Everything you need to know about the Zinc Venture Builder
Zinc is looking to invest in people that have the ambition, drive and skill set to build a more secure financial future.
"If I hadn't joined Zinc I would still be looking for a co-founder and would be thinking my ideas weren't good enough to start a business. Look at where I am now."
Simon Tucker, founder of Beanbag Health
Our next Mission: Financial Resilience
Poor financial outcomes are disproportionately faced by women.
This is partly due to major life events they experience such as parenthood, caring responsibilities and divorce which all impacted women’s ability to be financially resilient. 30% of divorcing women experience a decrease in their standard of living after divorce, compared to only 17% of men.
Zinc is looking to invest and support diverse, ambitious and talented women who are looking to develop new commercial ventures from scratch that will tackle this crisis by enabling people to:
- earn a good income
- manage money effectively
- build assets for the future
Does this opportunity excite you? Find out more by downloading our brochure.
What does Zinc bring?
We help you find your co-founder. Get access to expert support. Build a scalable business. Invest in you and support you to raise follow-on capital. All with Zinc.
At Zinc, more than 50% of the founders we back are women, and 85% of our portfolio companies are founded by all-women teams or co-founded by a woman. Beyond capital, our support includes mentorship, coaching, knowledge-sharing and access to a solid network of VCs, domain experts and ex-founders who share the same values as us.
Zinc’s Women in Tech Award - The Rose Acton Award
Each Venture Builder we support one exceptionally ambitious technical woman Founder through the Rose Acton Award for Women in Tech.
The recipient of The Rose Acton Award will receive an additional six-month personal stipend, providing a full year of individual support. To be eligible you must:
- Identify as a woman
- Have a background in software development/engineering/data sciences/tech
- Have submitted an application for Zinc’s next Venture Builder (beginning in April 2023, with the mission to transform people’s financial resilience)
Why join a Zinc Venture Builder?
It is a full time, 12-month platform that exists to build brand new, commercial, mission-driven companies that tackle the biggest social challenges.
Our next Venture Builder cohort will begin in April 2023 with the mission to transform people’s financial resilience.
We are Mission-led
Each of our Venture Builders has a single Mission that tackles a big societal problem.
We are Pre-Team
You will join the Venture Builder as an individual, form bonds with the other global talent in our supportive cohort and through this, create teams during the first phase of the Venture Builder.
We are Pre-Idea
We expect you to come with a passion for the mission but you don’t need to have a strong solidified idea for a solution or business.
What does Zinc offer?
It is a full-time, 12-month platform that exists to build brand-new, commercial, mission-driven companies that tackle the biggest social challenges:
We Invest up to £250,000 and we continue helping you with follow-on investment
We Help you find your Co-Founder, you’ll be in the room with 69 other innovators
We provide you with access to industry experts to help you build, test, validate, get your first customers and investment
You get access to the latest Research: we have an in-house R&D Team