Funding Female Founders: The case for investing in women entrepreneurs

OPEN TO ALL FOUNDERS AND INVESTORS

Join us for an intimate chat with key investors and leaders on the importance and value of funding female founders. Leanne Robers, Co-Founder, She Loves Tech and Angel Investor will moderate this conversation with Dune Thorne, Partner & CSO, Brown Advisory and Founder, Invest in Girls; Virginia Tan, Founding Partner, Teja Ventures and Co-Founder, She Loves Tech; and Dr. Elaine Kim, Co-Founder, CRIB and CEO, Trehaus. These visionaries are passionate about supporting and investing in women entrepreneurs and will highlight the importance of angel investors in the startup ecosystem.

You will also learn about the current climate of investing in women-led startups, why this is not just a cause but makes strategic sense for investors as well as how to get started. Plus, the speakers will also share what they are looking for in female founders and how founders can ensure that their businesses are investment-ready.

And that’s not all – there will be plenty of fundraising stories from founders and investors too!

Dinner and drinks will be served during the event, that is organised by CRIB and Launchpad as a lead up to the second edition of their Pitch Festival, happening in November 2023.

About the speakers

Dune Thorne

Partner & CSO, Brown Advisory and Founder, Invest in Girls

Dune Thorne is a Partner at Brown Advisory where she serves on the Executive Committee and is the Chief Strategy Officer. Brown Advisory is an investment advisory firm that manages over $130B for institutions and families from seventeen offices globally. Her work is focused on multi-generational planning for global family offices with a focus on sustainable and impact investing.

In 2010 she founded Invest in Girls, a non-profit focused on financial literacy for under-represented high-school girls that works with over 6,000 girls across the country and is continuing to grow and expand through its combination with The Council for Economic Education.

Dune has been honored with numerous awards, including Top 50 Women Leaders of Massachusetts, EV Kids Youth Champion Award, World Economic Forum’ Young Global Leader, Advisor One’s Top 50 Women in Wealth, and Boston Business Journal’s Emerging Leader. A frequent speaker, radio and television interviewee, Dune authored her own TEDx talk, “Jump to the New S Curve: Unleash the Power of Inclusion” and been quoted in financial journals as well as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Forbes.

Dune attended Harvard Business School where she received an MBA and was the recipient of a Summer Social Enterprise Fellowship in 2003. She holds a BA from Dartmouth College in Economics where she was captain of the nationally ranked Women’s Lacrosse team and received All-Ivy Academic Honors. She is a graduate of the Boston Center for Community
& Justice Lead Boston Program, the Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Leadership in Energy Innovation and Environmental Consideration at Princeton University.

Ms. Thorne has three children and her personal passions are the arts, running, skiing, traveling, being outside and active with her family and doing everything she can to help build a more equitable and just society.

Dr. Elaine Kim

Co-founder, CRIB and CEO, Trehaus

Dr. Elaine Kim is a medical doctor and entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and CEO of Trehaus, an early education business behind the leading, premium Trehaus School preschool brand, powered by an AI- enabled ed-tech platform that delivers the proprietary Littles’ Programme curriculum and teacher training in the research-and project/play-based “Trehaus Method” pedagogical framework. The Trehaus flagship spaces brings together preschool, office space/ business club with creche, so professional parents do not need to choose between career and family.

Prior to taking the helm at Trehaus, she was the CEO of CRIB, a social enterprise she co-founded to empower women to become successful entrepreneurs through networking, co-founder and investor/start-up matching and training and equipping of female founders.

After a decade as a doctor caring for terminally ill patients, she continues her involvement in palliative care through her work with the Singapore Ministry of Health Ageing Planning Office and remains involved in various charitable causes, especially through the philanthropic arm CRIB Gives Back that she launched at the helm of CRIB.

She is married to venture capitalist John Kim of Amasia VC and they have 3 young children.

Leanne Robers

Co-Founder, She Loves Tech and Angel Investor

Leanne Robers is an entrepreneur, startup advisor and community builder. She is the Co-Founder of She Loves Tech, the world’s largest startup competition and accelerator program for women-led and women-impact tech startups. Now operating in 72 countries, She Loves Tech is committed to building an ecosystem for technology, entrepreneurship and innovation that creates opportunities for women and closes the gender gap in startup funding. Since its founding in 2015, more than 13,000 startups have joined and have gone on to raise more than USD$300M. Together with Microsoft, She Loves Tech is committed to unlocking USD1 Billion in funding for women entrepreneurs across Asia by 2030.

Virginia Tan

Founding Partner, Teja Ventures and Co-Founder, She Loves Tech

Virginia Tan is founding partner of Teja Ventures, a VC backing thenext-generation of category leaders shaping the future of consumption for the emerging middle class in South East Asia, investing in seed to Series A tech driven companies in core verticals of food, retail and health and wellness.

Virginia’s background was in law and banking at two magic circle firms, Allen and Overy and Clifford Chance, focusing on investments in emerging markets and corporate restructuring. She moved to China in 2013 to work on strategic investments related to China’s One Belt One Road policy. Virginia is the founder of Lean In China, which became one of China’s leading grassroot organisations for women with more than 100,000 members.

She also founded She Loves Tech, a global startup platform which houses the world ‘s largest startup competition for women and technology, held across 70 countries in 2022. Virginia is an Asia 21 Leader at the Asia Society and was also named as one of Singapore 100 Women in Tech’s inaugural list in 2020.

About CRIB

CRIB (Creating Responsible & Innovative Businesses) is a social enterprise that empowers women to become successful entrepreneurs through networking opportunities, business matching, and professional development. CRIB also has an Angels Club – a network of investors who fund women-led businesses , including angels investors, VCs , HNWIs and family offices.

About Launchpad

Launchpad is the kindest community of entrepreneurs on the internet with members in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bali, Kuala Lumpur and Australia. As a member, you receive access to almost daily events including masterclasses, small group peer mentoring, community calls, journaling, co-working sessions, media & PR opportunities on our media platforms, signature IRL ‘Ask Parties’ and more. We welcome entrepreneurs who are building businesses that are a force for good.