Two years ago, we launched the Ada’s Angels program, where we empowered five individuals from our scout network with £50,000 to make angel investments. We are now pleased to open applications for the second cohort!

Angel investing has incredibly high barriers to entry. Nationally, the estimated total proportion of female angel investors sits between only 15–18% (Investing in Women Code Report, 2021), and 10% for Mixed, Arab, Asian or Black ethnicity angel investors (UK Business Angels Association and British Business Bank, 2020).

We believe that this lack of diversity at investor level has a direct repercussion on the types of companies that get funded — which is why we launched our first cohort of Ada’s Angels. We have been so impressed by the quality of work that this first cohort have provided — each of them has invested into at least four high quality companies which they truly believe in. Six of these have become fund investments.

For our second cohort, we want to build on what we have learned with our first cohort and continue to:

1. Diversify the angel investing community in the UK. Provide training & capital to people who would otherwise not be able to angel invest due to economic, social or other barrier.
2. Increase the diversity of our pipeline with high quality founders, focusing on our three sectors: Economic Empowerment, Healthcare & Ageing and Climate. We are, first and foremost, a venture capital fund, and our number one priority is to generate exceptional returns for our investors. We believe that our strategy of investing in diverse founders will deliver on this promise, and our Ada’s Angel (and Ada Scout) programs are designed specifically to help us to achieve this.
3. Build a network of experienced, scale-up operators who can act as advisors and mentors to Ada Ventures and our portfolio.

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“An all-encompassing experience that encouraged me to think outside the box. Our cohort of 5 Angels was a unique mix of individuals, each bringing different expertise into the discussions, which ultimately taught me other ways of assessing an investment opportunity. We all also gained a real insight into the workings of a VC fund and the ecosystem, which considering how untransparent the industry is, was a huge value-add.”

Anjel Noorbakhsh, CFA, Investment Principal at Aureum Advisory and Ada’s Angel from our first cohort

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Since we launched Ada’s Angels several other funds have launched their own angel programmes with different angles. We believe that the following three factors in combination make the Ada’s Angel programme unique:

1. It is free to apply and accessible to anyone.

2. Each angel makes 100% of the carried interest on their investments.

3. It’s designed specifically to increase diversity in the ecosystem.

If you are interested in becoming an Ada’s Angel, please read on!

“Where I’m from, ‘VC’ isn’t a known term. When I told my parents about the angel programme they asked if I was talking about pensions. In building the Dffrnt community, I’ve managed to create organic, consistent dealflow — over £20m actively being raised by members over the past two years alone — but have never had the funds required to seriously invest in any of them. The Ada programme enabled me to bridge that gap, build a track record, test my assumptions and make deals with the most exciting founders & companies I see. Two of the deals I found became fund deals too, which is amazing personal validation that builds confidence for continuing to do more in VC.”

Ash Phillips, founder of Dffrnt and an Ada’s Angel from our first cohort

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Who are we looking for?

We are looking for individuals who ideally fulfil at least 2 of the following 3 criteria:

1. Experienced, scale-up operators within the start up ecosystem, who are executives / leaders in an operational area, such as marketing, engineering or product and have seen the scaling journey from Seed to Series B.

2. Individuals who have access to a start up network in the UK, in the areas of: Climate, Healthcare & Ageing and Economic Empowerment.

3. Ideally, have access to an underrepresented community within the UK — including, for example, entrepreneurs based outside of London, neurodiverse entrepreneurs, LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs, disabled entrepreneurs, female entrepreneurs and/or ethnic minority entrepreneurs.

Prior investment experience is not a pre-requisite to being a part of this program. Angels for this program will be sourced by open application, from the Ada Scout network and a small number by invitation. We are keen to see a diverse range of applicants, so if you don’t fulfil the above criteria but think you’d be a good fit, please do apply anyway.

We have places available for 20 Ada’s Angels, consisting of at least 5 individuals from among our Ada Scouts, and at least 5 individuals from outside of London.

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Selection Process

Applications are now open, and we will be reviewing them on a rolling basis. They will close when we have selected our final 20 Ada’s Angels — targeted by the end of 2022.

If you are an Ada Scout, please apply by 6 November 2022. As noted above, 5 places in the second cohort will be reserved for existing Ada Scouts — we are aiming to select these 5 in the course of November, to match up timings with other ongoing Ada Scout projects.

The selection process for all Ada’s Angels is expected to be as follows, but is subject to change:

1. The Ada Ventures team will review applications in batches. Prior to review, a member of the Ada Ventures team will hide applicant names, contact details and diversity information.

2. Two members of the Ada Ventures team will score each application against a pre-defined framework, and the top scorers will be shortlisted.

3. The shortlisted applicants will be presented to the rest of the Ada Ventures team and a further shortlist will be taken through to interview.

4. The selected applicants will be interviewed once by a member of the Ada Ventures team. We may also ask for references at this point before a final selection is made.

Commitments of an Ada’s Angel

As an Ada’s Angel, you commit to:

● Being part of the program, and Ada’s Angel community, for around 12 months from January 2023.

● Learning about angel investment, based on your investment experience.

● Sourcing, analysing and advocating for your selected investment companies to Ada Ventures.

● Managing your own dealflow and portfolio (with our support!).

● Occasionally representing Ada Ventures at events and in the media.

● Supporting our portfolio, and other Ada’s Angels, as needed and as time permits. This part of the program is currently being designed, and we would welcome any input from our future Ada’s Angels on this!

● Becoming an Ada Ventures Scout. As an Ada Ventures Scout, you will have the opportunity to refer deals to us directly (outside of the angel program). If the fund invests into a company you have referred to us, you will receive a £5k finder’s fee plus a share of carried interest generated by this investment.

● We expect everyone who works with Ada Ventures to abide by our code of conduct. Our values are also set out here.

● Being an angel investor exclusively for Ada Ventures and not another VC fund, unless otherwise agreed with us.

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Program timeline

We hope to have selected our 20 scouts by the end of 2022, with the formal program to launch in January 2023.

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Resources

If you are considering being an Ada’s Angel (or an angel investor in general) and would like to know more about what this means, what we do, and how we think, the following resources may be helpful:

Venture is not the only option — alternative funding types outside of VC (including angel investing)

A guide to angel investors — to help companies find angel investors

Questions to ask angel investors before taking their £££

Ada Ventures thesis

Seed Investing Framework

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Application Form

Please apply to be an Ada’s Angel here: https://adaventures.typeform.com/AdaAngels2

We look forward to hearing from you! 😊

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