In photo: Panelists discussed how to encourage women participation in angel investing during the first Gender Lens Investment (GLI) Series of Manila Angel Investors Network (MAIN). From left, Gobi Core Founding Partner and Head of Circular Economy, Carlo Delantar; MAIN’s Gender Lens Investing Committee Chairperson and Avaya Managing Partner, Tina de Cicco; on screen: MAIN Member, James Lette; Xchange PH Director, Love Gregory Moral-Perez and MAIN’s Executive Director, Quenby Go.
With the aim to address the persistent lack of funding for women entrepreneurs and increase the number of women investors, Manila Angel Investors Network (MAIN) recently kicked off its first Gender Lens Investment (GLI) Series, Women Leaders and Angel Investing in the Philippines, at the Sheraton Manila Hotel. The forum focused on women business leaders and their attitudes towards angel investing, as well as providing a space for women angel investors to come together.
MAIN shared its goal to engage women to become angels and start investing. “It is our purpose to unlock angel stage capital for women entrepreneurs, celebrate women founders, and step up on our movement for gender balance,” Quenby Go, MAIN’s Executive Director said.
As the Philippines’ pioneer and premiere investors network, MAIN was formed to support the country’s startup ecosystem by connecting investors with promising early-stage startup companies. It mentors founders by providing expertise support and creating networking opportunities.
To date, MAIN has over a hundred active members of which, over a dozen of them are women. The organization’s female membership has grown from just two women members in 2018. Among MAIN’s portfolio of female founded startups are: 1Export, Fortuna and Taxumo.
“MAIN’s members have already invested a total of US$ 1.3 Million in 2021, where US$120,889 came from women. We are delighted to have surpassed our total investment of US$ 640,000 in 2020. Now, we are working towards reaching our goal of US$ 2 Million in 2022,” added Ms. Go.
The need to normalize women in business.
“We need to improve both ends of the pipeline. We need more women-founded startups and we need to have more women seating in investment committees,” Love Gregory Moral-Perez said.
Ms. Tina Di Cicco added that there is a need to proactively educate women to invest or involve them to decide on investments. “Investing in women pays. It is no longer a social issue, it is actually smart economics. We must encourage women to be fund managers and we must encourage women to support women.”
“It is pretty intense how competitive women are,” Carlo Delantar, Founding Partner and Head of Circular Economy, Gobi-Core said. He added that in terms of returns for venture capitals, it is always 5-20% higher for those gender-diverse startups than male-led startups.
The need for investor network groups in educating angel investors in the Philippines.
“There needs to be a peer circle or an investment club for women so they can be educated,” Ms. Perez said.
Mr. James Lette said that MAIN aims to be a group who can provide education on angel investing. “Angel investing is a journey. You need to become aware, you need to be interested and you need to join a group. But after you join a group there is still that journey before you deploy money since that is the much harder step. MAIN’s key role is to provide the mentorship, and the training for potential members, be it female or male.”
Ms. Di Cicco said that MAIN’s GLI Series has three goals: building awareness, creating a community and investing in women-led startups.
MAIN’s GLI Series is made possible in partnership with the Australian Government’s initiative, Investing in Women. Investing in Women uses innovative approaches to improve women’s economic participation as employees and as entrepreneurs in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Myanmar through workplace gender equality, impact investment for SMEs and influencing gender norms to positively shift attitudes and practices to support women in the world of work.
If you are a post-MVP startup looking for investment from MAIN, submit your pitch deck to pitch@main.ph for their Screening Committee’s review.
If you want to diversify your portfolio to include angel investing, reach out to invest@main.ph and become part of the Philippines’ largest and most active angel network.
To know more about MAIN’s schedule of GLI Series, visit: https://www.facebook.com/mainph.
