Access to finance

In this module, Claire Munck, CEO of venture capital company BeAngels, moderates two sessions: 

The first session consists of a panel of three outstanding women entrepreneurs from BAE WEGate Academy, who offer their valuable insights and experience in access to finance at large for women entrepreneurs and the hurdles they face in their own business ecosystems. Silvia Almeida, Business Angel and co-founder of WOMENWINWIN (an online community of women entrepreneurs in Portugal and cross-border), joined in the discussion Sasha Bezuhenova, Angel Investor and Founder of MOVE.BG (think-and-do tank for innovative solutions), and Rixt Herklots, director of The Next Women (network of women entrepreneurs and investors operating in Amsterdam and cross borders), to exchange views on financial operations for companies led and managed by women. They exchange opinions on the existing biases towards women in the ecosystem of businesses, the financial and literacy gap, and the vision distance, affecting investment readiness and access to finance for women wanting or already engaged in societal innovation and start-ups.

In the second part of the module, Claire Munck hosts Francesca Natali, Managing Partner at META Ventures (MV), Access to Finance for Women Entrepreneurs, who elaborates further on what investment readiness is and what it entails to be an Investor-Ready Entrepreneur, what the key necessary components for an access to finance program are and how to change paradigms into viewing investors as “customers of equity” could change the outcomes of access to finance.