07 March 2024

Celebrating Our Inspirational Female Founders, Investors and Partners

On this annual celebration dedicated to honouring the achievements of women across the globe, we are thrilled to update on some of our Female Founders who we have been supporting on their journeys so far.

Including a spotlight on trailblazing founders of Needi, Lou and Steph, pictured here and fantastic examples of strong females creating and leading an innovative, rapidly growing business that is gaining a lot of attention.

 

 

Resilience, adaptability, empathy, creativity, visionary; all are attributes associated with Female Founders and why some studies highlight that they are more likely to be financially successful than their male counterparts.

Yet statistics around investing in Female Founders in the UK remain disappointingly depressing; just 3.5% of equity investment in the first half of 2023 went to female-led businesses, according to recent Beauhurst data.

Numbers of deals agreed with female-led startups comprised just 10% of the total for this period, compared to 75% for male-led startups and 15% for those co-led by women and men.

Contrasting to these industry statistics in 2023, PACP successfully completed on several deals, across sectors and stage, with over a third of these led by women.

At PACP, all our partners are dedicated to encouraging diversity in what continues to be a heavily male dominated investment environment.

Our expert partner team includes 4 exceptionally talented and experienced women, who along with all our partners have started, led and successfully exited a number of businesses throughout their careers, and now lend their skills and expertise to support founders on their growth journeys.

In celebration of our PACP Female Founders, partners and investors, we are delighted to highlight 3 growing businesses and their investment opportunities that all resonate strongly with the inspirational themes we are proud to be recognising on International Women’s Day 2024.

Spotlight on Needi

Trailblazing Founders Who Are Breaking The Glass Ceiling

 

Founders:

Louise Doyle & Steph Scholes

 

Needi (view website) – an intelligent corporate gifting service using psychology and AI to help customers find the right gifts.

This innovative start up is addressing the challenges of customer and staff acquisition and retention, using a gift matching algorithm and concierge service to offer an accurate, stress-free and highly personalised gifting experience, making teams and clients feel valued while also supporting local independent businesses.

In a huge global market that is expected to reach £300BN in the next 3 years, Needi has grown rapidly in a short space of time, with clear revenue and traction that is expected to ramp up significantly with a pipeline of big names onboarding in the next 12 months.

Recent highlights;

  • Revenue in current year, Sep 2023 to Aug 2024, is £300k plus
  • Already onboarded 123 loyal B2B clients (some with over £2m gifting budgets)
  • Preferred gifting supplier for Spotify, Quickbooks, Virgin Voyages, Welcome Break
  • Marchpipeline meetings include Amex, Microsoft, Trustpilot and PwC
  • Successful fundraising progress already with Techstart and Clarendon Fund Managers

This is an exciting time for the business and a great opportunity to get involved in next steps with the experienced and talented leadership team.

We are delighted to give access to a recording of the founders’ pitch – to receive a link to view and to receive the investor deck, please contact steph@pa-capitalpartners.com

Spotlight on minthub

A Pioneering B2B Brand Leading Innovation in Sex, Intimate and Well-Being

Founder:

Dominnique Karetsos

 

  • Sector: B2B
  • Stage: Early Growth
  • Raise: £500k SEIS/EIS eligible (£150k already committed)

An Introduction to minthub by PACP Partner, Sharon O’Connor…

“I first met Dominnique (pictured here) some time ago. I was struck then, and continue to be blown away by her incredible energy and passion for her business and this space generally.

Dominnique is a force for change, as well as decades of experience working in health and beauty she has also served as a UN Delegate for the Future of Innovation.

 

 

At minthub, Dominnique (CEO, ex-L’Oreal, BBC and others in senior brand/marketing roles) works with an impressive and experienced team, including Dr Mafe (Head of Sexual Medicine, Clinical Andrologist and Urologist).

They centre their attention on the often overlook market of sexual health, for both men and women, disrupting the huge health and wellness market by developing products to effectively resolve many sexual health-related biological conditions.

Dominnique exudes proficiency in the consumer CPG space, bringing the issues surrounding sexual health to the forefront and through minthub empowers their network of distributors with products and solutions for their customers’ intimate concerns.

Currently focussed on bringing 2 products to market, the team are making commercial progress with their groundbreaking Sexual Wellness Device. Their Male Intimate/Incontinence Product is currently in development and, once launched, will be the first of its kind.

To date, they have impressively achieved;

  • LOI pathways and discussions with multinational retailers and consumer brands.
  • Strategic Partnership discussions with Longevity Med Summit.
  • Product Development on track to be ready by Q2 2024.

I’m thrilled to be supporting such an incredible Female Founder for a fundraise. Helping any founder raise money in the current climate involves the building of a good working relationship, patience and agility. Working with Dominnique has been an absolute pleasure; our conversations are lively and progressive.

For the current round, minthub is seeking £500k SEIS/EIS eligible, with £150k already committed.

Please email me at sharon@pa-capitalpartners.com if you would like to hear more about minthub, request an investor deck and to arrange to meet with Dominnique.”

Spotlight on IMÒ Interns

The Modern Way To Build A Remote Team – Fuelling Business Growth With African Talent

Founder &CEO:

Erefa Coker

 

With almost two decades of experience in HR and recruitment, reef Coker (pictured here) has been aware of the challenges of endless talent hunting and the resulting impact on missed growth opportunities for SME’s.

Finding the right talent at the right time is crucial to any business’s success, yet the process can be incredibly hard.

 

 

Erica’s innovative solution was to create IMÒ Interns (view website), a marketplace that matches businesses with remote African graduate interns to provide cost-effective talent and create employment opportunities.

By using IMÒ’s platform, companies can easily find and hire qualified interns that suit their needs. This creates a win-win situation – businesses get access to affordable, quality talent while interns gain valuable work experience and income. With IMÒ’s remote internship model, companies can scale their operations faster by delegating tasks to dedicated interns.

Taking away the burden of finding the right intern, IMÒ’s platform also simplifies onboarding and task management, pioneering with a total package that encompasses the whole process.

Since launch in 2022 IMÒ Interns has impressively gained traction quickly and is already being recognised for its unique business model that fuels business growth with African talent.

Recent accolades include a nomination for the World Festival Start-Up Award 2023 and listed as an Impact Start-Up at the Web Summit Lisbon 2023.

The global market for remote workers is exploding, with Upward predicting that by 2028 73% of all departments will have remote workers.

Erefa and her experienced team are incredibly well-placed to grow quickly, and are now seeking £200k to support expansion of the platform at this important stage of its journey.

Please email hanim@pa-capitalpartners.com for more information, including an investor deck and to arrange a call with Erefa.

 

Latest News

View All News

Become a Partner >

View Opportunities >