In Europe, the proportion of VC funding making it into women-led startups has fallen from 3% to 1% since 2018. Maria Mateo Iborra, co-founder and CEO at Insurtech/spacetech startup Ibisa, shares her fundraising insights for fellow female founders.
Jess Bauldry: In 2021, Ibisa raised €1.5M in a seed round led by Insurtech Gateway. What has been Ibisa’s fundraising strategy?
Maria Mateo Iborra: Since the very early stages, I started talking to investors, even when we did not need money. I found it very important to build a track record to keep them informed. And the good thing with investors is they have a genuine interest in knowing what’s going on. And if your business is not within their scope, the best thing to do is to ask them, do you know of another investor interested in my area?
Today our cap table is an insurance VC, agriculture in India, and an energy VC. We managed to have a diverse but relevant set of investors. We are only missing a space investor.
Why do you think so few women-led teams want to raise VC funding or are successful in raising funding?
I see more, I will not say fear but hesitation from women going for fundraising than men.
I don’t know why, but sometimes women are less comfortable asking for money. I think we are more careful when we raise funding in how we spend it. I imagine that with men it was the same and then over time, that changed.
The thing is that slow growth is not a startup mindset. It’s just a regular business. So, I think women need to decide: ‘do I want to go for a traditional company or do I want to go for a startup?’
In general, we tend to be more based on what we think is reality and not promising more than what we can deliver. The VCs will ask okay, but if you have two more million, what can you do? I’ve seen this in women and male founders that they sell the dream of aggressive growth. But then the execution is not always there. Or it’s not the hockey stick.
“One piece of advice for women that want to raise funds is to contact others that have done it already.”
Maria Mateo Iborra, Co-founder & CEO of IBISA
Does there need to be a re-education of VCs and business angels to build more diverse portfolios?
One of our current investors is a business angel, who has around 60 companies in his portfolio of seed investments. He told me that around 40 of this investment is with female founders. And he said that female founders always performed better in the long run. And also in crisis periods, they survive better than male-led companies. That’s quite interesting. VCs are very data-driven and I think that they need more data points. Because the startup journey is 7-10 years before you see any results. So I think the problem is they need to have women-led companies to have this data.
What advice would you give to women wanting to raise funds?
One piece of advice for women that want to raise funds is to contact others that have done it already. You can get advice, some tips, dos and don’ts. This is something I would truly recommend because entrepreneurs I think always have an open door to share their experiences with others. Another thing that I learned is to go to a meeting, even if it’s with all men, without thinking that there will be bias. Be open-minded.
When you are doing the first fundraising, contact founders that have gone through that step before you and then you go to the next step and then you contact the next level.
When I did my first fundraising, I sought further advice from people that had already been through the seed round. Now I’m talking to a woman that just raised $50 million in India, but she’s a great entrepreneur, and she’s so willing to help and to give advice.
Tell us about Ibisa’s next fundraising round.
Towards the end of the year or the beginning of next, we will begin the next fundraising round. This year is very important for us to execute in order to get to the next point with good numbers. We are truly working on growing business in the Philippines, India, Senegal, Guatemala expanding into new markets. So this year is really critical for us.
Read more about Ibisa here.
