Lifted Ventures

It's incredible to be getting noticed for the work that we're doing with The Lifted Project to elevate female founders at the series A stage and beyond across the UK.

We are working with Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria to change the outcomes for female founders seeking to grow their women’s health tech businesses. Shifting the bias reported in The Guardian recently. We’re looking forward to meeting the first cohort in our Northern Fem Tech and Women’s Health accelerator which starts in Newcastle on Wednesday. Well done to all the successful applicants 👏👏👏 In the meantime if you are a woman founder in this space what’s your experience of seeking funding? We’re curating evidence and knowledge in this area to super charge our activities. Nicola Hutchinson Kirstie Taylor Jordan Dargue Helen Oldham Jem Henderson https://lnkd.in/eau8qsau

We are looking forward to working with Bruntwood SciTech in the delivery of this programme. 💜💜Apply now

Our Athena Festival is still top of our minds as we look back on an absolutely incredible event last week. Bravery is key to the work that we do - whether founders looking to grow and scale their fledgling businesses to dizzy heights, or angel investors undertaking due diligence on what they think will be the next big venture with the support of a syndicate. This is why we invited Lisa Clifford 🔥 Founder of The Meant for More Movement to run a session at the Athena Festival. Lisa led a transformational session which focussed on goal setting and visualisation with no limits, and group connection. The session ended with four volunteers walking on broken, green glass bottles on a short runway.  The glass crunched under their feet as Lisa held the arm of each of the volunteers who ended the runway elated, and their feet undamaged. Alongside this session, the afternoon breakout panel was on ‘Sustainable success’ and featured women leaders Ainslie Wilson-Shearer, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing at Mills & Reeve, Jessica Wilkes-Ball MICRS AIEMA-Ball, Head of Sustainability & Net Zero at Mills & Reeve, Sharon Amesu, Co-founder of She Leads for Legacy, Lily Morris, Sustainability Engagement Manager (on sabbatical), Scottish Widows, and Sarah Jones, founder of Full Circle Funerals talking about their experiences in ensuring their businesses have a lasting and meaningful impact on society. The day finished, as all good days should, with beer and disco music courtesy of Ruth Cherry from Smart Works and Amity Brew Co. You can learn more about our fantastic day at Athena by reading the blog of the day. https://lnkd.in/ewBAjCd7 If you’re looking to be supported in your work - whether a female founder or an angel investor, visit our website to sign up to be part of Lifted Ventures. https://lnkd.in/eNWs2nyY Jordan Dargue Helen Oldham Roseanna Tanner ACIM Rebecca Beeby

🌟 Growing the number of female angel investors across the UK is crucial to enabling female entrepreneurs to access the funding they need to start, scale and grow. 🌟 Our Lifted Women Angel Education Programme is designed to uplift and inspire women to reach their full potential. You'll have the opportunity to learn from successful women in various fields, participate in workshops, and network with like-minded individuals. The programme is aimed at prospective women angel investors and women angels willing to learn more about investing. Our first programme started in Newcastle this month, with Manchester, Birmingham and Yorkshire dates to be announced soon. These programmes and workshops are held in-person and online and are kindly supported by the British Business Bank. Don't miss out on this chance to be a part of a supportive community of strong women. Register your interest now - https://lnkd.in/erKSnDaW Jordan Dargue Helen Oldham Roseanna Tanner ACIM Jem Henderson Rebecca Beeby Debra Leeves Fozia Saleem Zandra Moore Natalie Boswell Lorna Green Claire Lewis Tara Attfield-Tomes Hephzi Pemberton Carolyn Currie Catherine McWilliam #angelinvesting #womenangels #liftedangels #womenangelsofthenorth

