Scale Investors core purpose is to support entrepreneurial female founders and investors. We connect, invest and help deliver success in an effort to promote exceptional female led businesses and close the entrepreneurial gender-investment gap.
There is a clear opportunity, with the market currently underinvesting in female entrepreneurs and investors despite clear research highlighting that female founded businesses outperform. Startups founded by women are significantly better financial investments, with a recent BCG study concluding that for every dollar of investment raised, female-run startups generate 10% more revenue than male-led companies and earn 35% higher return. We aim to activate additional capital investment from Scale Investors and via co-investment. We typically leverage 3-5 times additional capital from those who co-invest with Scale Investors across the ecosystem.
COVID-19 has presented a great challenge with disproportionate impact on girls and women. We know what the research continues to clearly illustrate, investing in female entrepreneurs helps deliver outperformance which will help the Australian economy rebound. At the start of COVID-19, Scale Investors quickly pivoted to a completely virtual environment, this swift move enabled the organisation to emerge as a strong leader in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, resulting in huge investor engagement.
The outcomes we expect to achieve are two-fold
1. Educate more investors to invest in female-led and co-led startups. To date we have engaged and educated over 200 sophisticated investors, mainly women. The lack of women investors is one reason why less than 3% of females receive venture capital funding. A contributing reason is because there is little to no female representation on cap tables i.e. women investing in women-led businesses, represented as investors.
2. Invest in more female led businesses. To date Scale Investors have provided over $12 million dollars of private capital to 30 female-led startups with $4.5m in the past two years. 3-5 times is typically co-invested i.e. a total investment of up to $50 million being co-invested in female-led / co-led startups that Scale Investors have backed.
Scale Investors have supported female entrepreneurs for 8 years, with a strong track record through solid growth of our network, performance of female founded businesses we’ve supported and the activation of over $12m of private capital funding (ie. smart capital). Smart capital accessed through the Scale Investors network extends beyond just capital and includes the mentoring, access to networks and advisory expertise needed to accelerate and help exponentially scale startup businesses. The role of Scale Investors is to facilitate individual investment opportunities into female led early stage businesses: ie. Identify a pipeline of credible female led early stage businesses, filter and enable angel investors to meet, question, conduct diligence and decide whether or not to invest, ensure documentation is complete, legal and defensible, and support angel investors in a relationship with the investee company, ensuring consistent reporting is provided to investors. Scale Investors play a pivotal role within the startup ecosystem alongside many female focused groups, Venture Capital and other Angel Investor groups to share investment opportunities into female-led startups. We will continue to play the role to amplify the importance of gender diversity and activate female-led startups in Australia. We believe investing in female-led startups will support a rebound of the Australian economy and create a more equal and prosperous future for Australians.
We are Australia’s first and only network of angel investors who invest in exceptional female founders. The struggle females face in getting access to capital is real, reported at a mere 3% of Venture Capital. Scale Investors are here to change that. We back talented women with capital help them bring their ideas to life. The evidence is clear female-led and co-led businesses generate 10% more revenue than male-led companies and earn 35% higher return. Founded by a small group of visionary women in Melbourne in 2013, Scale Investors is bridging the female founder investment gap for angel investing and venture capital by empowering sophisticated high net worth investors to invest in and support talented & diverse teams in early stage businesses. Our Scale Angel network is an exceptional cohort of accomplished people who understand the clear economic opportunity by investing in exceptional female founded businesses and growing a supportive community that invests in female founders today to create the female investors of tomorrow. Scale Investors have built an active Angel investment network and have worked with over 200 sophisticated investors mainly women, activating over $12m of private capital in 30 investments into women-led businesses. Scale has backed female founded businesses Australia wide, across a wide range of innovative and emerging sectors. Scale won the Exit of the Year award in 2019 for Trademark Vision.
Gender equality has got to be front and centre of our plan for the nation’s economic and social security.
Also known as Australian Women Donors Network (ABN: 28 141 197 471), Australians Investing in Women is a registered charity endorsed by the Australian Tax Office as a deductible gift recipient (DGR1) under a special listing, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.