There aren’t enough female angels in Europe, but there are still more than you think.
Last year, for the first time, our team at Sifted — with the help of Europe’s tech and startup Twittersphere — compiled a comprehensive list of 100+ active female angels in Europe.
Now it’s back with an update, featuring over 150 female angels.
Female angel investors are in the minority in Europe — the most recent figures from the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) in 2020 put the average for the region at 13% of all angels — and that has a significant knock-on effect on the number of female founders raising early-stage funding.
We asked angels to self-identify themselves and their peers if they had done three or more deals in the past 12 months, but have also included women who have committed to doing deals. If there is anyone missing from this list, or anything is wrong, please let us know by email at [email protected]. You can also nominate other angels with this form.
Find the full list of over 150 female angels below — but first, we profile several women and female angel collective trailblazers in the region.
Dr Fiona Pathiraja (UK)
Pathiraja began her career as a doctor, working in the NHS as a radiologist before becoming a management consultant and advisor. Completing an MBA at the London Business School kickstarted her career in investing. Since then, she has established Crista Galli Ventures with her partner to invest in early-stage health startups, where she continues to serve as Managing Partner. Her investments include companies like June Bio and Holly Health.
Sophia Bendz (Sweden and Germany)
Bendz started angel investing in 2012 while she was still global director of marketing at Spotify. She is one of the region’s most prolific angel investors — so much so that she has outside support to track her portfolio — and has backed many companies in the femtech space including Daye and Grace Health. She is currently a partner at German early-stage fund Cherry Ventures.
Lumus Investment Collective (central and eastern Europe)
Launched last July, Lumus is dedicated to bringing more female investors onto the cap tables of startups in central and eastern Europe. The founders are Terezia Jacova, investment manager at Slovakian VC firm Neulogy Ventures, Vladimira Cincurova, startup programme manager for Microsoft for Czech and Slovakia, Lucia Cerchlanova, head of research at UK-based insurance startup Cuvva, and Zuzana Zamborska, cofounder of Prague-based BE-ID human. The founders spoke to Sifted last year about their plans for the collective.
Helena Torras (Spain)
Torras is one of Spain’s most active angel investors. She began her career at KPMG before moving into management consultancy, and in 2007 joined cloud management software startup Abiquo.
She’s invested in metasearch platform Meetopics, social learning site Go4Click and communication platform Waaraya. She tells Sifted she invests in pre-seed companies that are thinking globally from day one.
Verena Pausder (Germany)
Pausder is the founder and CEO of Fox&Sheep, a digital education startup for children, as well as HABA Digital GmbH, which runs digital workshops across Germany to teach kids coding, robotics and other technical skills. She was also only one of three women to make Sifted’s most active German angels list for 2021, alongside Gloria Bäuerlein and Gesa Miczaika.
As an angel investor, Pausder has made investments in verticals such as education, financial services and software and is particularly interested in backing female founders. In 2020, Verena’s eight investments included Cleverly, an LA-based online tutoring platform; Alice, an investment app; and Knowunity, an interactive learning platform for students in Europe.
Céline Lazorthes (France)
Lazorthes is a serial entrepreneur (Leetchi and MANGOPAY) and founding member of France Digitale, France FinTech and SISTA, an NGO aiming to cut the female funding gap. She’s invested in over 40 companies including Jimmy Fairly, Talent.io, Frichti, Le Slip Français, Tacotax, Pumpkin, Tiller Systems, Yuka, Ivesta, Welcome to the jungle and Dejbox. She also made Sifted’s list of fintech’s top angel investors.
Deepali Nangia (UK)
Nangia is a seasoned angel investor with over a decade of experience in private equity and investment banking. She cofounded Alma Angels in 2019, an angel community which supports female founders.
She was a member of the second cohort of Atomico’s Angel Programme and over 2020, she invested in 10 startups — eight of which are female founded — including sexual wellbeing startup Kama.
In 2021, Nangia joined Vienna-based early-stage VC Speedinvest as a venture partner with a focus on female founders.
Maria Raga (UK)
Maria Raga was the CEO of secondhand fashion marketplace Depop until she announced her resignation in July 2022. She is part of Atomico’s latest angel investment programme. Programme participants get $100k each to invest in European startups. So far, she has announced an investment in traveltech startup Journee — but has more cash to splash.
Georgie Smallwood (Germany)
Smallwood is chief product officer at Softbank-backed e-scooter startup Tier Mobility and is part of VC firm Accel’s European scout programme. The firm gives the scouts $200k to invest in any European startups they want. According to Smallwood’s LinkedIn, she’s invested in seven companies with her Accel cash so far, including Sudor, a creator platform for fitness professionals, and Apryl (formerly Oviavo), a fertility benefits platform based in Berlin. She was previously CPO at German neobank N26.
Maisie Williams (UK)
While she might be best known for her role on Game of Thrones, actress Williams is also a founder and an angel investor. She founded the app Daisie for creators in 2017. She also has invested in Berlin-based ebike company Dance, men’s grooming brand Faculty and creator economy startup Contact earlier this year.