
Customers are already paying to solve it badly. We're looking for evidence of spend, not enthusiasm.
Does the commercial evidence hold up?
Revenue we can verify, retention we can see, and unit economics that improve rather than degrade with scale.
Is this team right for this problem?
Specific, earned insight into the market, plus the ability to hire people better than themselves.
Can it become a large company?
A credible path to being worth many multiples of today's valuation. Sound small businesses aren't venture investments.
Are the terms fair to a new investor?
Sensible valuation, clean cap table, no structural surprises, and rights that don't leave angels behind.
Is there a plausible route to exit?
Identifiable acquirers or a realistic path to later institutional rounds, acknowledged as possibilities, never as plans.
We invest directly, and alongside other leads, depending on the round.
Some rounds we back directly. Others, we join alongside a credible institutional or experienced angel lead who's already set terms and done their own diligence, terms negotiated by someone doing it professionally, though the decision, and the diligence, are still yours either way. We also work with other angel groups and syndicates where a round needs more than one community to close. Where we come in without a lead, we say so on the brief and explain why we were comfortable.
One investment is a bet. Fifteen, over three to five years, is a strategy.
Early-stage returns are concentrated in a small number of outcomes. Most companies return nothing. A single investment is therefore very likely to lose money, however good it looked at the time.
We encourage members to think in portfolios: a cheque size you can repeat, spread across enough companies, sectors and vintages, built up over three to five years rather than all at once, to give the distribution a chance to work, and only ever with money you can afford to lose entirely.
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