There’s a movement afoot to establish a women’s angel network in Atlantic Canada, and proponents are inviting anyone who’s interested to an information and planning workshop on April 12.

Tentatively called the Atlantic Women’s Angel Investment Fund, the fund is being proposed by a group of professional women who are in the region or have close ties to Atlantic Canada. The goal is to find a group of wealthy women who are interested in backing young, female-led companies.

The organizers says space is limited at the one-day workshop, which will take place at Volta. Interested people can inquire about attending at rsvp.atlantic@national.ca. You can find more information here.

“We can significantly accelerate the number of women participating fully in the innovation and entrepreneur landscape, particularly as investors, which will benefit the ecosystem and the larger economy,” said Sarah Young, one of the organizers. “We need to engage more women to actively participate in the entrepreneur and innovation ecosystem, as founders, investors, and mentors. . . . The emergence of this fund is one of the ways we will make this happen.”

Young, who is a Halifax-based partner at National Public Relations, said a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem needs a broad range of investors, mentors and founders. And while more women are becoming accredited investors (people recognized by securities commissions as being wealthy enough to invest safely in unlisted companies), Young noted there is a gap between the numbers of men and women in the angel community.

“This is enabling the next generation of female investors,” said Young. “With this fund, we will invest in female entrepreneurs who then become investors themselves, creating an ecosystem with strong sustainable growth.”

The workshop on April 12 will serve to educate participants on angel investing, and solicit opinions on how the fund should evolve.

In the morning, panels of experts will discuss their experiences and make recommendations on the fund. Then in the afternoon, participants will be able to share their own experiences and work collectively to determine how the fund should be structured.

The organizers, who hope to launch the fund this spring, include:

Amy Risley, CEO Skinfix, Inc.
Shannon MacDonald, Managing Director, Accenture Canada
Cathy Bennett, Bennett Group of Companies, Corporate Director
Nicole LeBlanc, Director, Investments & Partnerships, Sidewalk Labs
Chere Chapman, CEO, DGI Clinical
Rhiannon Davies, Former VP and Board Member GrandVision N.V.
Ozge Yeloglu, Chief Data Scientist, Customer Success Unit, Microsoft Canada
Karen Hutt, President and CEO, Nova Scotia Power

“This is just in the early stages and coming together quickly,” said LeBlanc. “This workshop is targeted at a wide variety of groups, to share ideas, build relationships and determine what the best path forward to be effective will be.”