Women's Equity Lab
Women’s Equity Lab has one overarching mission: To get more women active as investors in early-stage companies.
Currently, less than 24% of angel investors are female, and women are even less represented in venture capital markets.
We’re delighted to announce WEL-Manitoba has officially launched!
WEL Manitoba brings together a network of accredited women investors from across the province providing hands-on investment education and networking to its members and access to new capital for female founders at the pre-seed and seed stage on the Canadian prairies.
This is the region's first female fund that focuses on engaging and encouraging women to learn more about angel investing and the success of the fund is due to the collaborative efforts taken by the Managing Partners; Joelle Foster, Sandy Foster, Rosalie Harms, and Priti Mehta-Shah.
The group believes that female-founded businesses will generate strong returns, and by increasing access to early-stage capital in female-founded companies is a key opportunity to level the playing field.
About WEL:
The WEL investing model was created to address the chronic and systemic underrepresentation of women in early stage investing. By reducing the barriers to entry that have typically kept women out - gender bias, lack of previous investing experience, capital needed to get involved - our Learning On InvestmentTM (LOI) approach is designed to facilitate entry into this investment class. WEL consists of a powerful community of over 150 women investors from across the country managing a growing portfolio of investments which should reach about 40 company investments by the end of the year. Over 70% of WEL investments are in women-run and women-led businesses
03/13/2023
Take a moment to celebrate International Women's Day with this great video provided by our StemStruck partner RedBrick!
03/09/2023
Congratulations to Shadi McIsaac our WEL Toronto Managing Partner for a great profile in Canadian SME Small Business Magazine!
The makeup and motivations of Canadian small business owners We had the privilege of speaking with Ownr’s CEO and co-founder, Shadi McIsaac. She discussed her views on…
02/17/2023
Buy your ticket soon! This unique night of fashion and inspiration fundraiser will feature a one-of-a-kind fashion show with 10 trendsetting women leaders in science and technology from our community, including the tech CEOs of Flytographer, Origen Air, VoxCell, Open Ocean Robotics, Shift, Joni, Alexi Building Solutions, and more modelling the latest spring fashions!
The Victoria-based event on Thursday, March 9th will not only spotlight what to wear this year but, more importantly, will shine a light on the amazing work these women are doing and the lasting, transformative impact they are having.
In addition to the fashion show, attendees will also enjoy makeup demos featuring the hottest spring colors, a prosecco and wine balloon wall for a fun cocktail hour with canapes, a photo booth, and more!
The money raised from this event will go towards establishing a scholarship through iWIST (Island Women in Science and Technology), which will provide women with more possibilities; by removing financial barriers, it will allow more women to access rewarding opportunities in STEM. $175 per ticket. $1500 Corporate Sponsorship Tables for 8 guests. To get your ticket visit: https://www.stemstruck.com/.
12/03/2022
It’s Blumin’ at the local coffee shop! Great holiday gift 💝.
This is a great opportunity for Canadian female led companies!
Key Dates
Nominations Open: Monday, January 23, 2023
Nominations Deadline: Friday, March 31, 2023
Applications Deadline: Friday, May 12, 2023
Awards Gala: Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Awards The RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards continues to recognize and celebrate the strides of Canada’s most accomplished, influential, and impactful women. It is the leading women’s awards program in the nation, elevating this group’s important contributions – from economic growth to social...
11/29/2022
Please enjoy reading about Fictionary co-founder and CEO Kristina Stanley and her fundraising journey. Kristina shares her experience raising capital and recognizes WEL Victoria as one of her first investors, back in 2019! Fictionary is intelligent online STORY editing software that helps writers and editors create award winning fiction.
Nortel alum-turned-mystery novelist combines her tech and writing background with Fictionary Armed with $1.8 million CAD in seed funding, Fictionary aims to help writers and editors around the world produce quality stories more quickly and affordably.
11/14/2022
Fantastic news posted by The Victoria Tech Journal ~ Julie Angus and her team at Open Ocean Robotics are recognized as a leader and one of the 50 top innovative Maritime technology start-ups in the world. Another great female-founded company based in Victoria, Canada!
Open Ocean Robotics named a top global maritime tech startup | Victoria Tech Journal The best tech and innovation stories and can't-miss links from around the South Island, every Sunday and Thursday.
10/30/2022
Great update on the progress made to-date and the reality of what still needs to be done to increase access to capital for women entrepreneurs.
