Women in VC: Anna Raptis of Amplifica Capital
Women in the venture capital world continue to lack the support, space, and attention they deserve. In the US alone, less than 6 percent of VC firms are led by women, according to Women in VC. In other countries, this number is smaller.
At The Conscious Investor, this hits hard. This publication is founded by a female VC and entirely run by women. But rather than dwell on the paltry numbers we choose to celebrate the immense talent that is changing the landscape of venture capital—and, in turn, the world-at-large. In this series, Women in VC, we highlight women at the helm of venture funds across the globe. Their words, efforts, and honest takes are fuel for us all to take part in bringing real equity and inclusion into the VC fold.
Anna Raptis cannot sit idle with her learnings. As a university student studying economics, she’d sit in the library for hours reading the World Bank Development reports about “all the challenges that different countries face,” she says. But her curiosity didn’t end with the page. She wanted to help and to “be part of solving some of the challenges.”
So upon graduating, Raptis, who is originally from Australia, embarked on a career focused on economic development and the energy sector. This brought her to Mexico in 2000 where she has spent the last two-plus decades fighting for the improvement of people’s lives by investing in global entities that work to advance health care, technology, and gender equity, and drive value creation.
Throughout her career, Raptis has been focused on breaking down the barriers for women—a drive she says stems from her experience working in the financial and business worlds. “I grew up in a family business that was focused on fishing and agriculture, and I was often the only woman in the room in meetings,” she says. “I think my survival mechanism was just to do whatever I could to blend in, while at the same time I was questioning the lack of diversity.”
That dearth of representation is “very apparent” in Mexico, she says, emphasizing the country’s ranking as the worst for diversity and inclusion in Latin America. To counter this, Raptis has founded various women's organizations in Mexico that focus on supporting women in private capital and the energy sector.
Witnessing the massive lack of support for female entrepreneurs in Latin American has also inspired Raptis to create the venture capital fund Amplifica Capital. An unorthodox fund for the region in which it exists, Amplifica Capital breaks the long-hardened barriers of the entrepreneurial world by bringing an entirely inclusive, invigorated, fresh spin to raising capital in Latin America. “[I was} seeing what was going on in the rest of the world, and these initiatives in the US with all these female fund managers launching funds that had a gender lens, but not seeing anyone doing that here in Mexico,” says Raptis.
Amplifica Capital is the first fund in Mexico that has 100 percent female GDP. The focus is on solving critical world problems with an inclusive gender lens by investing in fin-tech agro-tech, education, clean-tech, and female health. “Women look for us,” she says. “Women are kind of refreshed to talk with a female investor, happy to talk about different things, and have different ways of connecting and seeing things.”
Raptis and her team at Amplifica Capital are bringing more humanity into the VC fold. With a focus on pre-seed and seed investments, they’re “creating safe spaces” that have a “learning-by-doing focus” with monthly calls, talks with entrepreneurs and investors, and invitations for people to participate and ask questions. They’ve also structured the investment period differently, “so it's easier for people who haven't invested in the venture space before to respond to capitals and to plan,” she says. It’s all about accessibility—which will lead to inclusive growth and open doors for women and their brilliance to take part.
Which all makes sense. Women, who make up half the population and therefore half the world’s potential for growth and prosperity, should have the right to feel seen and respected in any situation, including when it comes to raising capital and entrepreneurship. These are women behind life-changing endeavors that will impact humanity. “We’ve got a biased world today, and if we continue the same patterns, we are perpetuating that bias in the world—by not including the voice and the vision of women in tech companies that are providing solutions to the problems that we have today.”
ANNA’S WORDS…
On breaking the barriers for women in finance…
“I started speaking to different funds in the US and Angel groups platforms, and they told me about the research that they had done, and the different barriers that actually exist for a lot of women. Not all women, but a lot of women feel intimidated in the finance space. They feel to some extent that they don't belong, and the conversation isn't relevant to them. […] the environment they go into is completely male dominated and not all women feel comfortable in that environment.”
On the need for more inclusivity in the VC landscape…
“There are very different levels of development. In the US, you see so many funds that are focused on diversity and including women, but it's not the same across the world. There’s not the same understanding of the need or why it's important. What I've seen in the US is you see corporations intentionally investing in funds not because of the sector that they are in but because of their diversity message. What I’ve seen in Mexico is corporations investing where the goods or services produced by the startup have an alignment with the objectives of the corporation, or they invest in funds that have a sector-specific target. I have not seen— to date—in Mexico corporations invest in a fund because they want to support emerging and diverse managers. So, we still have a long way to go.”
“In terms of investing because you want to make a statement about supporting the need to have a more diverse panorama for investors, we do see a lot of pressure from international LPs. When you look at the DFIs they will see greater diversity in the portfolio companies. But for actually sponsoring, supporting, developing and funding diverse fund managers there's a lot of talk but not a lot of really happening.”
On what excites her about being a female fund manager…
“There is so much opportunity to really make a difference. One of the biggest challenges that we have here [in Mexico] is the lack of representation, and I really believe that you can't be what you can't see. That as a female fund manager I'll inspire other women to start launching their own fund and purposely direct capital to amazing women entrepreneurs, that really inspires me. I want to help other women and other investors who are interested in this and help share this opportunity with them—because I honestly believe we all have the power to create the future that we want to see. Putting your hands up and saying ‘This is too hard. This is a problem I can't be part of the solution’ will not develop change. This is an amazing opportunity, and we all need to get to work together to make the change—because it won't happen on its own.”
“An interesting piece of data that Melinda Gates has referenced is that reaching gender equality in the US will take 208 years at the rate we're going. If that’s in the US, it’s going to be a lot longer in Mexico and other countries in Latin America. So I can't not jump out of the bed in the morning and work my hardest to make that change happen more quickly.”
“This is not a case that we have to help the poor women. It’s not a case of philanthropy or pity. This is an amazing opportunity. The whole of the economy will do so much better if we can help and give more opportunities to women to participate fully in the economy. McKinsey stated that the GDP of Latin America can increase by 70 percent if we give access to women to really participate at their full potential. That means a better world for women and girls but also a better world for boys and men. It’s not about women versus men. It's about all of us doing better together because we are reducing some of the obstacles and increasing the opportunity for women.”
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