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Women in Capital Raising (Angels of Impact) – Laina Greene

Although there is a proliferation of female entrepreneurs, the venture capital world remains to be dominated by men. Only a small percentage of venture capital investors are women, and who are all diligently working to diversify the startup world and bring great ideas to the forefront. As such, a large proportion of women are lacking sufficient venture capital funding compared to their male counterparts.

In today’s article, we look at how Laina Greene has contributed to this male-dominated industry by Co-Founding Angels of Impact to provide venture capital funding to women entrepreneurs.

Who is she?

Laina is an entrepreneur and social impact investor, who is dedicated towards female empowerment, and supporting women to be key agents in the mission of eradicating poverty in Asia.
 
She has also served as Goodwill Ambassador to Unltd Indonesia, as Senior Advisor to Ashoka, as Associate Director (Community Development) of the Asia Center for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy at the NUS Business School, as Advisor to Plus Acumen chapter in Singapore, and currently teaches social entrepreneurship and Lean Startup at NUS Business School and NUS Overseas College program. 

She has 25 years of experience in the telecom industry, especially with regard to Green ICT, bridging the digital gap in developing economies, and empowering women.

 

She has also co-authored a book on “Sustainable Impact: How women are key to ending poverty”.

 

What does Angels of Impact do?

Angels of Impact is an enterprise that aims to empower women to maximize the social impact of their capital by serving as a fund and network that social enterprises led by women in their transition from medium-sized ventures to sustainable businesses. As a social enterprise, it aims to tackle poverty by uniting women as agents of change.

Read more here: http://www.angelsofimpact.com/

 

Challenges she faced

It is not without challenges that Laina managed to accomplish great success. As a minority Singaporean, coupled with the fact that she is a woman, placed her at a disadvantageous position in the industry. Although she was not the usual leadership demography in Singapore and had to face the ‘glass ceiling’, Laina feels that she has amassed her own international accolades and vast work experience such as serving as the first Secretary General for the Asia Pacific Internet Association, CEO of one of the first few tech startups in Singapore in the early 90s, being on the International Steering Committee of the Global Telecommunication Women Network, and most recently, selected as one of the 2nd cohort of Edmond Hillary Fellows in New Zealand.
 
What motivates her

As a minority female Singaporean from relatively humble beginnings, Laina has never taken anything for granted. “I learnt early on that I have to work doubly hard to overcome the “glass ceilings” but if I persevere, I can succeed. That is why I chose to focus on helping women-led social enterprises as I know how hard things are for them and I hope to make things a little easier for them,” says Laina.

 

If you would like to learn more about how to maximize one’s opportunities to raise capital and source for the right venture capitalist, do join us in our next LearnXNetwork event on 29th August 2019.

For more information, do visit our event page: https://hercapital.peatix.com/

 

 

 

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