In the global startup ecosystem, the struggle that female founders had to go through to secure funding is well-documented. Even in late 2022, various reports–including one by Nikkei Asia–highlighted that women-run startups raise staggeringly less funding at lower valuations, despite the high returns.

Harriet, a platform that aims to empower female founders to secure external capital and accelerate their business growth, was founded in 2022 with this issue as the background.

The platform facilitates strategic connections between female-founded companies and venture capital funds, with a focus on bridging the gender gap in the industry. There are two key components on the platform: Connecting Harriet, which offers female founders access to essential tools and resources to support their growth, and Funding Harriet, which serves as a bridge between leading venture funds and female-founded companies.

It was founded by Tanya Rolfe and Anna Pearson who had been actively investing in female founders for a number of years. The platform is the third collaboration between the two co-founders and the first they founded.

In starting Harriet, Rolfe and Pearson conversed with various female founders from around the world and discovered the universality of the problem.

Also Read: Don’t be the noise, be the value: Kavita Gupta of Delta Blockchain Fund to aspiring female VCs

“It was just obvious to us that they needed a space, a way to connect, a community. And they reached out to us primarily because, in many instances, there is no one else,” Pearson says.

“They will reach out to us for support on their business, growth and development, and also on their fundraising. So the product development came just from extensive conversations with these female founders about what they want.”

Rolfe further explains the gravity of the problem that Harriet aims to tackle with its solutions. Back when she and Pearson worked at a venture fund and had to raise funds for female entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia (SEA), the challenges that she faced were “quite shocking”.

“It was also quite ironic that there I was, trying to raise capital to help female entrepreneurs overcome the challenges of fundraising, but I was also facing those very same challenges as a female fund manager,” she says.

“Furthermore, all of my investors, the LPS that were coming forward were men. There were almost no women. So, one of the big issues and challenges in securing funding for female entrepreneurs is that we just don’t have enough women investors.”

This is crucial as investors tend to put trust—and eventually, invest in—founders that “look and sound like them.”

“Everything hinges on convincing people that this is also a great financial opportunity. We have not even spoken about the outperforming investment returns of female entrepreneurs,” Rolfe says.

Also Read: How can female founders become the new normal in Asia?

Bringing female founders onto the platform

Harriet has a wide variety of female founders on board the platform, from their ages to the industries that they are working on.

Since the company is based in Singapore, there is a strong Asia Pacific lens in its reach with these founders operating in Southeast Asian countries and Australia.

When asked about the strategy that Harriet uses to acquire users, Pearson states that the process has been completely organic since the platform was introduced–about a few weeks before the interview was done.

“We have about 45 different female-founded companies who reached out to us and wanted to join the platform and have been waiting for it to go live. We are planning to add between four or five companies a week; that is really just bandwidth at the moment,” she explains.

The co-founders see this enthusiastic response as proof of the urgency of the solution that Harriet provides. “If we advertise [this platform] tomorrow, we will be completely inundated.”

This year, Harriet aims to focus on growing the platform, especially in its two main areas of focus. For its Funding Harriet feature, the company wants to push for the number of companies securing the investment and to showcase these companies in their Female Founder showcase series, with the goal of featuring three companies in a quarter. They would also like to further expand the community within Connecting Harriet.

“The idea is to just to create that brand awareness and credibility in the market in terms of the quality and calibre of the founders … But, at the end of the day, it has to translate into people writing checks. So, the main focus for the rest of the year will be on Funding Harriet. We will probably run another Female Founder series in Singapore and Hong Kong. We have also been asked to run them in Australia,” says Pearson.

But the focus of the company’s work goes beyond pushing for numbers.

“To change mindsets and get people to invest in female entrepreneurs are really the number one focus for us this year, where we are going to see change come about. And that is not easy. That is probably our biggest challenge,” Pearson stresses.

—

Echelon Asia Summit 2023 is bringing together APAC’s leading startups, corporates, policymakers, industry leaders, and investors to Singapore this June 14-15. Learn more and get tickets here.

Echelon also features the TOP100 stage, where startups get the chance to pitch to 5000+ delegates, among other benefits like a chance to connect with investors, visibility through e27 platform, and other prizes. Join TOP100 here.

Image Credit: Harriet

The post Female founders struggle to raise funding, but Harriet is here to make a change appeared first on e27.