The Economic Blueprint seeks to drive growth in women-owned businesses. One way it aims to achieve this is through enabling entrepreneurial females to better access capital and training and this is where Addidi comes in.
Founded by Anna Sofat in 2006, a powerhouse of the financial services industry and a champion of female entrepreneurship herself, Addidi is an award-winning wealth planning and angel investment firm.
Anna explained to the floor it was through learning of the astonishing and rather shaming reality of the investment industry in 2006 - when only 5% of investors in the UK were female - that she was inspired to begin a boutique investment firm exclusively for women; alongside Anna's abundance of passion, courage and determination which is plain to see.
With
a background in wealth planning, Anna and her husband Janardan, a chartered
accountant formed Addidi (@addidi). In the decade since, the company has not
only blossomed into a female financial services empire but the number of female
investors in the UK has grown by 10% - taking the number to a total of 15%. Now
working in collaboration with Pink Shoe and as part of the UK Economic
Blueprint there is an even more ambitious aim - to increase the number of female
angel investors in the UK to 30% by 2020.
Equality
is of course one reason for this ambition. Yet, the feeling of the evening was
that women also have different qualities to offer when investing than men. The
Earl of Erroll highlighted how women are often better at understanding
character - an important quality as with any investment one is investing in
the budding entrepreneur as well as the business.
One
shining example of how successful female angel investing can be came from
Oxford graduate Emily Bendell- founder of Blue Bella (@emilybluebella). A young
woman with a big idea, Emily set about searching for funding to build her
fledgling lingerie business after discovering a gap in the market for a product
with a luxurious feel at an affordable price tag. Male angel investors often
didn’t grasp the inherent difference between her business concept and others
already in the market. Time and time again doors were closed and obstacles put
in her path.
It
was only after hearing about Addidi, and successfully pitching to Anna and her
team of angel investors, that Emily’s lingerie concept was understood and taken
on board. Addidi Enterprise provided Emily with the funding she so needed
alongside invaluable advice from her ‘angels’ who supported and nurtured her
business. Now an award winning chain with boutiques opening across the US and
Europe, Emily has never looked back. It is this success that Pink Shoe
and Addidi aim to replicate throughout the UK. Through
Emily’s story, it is clear to see how female angel investors can offer the
capital and training crucial for growing the number of women-owned businesses
in the UK.
EOY was eloquently championed by tax superstar and leader of EYs Women’s Network Joanna Santinon. Delegates were enthused and inspired to enter or nominate to get more women participating and hopefully winning!
With change being led from the city and with the UK Economic Blueprint making waves at Westminster and beyond, we hope the unbecoming statistics towards women in business and enterprise will soon change for the better. Watch this space!
