LYVA Labs is taking the lead in investing in under-served founders and CEOs. This week, the company...
Untapping the potential of ambitious female innovators outside London is the aim of new Female Founder Regional HIGH Growth Boards for Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and Birmingham.
LYVA Labs CEO, Lorna Green will be Chair of Liverpool City Region’s Board and Claire Lewis, CEO of Baltic Ventures will join her as Vice-Chair. Lorna and Claire bring a wealth of experience and connections in areas like innovation and early-stage funding, which they use to create opportunities for other female entrepreneurs.
Speaking about her new appointment as chair, Lorna said: “I am delighted to be involved in this initiative, the support for entrepreneurs across Liverpool City Region has improved over the last few years, but there is much more to be done. Organisations such as LYVA Labs, the Liverpool City region’s unique innovation investment company, established with £10.5m from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Baltic Ventures, and Kindred LCR, are helping to drive change. Since LYVA Labs started investing, 56% of our funds have been deployed to support female founders. This board will enable all those organisations supporting female founders to start up and scale up and to come together around a shared mission to affect meaningful change in Liverpool City Region.”
The board aims to:
- Increase the number of women-led high-growth enterprises across the UK
- Increase the percentage of capital invested into female founders in the region by 5%
- Increase the number of funds in the region that sign up for the Invest in Women Code
- Double the number of visible female founders
- Aim for a 50% increase from the current number of female role models
- Identify and activate 5 new initiatives focused on increasing the number of ‘high growth female-founded’ businesses
The Cabinet Office recently formed a Women-Led High Growth Enterprise Task Force group to shape pathways to support female-led businesses across the UK - particularly in the regions. The government has an overall target of increasing the number of female entrepreneurs by half by 2030 (equivalent to nearly 600,000 more female entrepreneurs), with a particular focus on driving change in growth capital.
A report commissioned and led by Zandra Moore, CEO of PanIntelligence and a Member of the Task Force, established a need for dedicated focus and resources in the regions, leading to the Female Founder Regional HIGH Growth Boards.
Lorna and Claire are being supported by Lifted Ventures – appointed by the Women Led High Growth Enterprise Task Force. Lifted Ventures will work with the pair to create better pathways for the region’s female founders to networks, mentors, advice, and scale-up opportunities and funding.
Currently confirmed as part of the Liverpool City Region board is Helen Heap, CEO of Seebohm Hill Ltd; Carmel Booth, Partner, Calderstones Consulting; Jessica Jackson, Investment Manager at Praetura Ventures; Dr. Aileen Jones, Executive Director Investment and Delivery, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority; Emma Nolan, Head of Enterprise, University of Liverpool; Katie Nicholson, Director, LCR Angel Network, Samantha Perona (Westgate), CEO of Spotlight Pathology and founder of Perfectus Biomed, and Raina Heverin Founder and MD at ReCulture . Further board members will be announced shortly.
A stakeholder event took place at Baltic Ventures to launch the enterprise and to showcase the board and its aims to female founders, investors including angel investors, and regional stakeholders. The event: ‘Creating Regional Inclusive Pathways to Support High Growth Female Founders’ also highlighted the Lifted Regional Inclusive Growth Project, which is supported by Lloyds Bank. The session was an opportunity to discuss how collectively the regional boards can drive change for women-led innovation businesses and founders across the region.
