These angels watch over your business
Heather Henyon’s firm invests in women-led tech startups
The growth of UAE’s entrepreneurial ecosystem over the last few years has been massive, says Heather Henyon, founder, Women’s Angel Investor Network (Wain). “There is an opportunity for the UAE government to support angel groups and entrepreneurs by investing alongside business angels through a sidecar fund, similar to the ones set up in the UK and Australia, which has been very successful and helped to support economic development,” said Henyon.
Wain started as a small group of professional women in Heather’s network. “We now have 30 women angel investors who invest in early stage women-led tech startups [we require at least one female founder] in the region and are about to launch our fourth investment cycle in January 2018,” said Henyon.
Wain pools the funds through an investment vehicle and all invest together based on majority vote by the members. The members go through an educational programme prior to investing. The network is member-led where the angels learn by investing. The members are involved in the deal screening, due diligence, deal teams and investment memo leading up to the investment decision.
“Our feeling is that being part of a group leads to better investment outcomes. Generally, women prefer to invest together and share the risk and also like the social aspect. I saw this during my time in microfinance with Grameen-Jameel and see it in angel investing and Wain,” added Henyon.
Wain has made seven investments to date and hopes to make two or three more next year.
Henyon said that after Wain makes an investment, it takes a board or advisory board seat on the company. The company’s goal is to increase women on boards by giving them more board experience and getting them onto boards at the early stage of the company’s development. Henyon started Wain in 2013 when she noticed that there weren’t many angel investors in the region, especially among women.
“There have always been a high number of female entrepreneurs — my guess is that about 40 per cent of the startups in the region are women-led. At the time, 10 per cent of the applicants to Oasis500 [a seed investment company and business accelerator] in Jordan were women but almost 90 per cent of the graduates were women.
“Having spent 20 years in the finance industry, I continue to see women, even successful executives, who feel uncomfortable with financial statements,” said Henyon.
She said part of the reason for starting Wain was to increase financial literacy among women in the hope that it would increase their self-confidence when dealing with financials and money.
Henyon, who is also a former Standard & Poor’s corporate bond
Supporting and partnering with startups in the ecosystem is a great way to stay in touch with the future
Heather Henyon, Founder of Women’s Angel Investor Network
ratings analyst, thinks it is very important to build relationships with mentors and investors who can help grow your business. It is also advisable to start an advisory board early in order to engage more stakeholders in your business early on.
The UAE has vast exposure in family businesses and Henyon feels there are many opportunities for collaboration between family businesses and startups. They can be customers, strategic partners and even potential acquisition targets.
“My belief is that all business will need a tech solution or to be tech-enabled in order to survive. Supporting and partnering with startups in the ecosystem is a great way to stay in touch with the future and ensure that you are positioned for growth,” said Henyon.
She has a large portfolio of angel investments in the Middle East, Europe and the US through involvement with Wain, Dubai Angel Investors, NextWave Ventures, Rising Tide Europe and CoFund.
Henyon is also on the board or advisory board of a number of startups. One of her key values is personal growth and learning — her roles with startups as a constant source of learning.
— sandhya@khaleejtimes.com