Birmingham-based venture capital firm Midven, in collaboration with The 51% Club, has announced a new initiative to support the next wave of high-growth, women-led startups.
The Fortuna Scholarship is a unique accelerator and will see up to five women-led businesses potentially secure a share of a £2 million investment.
The aim of the initiative is to find the region’s next superstar companies. £1m from the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund, managed by Midven, part of Future Planet Capital, has already been secured as part of the scheme’s commitment to local women entrepreneurs.
Delivered in collaboration with The 51% Club, a peer community that helps the region’s female founders scale, and other key partners, the Fortuna Fellowship enables the successful founders to complete a comprehensive 12-month growth program.
Each will be paired with a senior mentor to support them in taking part in a tailored program of workshops and masterclasses delivered by industry experts. A central advisory board will provide the cohort with advice from industry leaders in areas such as product testing, manufacturing, go-to-market strategy, exports and investments.
The founding cohort benefits from weekly “office hours” with one-on-one sessions with the investment team for one-on-one support, as well as monthly collaboration and an intensive innovation residency. At the end of the 12-month program, founders will secure a share of an equity investment of up to £2 million: subject to raising appropriate co-investments, investment committee approval, due diligence and a formal contract.
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“We are delighted to launch the Fortuna Fellowship and provide a platform for talented female founders to thrive,” said Rupert Lyle, Fund Director of the West Midlands Co-Investment Fund at Midven.
“Our goal is to empower these entrepreneurs and help them reach their full potential with a program designed to accelerate the growth of their businesses.
“This is unlike anything previously offered in the region and we want this to be a platform for more women-led businesses to thrive. Before we launch the applications in January, we are reaching out to the region’s ecosystem to join this groundbreaking accelerator as investors and partners.”
The Fortuna Scholarship is open to women-led businesses at an early stage of development with strong growth potential. Applications open on January 1st and founders must demonstrate a unique and innovative solution, a scalable business model, a compelling equity story and a certain level of traction.
The program is run in collaboration with The 51% Club, which launched earlier this year to help female founders scale. Founder Tara Attfield-Tomes, who is also co-chair of The Lifted Project – a Treasury-backed initiative to increase the flow of capital into women-led businesses – added: “I am so proud to be joining Midven in launching The Fortuna Fellowship and I recognize the critical role this will play in closing the gender investment gap.
“I’ve heard the statement that 2% of VC funding goes to women for far too long, and I’m committed to working with brilliant partners like Midven who want to change the scale once and for all .
“We deliberately named this initiative after Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fate, because we no longer want to leave it to chance that women secure the investments they need.
“Fortuna has been associated with the bounty of the soil and the fertility of women, and that is what we need to celebrate – the innovation driven by women entrepreneurs.” I can’t wait to bring more partners on board and to really take this to the next level.”
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