Tamara Steffens, managing director at software provider Microsoft’s corporate venturing unit M12, has unveiled her strategy for supporting female founders at the GCV Digital Forum this week.
M12 has held two female founders’ competitions in recent years, in a concentrated effort to address disparities in the market.
Steffens said: “As you know, female founders get far less funding than their male counterparts, so it was great to be able to open the doors and say, ‘brings us your ideas, bring us your companies, let us fund you’.”
Steffens shared advice with other corporate venture capital organisations on how to help companies with female founders even if they were unable to invest.
“If you cannot invest in them, or it does not fit your thesis for whatever reason but it’s a great idea, can you help them sell to your company?”
Steffens added corporate venturing professionals could introduce female founders or other underrepresented minority founders to their own parent companies if they cannot fund them directly.
“Hopefully, you can do both.”
Steffens said part of M12’s team was focused seeking out seed-stage companies and seed-stage venture funds that support underrepresented minorities.
She said they are not only looking to supply capital but also determine whether they can provide mentorship or access to their network.
“We are going to continue to lean in on that space. We would love to increase our focus on seed funding ourselves with female founders and under-represented minorities.”