One of the most popular breakout sessions at the Athena Festival was our section on access to finance - and no surprises there, given our work in this domain! This session was sponsored by Gordons LLP. Our co-founder Jordan Dargue led the session with her presentation on the funding landscape - what options are right for your business? In the session, she touched on debt, equity, grants and more - a small taster of the sessions we run as part of our investment readiness programmes. At Lifted Ventures, we support our female founders to get the right sort of financial support for their business, no matter what that may be. Next up was Amy Pierechod from Gordons LLP with a comprehensive rundown of the legal process for developing a robust investment structure, from your articles of association and shares, through to what you need for EIS and SEIS. Finally, Jordan chaired a panel with both founders and investors to get a 360 view on the investment process from those in the know, featuring: Amy Pierechod, Gordons LLP William Schaffer, Mercia  Saskia Roskam 🍪, The Biskery Emma Cassidy, DSW Ventures Kate Hawker, Adventuro Cat Smith, British Business Bank At the same time as the finance session, Jane Slimming ran her brilliant 'go to market strategy' breakout session. In the workshop, Jane supported founders with how they structure their marketing tasks - using a simple spreadsheet to make delegation easier and helping them to maintain focus on the important tasks as businesses grow. If you couldn’t attend our Athena Festival and you’re still looking for whether investment is right for you, you can sign up to our female founder newsletter to keep up to date with all of our work including our accelerator programmes - https://lnkd.in/eYzW7ZMY If you're looking for an organisation to support businesses in your region on how to get investment ready, get in touch today. Helen Oldham Rebecca Beeby Roseanna Tanner ACIM

Shout out to our friends at Cornerstone VC for their great work

👏 👏 👏 Athena you exceeded our expectations in every way. 👏 👏 👏 In a series of apres event posts we reflect on the special moments in a day full of wisdom, courage and resourcefulness. Attended by 140+ delegates, with a huge wait list (apologies to those who didn't get in). A day that disappeared in a heart beat. With beautiful, thoughtful speakers who left us with so much to think about, including Adah Parris (she/her), visionary futurist who held a space for us all to develop the inner strength and resilience it takes to succeed. And Tulip Siddiq who sent a very personal video which addressed the policy needs for female entrepreneurialism to flourish. Here is a tiny snippet of the overwhelming feedback we've had..... "I had the most amazing experience attending the Athena Festival'' Dr Zainab Bibi ''The Athena Festival had a profound impact on me'' Samantha Addy ''I was one of the ones who didn't feel like a goddess going in, but felt much more like it going out'' Rachel Swann Thanks to Leeds City Council, NatWest Group, Gordons LLP, Mills & Reeve, Nexus Leeds, The Biskery, Amity Brew Co and Q5 for partnering with us to bring the festival to life

Last week Lifted Ventures launched their industry-recognised women angel investor education programme in the North East. The programme has kindly been supported by the British Business Bank. Data from the Lifted Project provided by The Data City and Panintelligence indicates that the North East is the most underserved region in the UK in terms of funding flowing to female founders This programme sets out to build more, regional early stage funding for female founders by encouraging women from the region to take their first steps into angel investing. Dispelling myths, demonstrating the accessibility of angel investing and taking a step by step approach to every stage of the investment process. Delivered by Jordan Dargue and Helen Oldham, Co-Founders of Lifted Ventures and experienced angel investors, the programme is built on knowledge and experience alongside best-in-class thinking on early stage investment processes. This angel education programme creates an environment where a group of women leaders and exited founders spend three months working together as a community learning more about what being an angel investor is, how it works, and how to make a first investment. Most importantly, this programme isn't just about textbook learning. It’s about bringing together like-minded women from the North East and beyond who are keen to give back and are passionate about democratising early stage finance.  Lifted Ventures are running a further three women angel education programmes in Manchester, the Midlands and Yorkshire. Applications for these are open now using the link below. There’s also still time to join us in Newcastle if you’d like to be involved, do get in touch with us to find out more or sign up on this link. https://lnkd.in/erKSnDaW Vicky Mears Delyth Lloyd Edwards Susan Nightingale Shaun Fooy Julie Skevington Lisa Eaton Beth Crosier Emma Gaudern Paula Grizzard Tanya Crawley Fran Varley Shkun Chadda Vikki Baptie Alison Kelly Kelly Bewick Claudia Perez Helen Whitfield Tracy Stones Taiyibah A. #womenangels #womenangelsofthenorth #gendersmartinvesting

🕘 Extended deadline! The Northern FemTech & Women’s Healthtech Accelerator Programme is still open for applications. If you’re ready to take your innovation to the next level, this is for you. Why apply? ✅ Get investor ready  ✅ Build your brand and tackle key challenges  ✅ Access a network of investors, mentors, and industry experts  Applications close at 12pm, 21st October 2024 Find out more and apply https://lnkd.in/eSZ4JYGd Jordan Dargue Helen Oldham Ian Sharp Barry Singleton Kirstie Taylor Nicola Hutchinson Nathan Berry