Women receive only a slim 2 percent of venture capital funds, but Anthemis and Barclays’, Female Innovator Lab, is looking to change this statistic. The New York-based group is looking to back female financial technology startups to level the playing field for female entrepreneurs.
The group assesses each startup’s needs and works as not just a backer, but a partner and support system as well. Anthemis cofounder, Amy Nauiokas, says many women leave the financial industry, not because of family commitments or lack of talent, but because opportunities for mobility in the industry are limited. For many women, the support is just not the same as for their male counterparts.
Managing over $380 million in assets, Anthemis is well equipped to handle challenges specific to the industry and thinks traditionally underfunded groups are the key to new innovation in the field of financial technology. Nauiokas says, “As far as I’m concerned, we need to make sure that every company we help create, every company we fund, and every business we build becomes in itself a kind of petri dish for diversity and inclusion.”
