Angels4Women

A4W is a community, or better a women’s Association that aims to invest in startups and innovative companies, lead by women.

Angels4Women was founded by Impact Hub Milan‘s experience and AXA Italia.

In particular, from an idea by Marco Nannini, who realizes how little deal flow ends up in young (or even less young) female entrepreneurs.

Why Angels4Women was created?

Often the glass ceiling in large corporates represents an obstacle to meritocratic growth for women: as a matter of fact, such a celing exists in Venture Capital and Private Equity.

However, with patience and determination, slowly things are changing.

Infact, the number of successful women in the professional, managerial and business world is growing.

Slowly, we are reaching a critical mass, which allowed to think and to found Angels4women.

I believe that few years ago Angels4Women could not be thought of, because there were few of female startups and even fewer business angels.

Today we are already more than thirty Angels4Women.

We are growing fast both in terms of numbers and territorial coverage.

As an association, at least we meet four times per year to invest into female startups that are raising capital, typically pre-seed.

It is not required to invest, but , yes, to dedicate time to the association and/or to our startups.

There is no obligation to invest, but I assure you that when you meet certain young entrepreneurs, the desire to take risks with them comes out easily!

However, often, what the new entrepreneurs need, at least in Italy, is a network of professionals that can show them the right path to solve practical but highly specialized problems.

The great thing about Angels4Women’s meetings is that startups are in the same room with managers with many specializations and long standing experience, who are there to listen and to help them.

Experiences range from finance, national and international taxation, mergers and acquisitions, marketing, digital marketing, product marketing, …

There are lawyers, accountants, … well, the questions that come from the audience often help to ask the right question, which is often more important than having all the answers!