OTHERTECH

Fredua talks to Arlan Hamilton, Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital. Backstage has invested in more than 150 companies that are led by women, people of color and/or LGBTQ+ founders in 6 years. They discuss her journey from being homeless to raising a fund that is dedicated to minimising funding disparities in tech, why she feels venture capital is a fundamental medium for bridging underrepresentation, and how her outsider status helps her to identify opportunities that others may miss.

Fredua talks to Nina Wöss. Active in the European startup community since 2012, Nina co-founded Female Founders, an organisation that aims to change economy and society by fostering entrepreneurial leadership. Nina discusses the challenges in creating a community for female entrepreneurial minds and the barriers that women face when approaching and manoeuvring through the tech and VC industry.

Fredua talks to Gary Stewart, former Director of Wayra UK and CEO of FounderTribes, a platform helping startups to get their businesses off the ground and democratising access to successful entrepreneurs and investors. They discuss Gary’s journey pivoting from law in the US to entrepreneurship; take a dive deep into the challenges of navigating the world of tech and VC while being Black and Gay; and utilise his experiences as an American in Europe to talk about the differences and added complexities that POC founders and VCs face in the UK and Europe.

Fredua talks to Husayn Kassai, CEO and Co-Founder of software company Onfido as it prepares to go public. Husayn discusses his journey and his thoughts on tech’s diversity problem. He talks about how his family’s move from Iran to the UK became the driving force towards fixing the broken system of identity verification and providing wider financial access to those who need it most. Onfido helps businesses verify people’s identities using Artificial Intelligence. Founded by Husayn and his co-founders in 2012, the company has raised over $200 million in funding from the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce and TPG. It has over 1,500 clients including Square and Revolut and offices in San Francisco, London, New York, Singapore and other cities globally.

We’ll talk about the relationship between tech and society, and why it needs to embrace diversity. The host is Fredua Akosa, a medical doctor turned venture capitalist. The speakers are tech founders and experts, venture capitalists who fund tech, and diversity and inclusion experts.