The51
Lauren Robinson is a seasoned venture capital professional currently serving as the Managing Partner of The51 Funds, a venture firm focused on empowering women-led ventures. Additionally, Lauren holds the position of Venture Partner at Outside Ventures and has been a Board Member and Chair of the DEI Committee at the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association since June 2020. As a Founding & General Partner at Highline Beta, Lauren has been instrumental in building and funding startups through collaborative efforts with global corporations. Prior roles include Executive Director at Female Funders, Global Operations Director at Highline VC, and various roles at National Bank Financial involving equity capital markets and mergers and acquisitions. Lauren obtained a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance and Entrepreneurship from McGill University and completed the Kauffman Fellows/BBC GP Academy program.
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The51
The51 is a Financial Feminist™ platform where investors, entrepreneurs and those who aspire to be, come together for democratized access to women-led capital for women-led businesses—to build mutual wealth and social/environmental impact, share knowledge and experiences, and become influential investors, innovators and consumers, and build the financial feminist economy. Founded in Calgary, we are building a new movement to create value, tapping into Canada’s underutilized female wealth and investing it in talented female entrepreneurs and venture funds. Women make up 51 per cent of the population… and women control 30 per cent of the world’s wealth. Forty per cent of us out-earn our male partners and statistically, companies founded by us outperform our male counterparts by 63 per cent. Despite all of this, we make up less than 25 per cent of directors on Canadian boards. Only 15.2 per cent of partners at Canadian venture capital firms are women. As a result, only 10 per cent of Canadian VC investment deals since 2014 went to companies founded by women. How can Canada’s economy reach its true potential if 51 per cent of the population isn’t fully participating? By uniting Canada’s untapped female wealth, we can create a new critical mass of female investors that will drive the next economic wave and make Canada the centre for female-powered capital. With 30 per cent of Alberta’s tech start-ups founded or co-founded by women, our province is well on its way to achieving that critical mass, but our vision is bigger than just Alberta. Female-founded start-ups: By 2030 we want to see the rest of Canada increase the percentage of female-founded start-ups from 13 per cent to Alberta’s 30 per cent. Financing: We want to see Canada increase financing for female-founded start-ups by 30 per cent, year over year.