WALKING THE TALK
Shelley Kuipers, Judy Fairburn and Alice Reimer are the founders of The51, a new venture capital fund made up of women who invest in female-headed companies.
A new Alberta-based venture capital fund aims to harness the power of “financial feminism” by getting investment dollars into the hands of female entrepreneurs.
The fund is an initiative of The51, a platform created by three Calgary-based women, each of whom are individually recognized as leaders within the city's burgeoning technology industry. Shelley Kuipers, Alice Reimer and Judy Fairburn have decades of experience as company founders, board chairs, community leaders and investors, and founded The51 (so named because women represent 51 per cent of the population) to “democratize access” to capital for women in business.
Launched last March in Kuipers' Calgary kitchen, The51 is now a community of over 7,500 people that includes female accredited investors, female entrepreneurs and those who support them. To date, the fund has deployed $6.6 million into 19 companies in fields like blockchain, e-commerce and green technology. All the funded companies are led by women founders in Alberta as well as other parts of Canada and the U.S.
“We know women aren't being invested in, but we also know women aren't being invited to invest. So the 51 is trying to bring those two things together,” said Kuipers. “At this point, our fund is made up of 90 per cent women's capital, which I would say is unheard of.”
In Canada, women make up less than 25 per cent of directors on Canadian boards, and run less than five per cent of venture capital enterprises. Since 2014, only 10 per cent of Canadian venture capital investment deals have involved shaking hands with a woman.
“This isn't an anti-male thing. But the capital going in is largely biased, because people invest in what looks like them,” Kuipers said. “There could be an investment opportunity being presented to a fund, and the guys running the funds are saying, `I don't get this.' Or, `I'll have to ask my wife, I don't understand how this could be a big business.' That is really common language that women hear when they're out soliciting capital.”
The tech sector is still a male-dominated field, but in Alberta, women are gaining ground. Thirty per cent of Alberta's tech startups are founded or co-founded by women, compared to the national average of 13 per cent, according to a survey conducted by Alberta Enterprise Corporation.
“I think Alberta has an advantage over other provinces, because the women here are born and raised in the oil and gas industry,” said Amanda Hall, founder and CEO of Summit Nanotech, a Calgary-based tech company that is developing an environmentally friendly lithium extraction process and has received investment capital from The51.
“I know for me, being exposed to the oil and gas industry early on bred a fearlessness in me and a capability to be able to see big problems and figure out solutions.”
But that doesn't mean accessing capital as a woman tech entrepreneur, or even a male tech entrepreneur, is easy in this province. While Alberta posted a total annual volume of $227 million in venture capital startup investment activity — a 10-year high — the province still lags far behind other markets in venture capital attraction. Tech entrepreneurs in Calgary have long complained of the difficulty in attracting capital for startup ventures in this market, where investors traditionally gravitate toward oil and gas and away from newer and riskier ideas.
“I was really excited when I saw that The51 was building this fund,” Hall said. “I think Alberta needs it. When I look for venture capitalists I usually go to Toronto or Vancouver or San Francisco. I don't look at home, just because there are so few here.”
According to the investment criteria detailed on its website, The51 looks for companies that are not only female-headed, but whose technology offers environmental or social solutions. Equality, diversity and inclusion are also factors taken into consideration before an investment is made.
Another Calgary company the fund has invested in is tech startup Virtual Gurus, whose founder and CEO Bobbie Racette has been named Indigenous Entrepreneur of the Year by Startup Canada. Racette is also a member of the LBGTQ+ community and a vocal champion of inclusion and diversity.
The company has a strong social mission, as its algorithmic program aims to help marginalized groups like single mothers and Indigenous women find employment.
Margaret Glover-campbell, Virtual Gurus' chief operating officer, said the process of seeking venture capital for a company “certainly took a while.”
“And it wasn't for a lack of effort or a lack of getting in front of the right people,” Glover-campbell said. She added that while the idea that women investors are more risk-averse is a common perception, she believes that female investors — like those in The51 — are actually more willing to invest in companies that look a little bit different or are headed by a founder who doesn't necessarily fit the usual mould.
“I would venture to say that female investors tend to have a greater risk tolerance, but it's probably a smarter risk tolerance,” Glover-campbell said. “They won't choose not to invest in something because of something that looks different on the surface. They're doing a deeper dive; they're actually really getting to know who they're investing in.”
It is estimated that by 2030, women in Canada will control 65 per cent of the nation's wealth. Kuipers said there is a significant demographic transfer of wealth occurring, and that represents a huge opportunity for both investors and entrepreneurs. Rather than try to fight against the existing system, with its inherent bias toward male capital and ideas, the women of The51 are looking to create their own solution.
“I think women are just saying, `enough,'” Kuipers said. “We're just going to start doing what we want to do, building the companies we want to build, and accessing the capital that's going to enable us to be successful.”