Investment duo launch a VC fund to invest in female founders

Samira Ann Qassim, Co-founder of London-based micro VC firm, Pink Salt Ventures, is welcoming Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech 2021 nominee, Saloni Bhojwani, to launch a new fund that will invest in female founders. The duo hope to challenge the dismal under-investment in female founders with just 1.1% of Europe’s venture deals this year going to all-women founding teams, according to Dealroom.

The new fund and will invest in a portfolio of 12 pre-seed and seed female-led companies in the UK. It plans to write invest on average £350k for a 5-15% stake in each business. “We want to back the next generation of self-made female billionaires,” Bhojwani told Sifted’s Isobel Woodford. Qassim added that “backing women isn’t just a moral calling, it’s a serious investment thesis. I started Pink Salt Ventures not because of the funding gap, but because I was looking at these different macro trends of innovation that were really exciting. [I decided to] just invest in female founders because logically they’d be building in these kinds of areas.” The duo first met two years ago and have already co-invested together in companies like MPowder, a menopause startup.

Pink Salt Ventures currently has six female-led companies that it has invested in:

1. Alena which used computational neuroscience to deliver personalised mental health solutions
2. MPowder that is reframing midlife as a superpower.
3. Mirza, which is centering care in the future of work by integrating financial planning with funding for childcare.
4. Jude that is bringing bladder care into the mainstream
5. Junobio that is decoding the vaginal microbiome to close the gender health gap
6. Hanx which is championing intimate wellness and smashing stigmas around sexual health

About Saloni Bhojwani

Saloni Bhojwani is an investor at Founders Factory where she leads investments across both Consumer and B2B. Formerly she was a strategy consultant, and more recently worked at Uber and Expedia, Luminous Ventures and in the Founding Team of Zebra Fuel. Saloni has been angel investing for 3 years focusing on female founders and the gender funding gap. She is a part of Backed VC’s community, Hustle Fund’s Angel squad, Alma Angels, and January Ventures’ Operator Network. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics & International Relations from Tufts University in the USA, and an MBA from London Business School.

About Samira Ann Qassim

Samira Ann Qassim is an early stage venture capitalist focused on purpose-led female founders. Prior to co-founding Pink Salt Ventures, Samira was a Strategy Consultant for Siegel + Gale and Co-Founder and Commercial Director of Caventou, a product design and technology start-up, integrating solar technology into everyday objects. She holds a Joint Master of the Arts degree in Modern History and Philosophy from the University of St Andrews.

For further information, visit https://www.pinksaltventures.com/