LeadHERs: Advancing the role of women in leadership, healthcare, technology and venture capital
NEW HAVEN, January 19, 2021 — According to Crunchbase, a total of 800 female-founded global startups received $4.9 billion in venture funding last year. This data reflects a 27% decrease in funding toward female-founded startups in 2020 compared to 2019. HealthVenture believes that democratizing access to capital for entrepreneurs is key to economic mobility and growth. While last year proved to be most challenging for female-founded startups, thanks to sponsorship from HealthVenture and in part, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, LeadHERs will support female founders in the development and design of their innovations and facilitate identifying access to capital.
Next month, HealthHavenHub, powered by HealthVenture, will host its Third Annual LeadHERs Summit virtually. The Summit is an exclusive conference unifying a cohort of extremely talented female founders with key investors and stakeholders within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The conference is presented in two parts: LeadHERs Summit on Friday, February 19, and LeadHERs Speedvesting, on Saturday, February 20. The Summit is joined by leading women and their contemporaries for a half-day event focused on entrepreneurship education, investor development and inclusive innovation. Then, Speedvesting, an invite-only event, matches active venture capital investors with female founders fundraising between $250K to $3M for their startups.
The Summit is kicked off by Donna M. Lecky, CFO & Co-Founder of HealthVenture and HealthHavenHub, in a fireside chat with Asahi Pompey, Global Head of Corporate Engagement & President of the Goldman Sachs Foundation. The two women will discuss the importance of investing in women and other underrepresented founders. Following the fireside chat are two workshops; one designed for entrepreneurs (Founder Track) and the other designed for aspiring fund managers (Investor Track). The Founder Track is presented by IDEO’s Erin Henkel and Dwayne Edwards. During their lectures, The ROI of Design and Making the Intangible Tangible, the presenters will provide foundational tools to founders to further support their startup development, growth and sustainability. Concurrently, the Investor Track will be presented by Wilson Sonsini’s Amy Caiazza and Kelly Chapman. The two-part workshop, FUNdamentals of Fund Formation, will equip professionals interested in venture capital and fund management with the many factors and considerations of raising a fund. The Summit will be closed by Sri Muthu, CEO & Co-Founder of HealthVenture and HealthHavenHub, in discussion with Shannon Sartin, CTO for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Center. They will be discussing the future of healthcare innovation, its progress to-date, the opportunity and the noise.
LeadHERs Speedvesting was created to match women founders with venture capitalists actively committed to investing in women and underrepresented founders. Participating investors include AlleyCorp’s Brenton Fargnoli, Anthemis’ Elizabeth Davis, Charge VC’s Thomas Mecattaf, Crosscut Ventures’ Maureen Klewicki, ffVC’s Marcia Mitchell, Flying Fish Partners’ Vanessa Pegueros, Gore Range Capital’s Ellen Yang, HearstLab’s Lisa Burton, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures’ Marie-Christine Razaire, Stout Street Capital’s Clay Gordon and W Health Ventures’ Pankaj Jethwani. Collectively these firms exceed $3 billion in assets under management across multiple funds. They also call various cities across the United States home, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Milwaukee, Chicago, Boston and New York City. The twelve selected teams will be announced by February 1, 2021.
Join us in challenging the status quo. Purchase your ticket today [click here].
For more information, contact Sharon Mwale, hub@healthventure.com.
About HealthHavenHub: HealthHavenHub (“The HUB”), based in New Haven, is a non-profit corporation powered by HealthVenture which identifies, supports and advances tech entrepreneurship and healthcare innovators.
About HealthVenture: HealthVenture mission is to meaningfully impact healthcare by launching innovative digital solutions. We invest in pre-seed and seed stage startups developing disruptive healthcare technology solutions that are impactful, scalable and sustainable.
