Marketing services group Unlimited has signed a strategic partnership with investor network Angel Academe as part of a major commitment to back women in tech by providing marketing, PR and digital expertise to start-ups.
Founded by Sarah Turner (pictured, right) in London in 2014, Angel Academe invests in tech companies with at least one woman on the founding team. It now has over 400 investors in the network, 80% of whom are women, and has backed 30 tech firms.
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit investment in many tech start-ups but Angel Academe members have continued to plough in money during this period, including investments in digital payments firm Nuggets and medical tech company Forte Medical, with others due to close soon. Angel Academe has also supported Pivigo, Loowatt, Nix and Kix, Fiskl and Tech Will Save Us.
Meanwhile, portfolio companies that are also doing well despite a struggling economy include cash management platform Akoni which has just received further investment from HearstLab, and Provenance which has just been awarded a €1m “Blockchain for Social Good” prize.
Unlimited has a proven record of helping clients including Twilio and Zuora move from scale-up to IPO, and more recently enabled clients Taxly and Cera Care lead in digital innovation.
The partnership will see the creation of the Greenshoots Hub, which will connect Angel Academe founders with marketing and comms experts from the agency group in both an offline and online capacity, enabling business ideas to accelerate and thrive.
As part of the deal, Unlimited chief marketing officer Sarah Shilling (pictured, top left) will join Angel Academe’s advisory board. She said: “Having tried to start up a tech enabled business myself, I understand the complexities in getting funding. I’m really proud to be a member of the advisory board and be supporting more broadly through the services we offer at Unlimited.”
Sarah Turner added: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Unlimited, who will provide valuable marketing and PR support for the founders, including behavioural insights from their Human Understanding Lab. I’m also thrilled that Sarah is joining to directly support us with her own experience.”
Unlimited chief executive Tim Hassett concluded: “Our primary objective is to support women in getting the investment they deserve in order to succeed. Early stage investment is still dominated by men and women receive only a tiny proportion of that funding in the UK. We are confident that supporting female business owners with will not only help them grow their businesses but also accelerate investment interest so they can scale even faster.”
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