Alma Angels Becomes a Non-Profit, And We Need You in This Next Chapter
From Community to Movement: Alma Angels started in 2019 as a WhatsApp group determined to close the gender funding gap. Today, we're 600+ members strong, have invested in 200+ women-led companies, and supported ventures now worth $1.6B.
Why We're Changing: To scale our impact and reach our goal of $1T in women-led wealth by 2050, Alma Angels is now a non-profit and will transition to a paid membership model. This isn't about profit, it's about building the operational backbone to match our ambition, so that as contributors, members gain access to the curated deals, the diligence groups, events, knowledge resources, partner perks, and opportunities to build their profile in the ecosystem.
Founding Almas: The first 50 contributors will be our Founding Almas, exclusive recognition, early access to the Alma app, and a voice in shaping Alma's future.
Your Next Step: Become a Founding Alma and help us write the next chapter. If you choose not to become a paying member, you will miss out on the community benefits and transition to Alma Alumnus by year-end.
A Big Step Forward for Alma Angels
Nearly six years ago, Alma Angels was nothing more than a shared frustration and a hopeful idea: if we could grow the pool of diverse cheque writers, we would get more capital into the hands of women building world-changing companies.
Since then, hundreds of you have joined this mission, all driven by the same belief in the power of women founders.
Now, we have proudly announced that Alma Angels is officially a non-profit organisation, and we are asking you to be part of this next chapter as a Founding Alma.
Our mission is bold, to generate $1 trillion in women-led wealth by 2050.
We've reached a scale and level of activity that demands more structure than volunteer time and goodwill alone can provide, more resources and commitment to reach that ambitious goal.
How It All Began
It was late 2019 when 30 of us gathered in a small room to hear Dr Dana Kanze present her research on gender distinctions in venture funding. The air was filled with a mix of curiosity and quiet frustration.
Her findings hit hard. As we all know now, all-female founding teams receive a fraction of the venture capital raised by their male counterparts, despite research consistently showing they deliver stronger returns per dollar invested.
We had all read the reports, but hearing the data presented so clearly by the researcher herself was a gut punch.
It is human nature to connect faster and more easily with someone who looks or seems similar to you. So with over 90% of investors being white men, it's no surprise that white male founders disproportionately receive funding. It is not necessarily malicious, but it creates a flawed and biased system impacting us all.
In the room we were founders, operators, and investors. Women and men. Different backgrounds, different journeys. But one belief united us, that we had the power and the responsibility to change it. And so, Alma Angels was born.
We made a simple pledge that day: every deal we backed would include at least one woman on the founding team.
From a first meetup in 2019 to hundreds of Alma Angels half a decade later.
From a Chat Group to a Global Movement
In five years, that small group has grown into a vibrant global community of more than 600 Alma Angels. We have collectively invested in over 200 women-(co)founded businesses and 10 women-led funds.
Those companies have gone on to raise at least $300 million in follow-on funding, creating jobs, shaping industries, and solving real problems. They are now valued at $1.6 billion. They are tackling 13 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, from clean energy to sustainable cities to health and wellbeing.
Our diversity is our strength:
75% of Almas are women, 25% are men who champion female founders
40% of our members are people of colour, 70% are dual location or nationality
About one third of new members had never invested before joining Alma while 20% are experienced angels having already invested in 20+ deals
In 2024 alone, we hosted 40+ events, held 80 group due diligence calls, and backed dozens of new companies, real momentum toward our
$1 trillion goal.
Some of Alma’s network
A rising tide raises all boats
We are not a syndicate or broker; we are a movement that turns every member into a hands-on funder.
Syndicates and VCs work on the basis of a centralised approach: a lead reviews the deal flow, runs due diligence, and brings the opportunity back to the investor. While this optimises for structure and deal efficiency, the challenge is the investment capacity is limited by the capacity of the lead team. Hence why most of them complete 5 to 15 investments a year. Moreover, the deal lead inherently carries their own biases in the initial deal choice.
To scale and make a systemic change to the ecosystem, we must collaborate and amplify the individual efforts.
Syndicates have opened the door for many new individuals to start investing, and we are proud to count brilliant syndicate leads among our members, from Sie Ventures, HERmesa, and WomanKind Ventures to our collaborators at Founders Capital and South East Angels. These networks play a vital role in unlocking capital for exceptional founders.
Alma Angels takes a complementary approach. We empower and support every member to choose the deals they believe in, lead their own due diligence, and inspire others to join them.
This decentralised model means:
More capital deployed, with hundreds of individual investment opportunities to back diverse founders each year
A wide variety of perspectives shaping the deals
Stronger personal commitment to investee companies, because each investor is directly involved in the process
Our recent decision to become a non-profit was strategic: we cement our ethos and by removing commercial competition from the equation, we make it easier for syndicates, funds, and angel networks to be a part of the community.
By joining forces, we multiply our reach, our knowledge, and our impact. "A rising tide raises all boats". It also ensures that every pound that comes into Alma is reinvested into supporting our members, and getting more capital into the hands of women founders.
Click the visual map to open the Alma portfolio in Dealroom
Becoming a Non-Profit, Why Now
For five years, Alma Angels has been run entirely by volunteers and funded by its co-founders and the good will of Almas. We have never taken a percentage of the capital deployed, and we have never charged founders to raise.
To continue to scale and to achieve our mission to get thousands of women funded every year, we must now build a strong operational backbone. We have reached a crucial point where our size, activity, and ambition require more than goodwill.
By the end of this year, we ask that all Alma members transition to paid contributors. This will ensure that Alma has the operational capacity to support you, sustaining the long-term health of the community, increasing commitment, and building technology to deliver greater value to every single one of you and our founders.
For a minimum annual commitment of £480 (incl. VAT), you receive:
Access to the deals and due diligence groups
Priority access to Alma Summit and all Alma events
Exclusive events for contributors
Access to live deep dives and our knowledge base
Discounts for industry conferences (for eg. free Sifted Summit ticket worth £599+VAT!)
Benefits from partners and access to experts
Weekly newsletter
Public speaking opportunities to build your brand in the ecosystem
Alma Spotlight feature to raise your profile
The first 50 paying members will be recognised as Founding Alma, with:
Early access to the Alma app
A special badge on the app and on LinkedIn
Early access to strategic Alma decisions to influence the future of the community
The benefits of being a part of Alma Angels
Your Call to Action
You are already part of the Alma community because you believe in the power and ROI of women founders and the value of our community.
Help us secure Alma's future by becoming a Founding Alma.
By the end of this year, all active members will transition to paid membership. If you choose not to become a paying member, you will transition to Alma Alumnus, still connected to our network, but without access to deal flow, events, or the resources reserved for contributing members.
We would love for you to remain an active part of the Alma journey, shaping deals, leading diligence, meeting founders, and representing the mission in the ecosystem.
Act now and secure your place as a Founding Alma to build the next chapter of Alma Angels together!
We started in one room, with one conversation, and one shared determination. Now, we are hundreds strong, driving real change. We've built this together.
