The gender gap in funding is a pervasive challenge faced by women entrepreneurs and professionals across various industries. Join us for an enlightening and empowering event that delves into the pressing issue of gender disparity in funding and explores actionable initiatives to create a more equitable future. Don’t miss out on this fireside chat where you can also network with interesting startup founders, investors, and mentors.

**❯ Featured Speakers:**

* [Kalsoom Lakhani ](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kalsoomlakhani/)- Co-Founder & General Partner at [i2i Ventures,](https://www.i2iventures.com/) an early-stage venture capital fund for Pakistan, and the country’s first female-founded VC fund. Kalsoom is also the Founder of [Invest2Innovate,](https://invest2innovate.com/) which she launched in 2011 to support and unleash the potential of young entrepreneurs in growth markets like Pakistan. She is trained entrepreneurs and leaders worldwide, spoken at events like the World Economic Forum, and is a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. In 2022, she was named one of Rest of World’s top 100 Global Tech Changemakers.

* [Mercedes Bankston](https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%9A%80-mercedes-bankston-84b583/) – Director at [Founder Institute](https://fi.co/) Silicon Valley and Angel Investor. Mercedes was also the Director of Business Development for McGraw-Hill Education responsible for looking at and developing new investments within Ed-tech worldwide. Her engineering background has allowed her to work for Cisco, NEC and Oracle designing and driving innovation within healthcare and education. In her spare time, she has been involved with hosting NASA Hackathons and leading Girls-In-Tech, a global non-profit focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of girls and women who are passionate about technology and careers in STEM fields.

**❯ What You’ll Learn:**

* Learn about the funding gap and why it happens.
* Get practical solutions to make funding more fair
* Learn about the existing initiatives that help women get equal funding opportunities

**❯❯ This live, interactive online event promises valuable insights. Ensure your participation by RSVPing at** **[https://fi.co/startupwebinar/17248](https://fi.co/startupwebinar/17248)** **to receive the Zoom URL.**