Turning the tide on Canada’s funding gap together Funding gap between women entrepreneurs and men in Canada is still on. Here’s how to narrow the gap.
10/18/2022
Early morning ferry ride to Vancouver, Canada. Looking forward to meeting up with the WEL Vancouver Team!
09/25/2022
Another WEL portfolio company that is changing the way emergency response teams work to save potential drowning victims.
"Every second can literally save a life" Inside VodaSafe CEO Carlyn Loncaric's journey from lifeguard to lifesaver. Welcome to the Sunday Briefing.
08/24/2022
Yeah! I just received my free sample pack! Just pay shipping! Ready to take on my vacation next week.
08/12/2022
Celebrating a great two days spent at the Traction Conference in Vancouver. Enjoyed spending time with our community partners at and drinking a lot of coffee with their VP of Operations, Golriz Fattahi.
Special thanks to Joanne Fedeyko and Kennedy Quigley with for providing me with a pass to this great event. 😍
07/14/2022
Meet Dr. Karolina Valente, founder, and CEO of Voxcell Bioinnovations our most recent WEL-funded company. Her team is developing fully vascularized, human-like cancer tissue models by combining a custom 3D bioprinter, advanced vascularization software, and proprietary bio inks. 😃🇨🇦
Karolina was also a winner in the HerStory 2022 Venture Pitch Competition. She is actively raising another $100K contact her via LinkedIn for more details.
06/28/2022
Loved attending The Collision Conference last week in Toronto. On Friday, our WEL GPs from across Canada met for a day-long National Symposium at Osler's headquarters, our legal partner. Such a great day and wonderful to finally meet everyone in person!
06/08/2022
Thanks to the vision of co-founder Julie Angus, Open Ocean Robotics offers a clean-tech solution to collecting ocean data. Their solar-powered autonomous boats provide real-time information to protect our oceans. Harvesting energy from the sun, OOR boats travel nonstop for months, without producing any greenhouse gas emissions, noise pollution, or risk of oil spills. Another Women's Equity Lab funded Company! 🇨🇦🌎🐋
04/29/2022
WEL Vancouver members celebrating at pitch event and the winner was…A WEL FUNDED COMPANY! 🎉
04/26/2022
WEL is an official COLLISION Conference Community Partner!! Look for us at the tech conference of the year! Toronto, June 20-23. 🇨🇦
04/14/2022
Try these healthy, Canadian made snacks now available in stores near you! are gluten free and packaged in biodegradable bags. offers plant-based smoked salmon and are nutritional fruit chips.
04/04/2022
Looking forward to seeing many of our partners later this week at the 2022 Western Angel Investment Summit.
03/30/2022
Connecting angels, founders, funds and accelerators for two fun filled days at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel in Victoria. Tickets here www.angelforum.org
03/23/2022
A great reminder that networking and continuing to build relationships and 'showing up' helps founders access capital.
To land investment, build relationships - Communitech Panelists at a virtual event for women in Waterloo Region, Ontario advised women founders seeking investment to make connections and work their networks.
03/22/2022
Why WEL: The 3% Problem
Currently, only 3% of investment dollars go to women-led businesses, despite the fact that over 40% of businesses are women-owned. (Yes, you read that right: 3%.) Women also make up less than a quarter of Angel investors, and are even less represented in venture capital markets.
This is not only bad for women, it’s bad for business, bad for the economy, and bad for our society as a whole.
WEL was created to address this chronic and systemic under-representation of women in early stage investing.
Because when womenʼs perspectives and insights are part of more investment decisions, we all profit.
03/15/2022
WEL’s latest investment ! Check out these super delicious tasty treats!
03/08/2022
Celebrate Women's Day with us and join us for a free webinar, Introduction to Angel Investing.
Have you been wondering whether Angel Investing is something for you as an investor?
Regardless of where you are in your decision making process there are basics you need to be aware of and be familiar with.
In this workshop, we will take attendees through a quick journey of making investments from start to finish
Introduction to Early Stage Investing
Deal Evaluation & Due Diligence
Valuation & Deal Structuring
Close the Deal & Portfolio Management
Exit and Returns
03/07/2022
Have you been wondering whether Angel Investing is something for you as an investor?
Regardless of where you are in your decision making process there are basics you need to be aware of and be familiar with. Join us tomorrow to learn more!
WEL's vision is a future with equal shareholder representation, because when womenʼs perspectives and insights inform more investment decisions, we all profit.
02/13/2022
02/13/2022
02/13/2022
02/13/2022
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