TogetherVC
Together, We See
In March 2025, WIN-VC Canada launched TogetherVC, a pilot investor education program designed to spark strategic, inclusive investing across Southwestern Ontario. Delivered in partnership with SVX and The Firehood, this three-week series brought together angel investors, venture capitalists, and ecosystem leaders to explore gender-lens investing (GLI), challenge bias, and build stronger connections between capital and underrepresented founders.
Program Overview
Session 1: I Don’t Use It So I’m Out: Gender Bias in the Investment Cycle
Delivered in collaboration with Spring Group, this session unpacked how gender bias appears throughout the investment process—from deal flow to decision-making. Ashima Chopra and Allison Gibson facilitated an interactive discussion that grounded unconscious bias in real-world investing practices.
Session 2 – Gender Lens Investing 101: The Business Case
Co-hosted with Sandpiper Ventures, this session introduced the fundamentals of gender-lens investing, including a compelling business case and a real-world case study. Lauren Ledwell of Sandpiper shared practical insights on how GLI can drive both impact and returns.
Session 3 – An Afternoon With Founders
The series concluded with a virtual panel featuring three dynamic entrepreneurs: Anita Grant, Rachel Bartholomew, and Rashmi Prakash. They shared candid reflections on their funding journeys, investor engagement, and the changes needed to build a more equitable capital ecosystem.
In The Ecosystem
TogetherVC also featured two fireside-style conversations that offered deeper insight into GLI and community-building in the investing space:
- A sit-down with Danielle Graham and Theresa Evanoff of The Firehood, highlighting their journey as a women-led angel network and their approach to growing Canada’s gender-lens investing ecosystem. Read the article.
- A conversation with Yolène Rosello and Céline Baroque of Esplanade Québec, exploring how they’ve built an impact investor education community of practice grounded in equity, collaboration, and systems change. Read the article.
Who Participated
TogetherVC brought together a network of Southwestern Ontario investors and ecosystem partners committed to building more inclusive investment strategies—ranging from angel groups and early-stage VCs to accelerators and innovation hubs.
TogetherVC was developed by WIN-VC Canada, a national collaborative focused on supporting women and gender-diverse entrepreneurs and investors, with the support of Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada.
Resources
Portrait of Female Entrepreneurship
Esplanade reports the data and findings on the motivations, successes, and challenges of women-owned businesses. Data ranges from income of women entrepreneurs, financing women entrepreneurs, and women entrepreneurs in the economy.
Introduction to Gender Lens Investing & Market Trends
Prepared by SVX, this primer explains:
- What is gender lens investing?
- What are the three basic gender lenses and metrics used to measure progress?
- Why is gender lens investing important?
- What are current GLI trends in the public and private markets?
- What are limitations and opportunities in GLI?
5 must-read resources on impact investing, gender and racial equality
Prepared by SVX from 2019, this blog post shares resources on how to invest with a gender lens, an investor’s guide to investing for racial equality, case studies, and more.
Gender-Lens Investing (GLI) Criteria
The Equality Fund‘s Gender-Lens Investing Criteria were designed specifically for application to the private-market portfolio of the Equality Fund Government Investment Pool. Investors are encouraged to use this Criteria in a way that best suits their investment goals.
An Introduction to Intersectional Investment Guidelines
The Equality Fund‘s Intersectional Investment Guidelines is the foundation upon which the Equality Fund Gender-Lens Investing (GLI) Criteria are built. The guidelines ensure that all of the Criteria are rooted in the pursuit of systems change, grounding each investment decision within broader goals of disrupting the status quo and redistributing power.
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