Equality and diversity are fundamental elements for the growth of women led businesses when attracting investment in their businesses.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Women led business owners, women shareholders and CXOs, investors and teams ready to build companies.

SCOPE OF THE WEBINAR

Equality and diversity are fundamental elements for the growth of women led businesses when attracting investment in their businesses. Astia is a global fund, investing in women led, diverse businesses. Gain an insight into Astia, SVB and a panel of Women entrepreneurs who have amazing insights to share about their different lives and entrepreneurial journeys. We’ll understand their personal drivers and the support each entrepreneur has from their families and friends. Whether its seeking funding or growing your business, this is an unmissable event.

During this Innovate UK Edge webinar, speakers will provide an overview on:

• Helping women leaders in business cut through the barriers to raising finance
• Top tips from a women led global early stage fund manager and women entrepreneurs
• Empowering women led teams to have the confidence to go forward with raising finance
• How to get ready for investment
• Opportunities for one to one investment readiness support via. Innovate UK Edge and the Pitchfest offer.

SPEAKERS

Evie Mulberry, Managing Director - Astia

Flavia Richardson, Vice President - Silicon Valley Bank

Devi Kolli, Group CEO - i3 Simulations

Shainoor Khoja, Founder & CEO - Thriving.ai

Mark Rayner, Pitchfest Champion - Innovate UK EDGE

WHAT WILL ATTENDEES LEARN?

• Understand the opportunities open to female entrepreneurs to access finance for growth
• Hear from different international funds/providers about their available funds
• Hear from women leaders about their fundraising journeys and get top tips for negotiating the fundraising journey
• Understand the support opportunities available for your business

Astia

Astia invests in high-growth companies with women leaders, following their successful completion of our Expert Sift™ process. They follow innovators rather than trends, and invest across a variety of industries. Astia Investment vehicles directly support their non-profit mission to level the investment playing field.

Inclusive teams are more likely to succeed, and through Astia Fund, Astia Angels and Astia Edge, they provide the capital and networks required to get there.

Evie Mulberry – Managing Director

Evie is one of four members of the Investment Team for the Astia Fund, an early stage global venture fund investing in women-led companies. Evie joined Astia in April 2008 to lead the organisation’s international expansion, before moving to its investment team. Evie was a banking and finance lawyer in private practice and in-house Barclays Capital.

Silicon Valley Bank

The UK Branch was the first location we opened outside of the US. They sit right at the heart of London's exciting technology community and work with some of the most innovative businesses in the UK and Europe. Whether making their first cross-border transaction or expanding operations to or from the UK, having a base in London has helped us meet their clients' strategic needs.

Flavia Richardson – Vice President

Flavia provides strategy for the business and ecosystem development of key early-stage technology ecosystems in the UK. She builds and manage relationships with strategic partners, including accelerators, incubators, university entrepreneurship programmes, and investors such as angels and venture capital firms, driving business development with early-stage technology companies. Flavia also provides commercial banking services to early-stage technology companies, and venture capital firms.

i3 Simulations

i3 are proud to work with ambitious partners who strive to push boundaries and drive innovation through our cutting edge products and services, resulting in immersive training simulations that enhance engagement, replicate real life situations, offer remote collaboration and ultimately reduce costs.

Devi Kolli – Group CEO

Devi has co-founded, invested, nurtured and exited several technology start-ups, ranging from immersive simulations to AR for retail and entertainment. She helped to conceptualise and deploy many skills based and procedural training simulations across industries and remain on the forefront of AI powered VR applications. Devi has dedicated herself to educating the enterprise and consumer markets on how AI and VR will affect the way we work, learn, socialise and play.

Thriving.ai

Thriving is a platform that brings everyone involved in medical care, social and support, together on a central platform for community engagement, enriched learning, communication & use of data for informed caregiving decision making.

Shainoor Khoja – Founder & CEO

Shainoor is a global change maker and a serial entrepreneur. She founded Thriving.ai, a technology solution for the aging population. A firm believer that aging should be fun and that intergenerational interaction and support can lead to better quality of life, a stronger economy and lower social and healthcare costs. Her entrepreneurial and life journey provides an amazing insight into the ability to create societal change when the barriers seem unsurmountable.

Innovate UK EDGE

Innovate UK EDGE is a key part of the UK innovation agency’s investment in the innovative businesses that drive economic growth. It complements Innovate UK project funding with intensive, specialist-led support for such ambitious businesses.

Each high-potential, innovative business in our portfolio benefits from the objective perspective of a dedicated innovation and growth specialist local to them. Our specialist considers a business in the round and, working closely with its leadership, identifies the most productive ways to accelerate its growth.

Mark Rayner – Pitchfest Champion

Mark heads up the Pitchfest East of England offer for Innovate UK EDGE. He has a diverse, international career, building high growth business. He has founded and exited several financial and technology businesses, ran a global VC firm and founded a corporate boutique. He offers business growth advice for all levels of businesses and in his spare time is a volunteer advisor to the Astia team.

AGENDA

10.30 - 10.35 Welcome

10.35 - 10.50 Astia Presentation

10.50 - 11.00 Silicon Valley Bank

11.00 - 11.10 i3 Simulations

11.10 - 11.20 Thriving.ai

11.20 - 11.25 Introduction to Pitchfest

11.25 - 11.40 Panel Q & A’s

11.45 Finish

You can follow @IUK_EDGE_East on Twitter and tweet about this event using #InnovateUKEdge.