LBAN will host their first women-only training for new Business Angels on 2ndOctober Currently, less than 10% of business angels in Europe are women. Since becoming the first female President of LBAN (Luxembourg Business Angel Network) last February, Larissa Best is trying to reverse this situation. As director and co-founder of the Equilibre association, Larissa is an entrepreneur, business angel and militant advocate for the better representation of women in the business sector. With such a background, it is not surprising that one of LBAN’s objectives is, precisely, to increase the number of woman angel investors. “We need more women to invest,” Larissa said. Larissa not only talks the talk, she walks the walk too: on 2nd of October, LBAN is organizing ‘Masterclass: Yes, She can’, a workshop on angel investing aimed exclusively at women. “For LBAN, our goal is to promote, encourage and facilitate investment into companies by individuals. Our mission is to find and train new Business Angels as well as facilitate access to dealflow from Luxembourg and the neighbouring countries for our members,” she says.
"Everyone invests differently. Thus, in order to cover the local need as fully as possible, we are looking for the most diverse set of Business Angels and this obviously includes women"
However, for this event they are targeting women only: “Everyone invests differently. Thus, in order to cover the local need as fully as possible, we are looking for the most diverse set of Business Angels and this obviously includes women. There are projects which are naturally geared more towards female investors, like female health tech for example. As we currently only have a very small set of female investors in our ranks, we want to increase those numbers. We are of course always looking for men and women to join LBAN.” LBAN’s first women-only training for new Business Angels gets underway on the 2nd of October. “We try as often as possible to have a mix of women and men speaking for LBAN at events or on juries to create role models for interested individuals, but we are also organising more targeted events. Making sure that the concept of Business Angels is redefined as gender neutral rather than predominantly male as is still a large part of the investment community overall,” explains Larissa. Designed as a “safe space for first timers”, attendees to the ‘Masterclass: Yes She Can’ will participate in a training on Angel Investing run by Brigitte Baumann. As one of the most recognised female angels and with more than 25 years of experience in investing, her presence will be educational as well as inspiring. This session is powered by ESIL, the Early Stage Investing Launchpad, a Pan-European community aiming to improve angel investment market. Follow in the steps of Larissa and join the ESIL community!