Celebrating Women in Venture Capital at Athena VC Festival in Leeds

Our Consumer & Tech Partner, Hanim Dogan-Jain, attended the Athena VC Festival in Leeds last month – an event organised by Lifted Ventures and dedicated to driving systematic change, fostering collaboration and amplifying the influence of women in venture capital.

Hanim is a passionate advocate for championing Female Founders and Investors and was delighted to attend and support this initiative:

“How often do we go to an event and think this was very impactful and impressive? Athena VC in Leeds was definitely worth the effort! Historically, the North of England has lacked investment industry events, and London is known as THE hotspot for in person investment networking opportunities, even on a global scale.

At Athena VC there were many wonderful female founded startups presenting to angel investors and VCs. I loved connecting with young women working for VCs who a re making a career in this field.

As a mentor and advisor to many female founders and professionals around the globe, I feel immediately the drive to help these women succeed. I believe in a holistic approach – success is growing a company or business, but at the same time growing the person or leader too.”

At PACP, we’re incredibly proud of our rapidly growing portfolio of Female Founder clients – this month we have a spotlight on our fundraising and advisory work with a selection of these clients.

Spotlight On Female Founder Clients

Prorizon

Changing the game: AI + Bioscience for sustained performance and health.

• Founder: Dr CLaire Stewart & Joly Zou
• Sector: Health & Life Sciences
• Stage: Pre-Seed
• Raise: £650k (£90k SEIS still available)
• PACP Support: Fundraising
• Prorizon is a sports and health tech company tackling the growing crisis of chronic stress and its impact on well-being and productivity.
• Starting in sports, its AI-powered, mind-body solution uniquely integrates mental, physical and social/environmental data into one intelligence system – delivering real-time, actionable insights for athletes and teams.
• The founders are unlocking a scaleable opportunity to transform how stress, health and performance are managed across all high-pressure industries.
• An IP protected solution bringing uniqueness to the market.

PACP Partner Contact for more information: muna@pa-capitalpartners.com

Saida’s Kitchen

Saida’s Kitchen was born out of Saida Barek’s passion and talent for tasty and healthy African allergen free cooking sauces.

• Founder: Saida Bairak
• Sector: Food & Beverage (Allergen Free/Vegan)
• Stage: Seed
• Raise: £150k EIS eligible
• PACP Support: Advisory and Fundraising
• Occupying a clear gap in the UK market for this type of cuisine.
• Sainsbury’s have listed Saida’s Kitchen as part of their Thrive programme and are fully behind the brand, with the range available in over 300 stores and online.
• Future pipeline includes Ocado, Morrisons and Tesco and further range extensions are planned.
• Saida’s passion for the ongoing struggles in parts of Africa, especially around poverty and a lack of nutrition, has led to the Saida B Charity Foundation; currently 8% of the cost of each jar sold is donated to Children In Need Africa and other worthy causes in the region.

PACP Partner Contact for more information: sharon@pa-capitalpartners.com

Raishma

Calla Lily

Florere

A highly desirable and successful premium womenswear label packed with personality, creating timeless pieces with standout appeal for occasion dressing and beyond.

• Founders: Michelle Evatt and Heidi Fielding
• Sector: Consumer Fashion
• Stage: Series A
• Raise: £380k SEIS/EIS eligible
• PACP Support: Advisory & Fundraising
• Perfectly positioned within the occasion bridging brands space.
• Occupies a clear gap that exists now due to recent churn of the many once established occasion brands losing prominence or having been acquired.
• Proving to be one of the best selling brands in this category for the John Lewis Partnership.
• £4m revenues in the first 18 months, and enviable celebrity endorsements are ongoing.

PACP Partner Contact for more information: sharon@pa-capitalpartners.com

Peachaus

A lifestyle brand setting a new precedent for fashion, with conscious consumerism at the heart of everything they do.

• Founder: Gillian Ridley White
• Sector: Sustainable Underwear and Apparel
• Stage: Seed
• Raise: £1m
• PACP Support: Advisory and Fundraising
• Taking the friction away from bra fitting for women. Peachaus have extensive plans to pop up as a portable bra fitting space across the country.
• The business model is all about circularity, with a product offering consisting of sustainable ranges of underwear, sleepwear, lounge and active wear.
• £460k revenues to date, targeting £1m this year.
• High repeat customer rate of 30%.
• Trading in Fenwick’s, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and Brown Thomas.

PACP Partner Contact for more information: sharon@pa-capitalpartners.com

Persi

An AI-powered wardrobe builder set to change the way people shop, helping retailers deliver highly personalised product recommendations based on what a consumer already owns, making online shopping more efficient and tailored to individual preferences.

• Founder: Liv Parkes
• Sector: AI Retail/Consumer
• Stage: Pre-Seed
• Raise: £660k
• PACP Support: General advisory, retail introductions and fundraising
• The AI model allows retailers to increase conversion rates, create larger basket sizes and reduce returns.
• Consumer MVP trial proved an early strong validation with 90% style accuracy, 80% purchase intent and 100% satisfaction (users would return for subscription or ad hoc services).

PACP Partner Contact for more information: sharon@pa-capitalpartners.com

SenLife

A revolutionary platform addressing the urgent and growing crisis in neurodivergence, empowering families, educators and clinicians, providing them with essential tools and insights, and significantly enhancing early diagnosis and intervention for conditions like Autism and ADHD.

• Founders: Clare Newton, Jo Archer, Patrice Archer
• Sector: HealthTech
• Stage: Pre-Series A
• Raise: £1m EIS/SEIS eligible
• PACP Support: Advisory and Fundraising
• B2C web app has launched and is supporting 50 families as beta users.
• Solutions have been co-designed with the NHS and leading educators.
• B2B model is due to launch once funding is secured.

PACP Partner Contact for more information: sharon@pa-capitalpartners.com