About Female Founders

Female Founders is designed to connect female-founded health and life science companies with LSX’s network of investors and experienced life science professionals, provide the resources to help women raise more capital and facilitate knowledge-sharing between founders and industry veterans.

Female founders received just 2.7% of all venture capital investment in 2019. Being higher than ever before, that was billed as a win. In 2020 the percentage of venture capital invested in women fell back to pre-2017 levels. Diversity might be a hot topic, but the numbers tell a much bleaker story. We’re going to help change that.

• For every £1 of VC investment raised in the UK in 2018, all-female founder teams got 1p, all-male founder teams got 89p, and mixed-gender teams got 10p. more
  
  
• Female founders received just 2.7% of all venture capital investment in 2019. This was billed as a win. 
  
  
• In the US, female-founded companies closed 0.5% less of all VC rounds in 2020 compared with 2019. more
  
  
• Closing the entrepreneurship gender gap could boost global GDP by up to $5 Trillion. more

Vision

We believe that nurturing female founders has a profound positive impact on global health and global economies. LSX have a strong track record of stimulating investment into European health and life sciences companies. Now, we want to put that expertise towards improving investment, mentorship and business partnerships for women in Europe’s health and life science sectors.

Mission

• To stimulate investment in female-founded health and life sciences companies in Europe, by connecting them with LSX’s existing network of 10,000 investors

• To connect women with experienced health and life sciences industry professionals for mentoring, knowledge-exchange and networking

• To provide a network for women in European health and life sciences to share ideas, ask questions and make the connections needed to grow their business

Values

Knowledge-exchange

• We facilitate open, honest dialogue between women in health and life sciences to help grow female-led businesses, as well as to support individual career progression.

Diversity and inclusion

• We believe that diversity drives innovation. We welcome women from all cultures and backgrounds and encourage diverse points of view and experience to solve some of the world’s biggest health challenges.

Member-led

• The needs of our members are integral to setting the strategic direction of the Female Founders network. We are committed to taking regular advice from our members as the network evolves and to hosting regular feedback sessions for members to contribute actively to that evolution.

Serving unmet medical needs

• Female-led businesses don’t just solve “women’s problems” but they certainly help. We are committed to driving investment into companies solving women’s health challenges and serving unmet medical needs.