Investing Women Angels

Founder and CEO Jackie Waring leads the syndicate's overall strategy and deal origination. Individual investment decisions rest with each member angel, who reviews and elects to participate in specific rounds. Waring is supported by an internal deal screening committee that vets opportunities before presenting them to the broader membership.

Deal flow is generated primarily through the Investing Women network, which runs year-round pitch events, mentorship programmes, and accelerator-style bootcamps for female founders in Scotland. The group also receives referrals from Scottish Enterprise, university innovation hubs, and partner venture firms including Par Equity. Roughly 80% of reviewed opportunities originate through this proprietary pipeline.

It is a formal angel investment syndicate, not a pooled venture capital fund. Members invest their own capital directly into companies on a deal-by-deal basis, typically through nominee structures. This means there is no central fund vehicle and no requirement that members participate in every round.

While the majority of its portfolio companies are headquartered in Scotland, the syndicate will consider UK-wide opportunities when the founding team has a meaningful connection to the Scottish ecosystem — for example, a Scottish-born founder building a company in London. The group's formal partnership with Par Equity has expanded its pipeline into Northern England and certain US diaspora-led ventures.

Individual member commitments typically range from £10,000 to £50,000 per deal, with aggregate syndicate rounds falling between £150,000 and £500,000. The group targets seed-stage companies raising between £500,000 and £2 million in total, often co-investing alongside institutional funds such as those managed by Par Equity or Scottish Enterprise's co-investment arms.

The Investing Women Foundation is a separate charitable entity that provides pre-investment readiness training, mentorship, and networking to female founders. It operates on a grant-funded, non-commercial basis. The angel syndicate, by contrast, is a for-profit investment activity. Founder Jackie Waring chairs both structures, but their governance and funding sources are kept distinct.

The syndicate does not publish a formal exclusion list, but its deal flow has concentrated on enterprise software, digital health, fintech, and climate technology — sectors where Scottish universities produce strong technical intellectual property. The group has historically avoided capital-intensive hardware, deep biotech, and oil-and-gas technologies, largely reflecting member investor appetite rather than a stated policy.