Imaginal Ventures, a business advisory firm based in Halifax, has announced TD has joined as the lead sponsor of an initiative aimed to support women-led companies through Imaginal Ventures’ online platform.
TD’s sponsorship money will be directed to 25 women-led teams, with a focus on Black and Indigenous women.
The Women’s Technology Ecosystem, which lives within Imaginal’s platform, allows women founders to gain access to content relevant to their stage of growth. Imaginal Ventures declined to disclose dollar value of TD’s sponsorship to BetaKit, but noted the money will be directed to 25 women-led teams using the platform, with a focus on Black and Indigenous women entrepreneurs.
As part of TD’s sponsorship, executive leaders from TD will also act as mentors as part of the program, and participate in events that help profile founders and their companies.
“Directing support to a diverse cohort will help promote more inclusive discussions and ideas being brought forward,” said Nancy Vye, senior manager of innovation projects at TD. “We look forward to working with the Imaginal Ventures team to support these dynamic women in business technology, and help build a stronger, more equitable and inclusive future in business.”
Founded in 2017, Imaginal Ventures provides entrepreneurs with coaching, learning, advice, resources and tools in order to build their capacity and access capital. The firm does not have a venture fund of its own, but partners with funds to increase access to capital and expertise.
Imaginal Ventures was co-founded by Dorothy Spence, who explained to BetaKit that the team behind the organization saw a gap in the market to scale up companies that wanted to grow their impact in a more efficient and sustainable way.
The firm has created a methodology to help business scale, called the Conscious Business Operating System, which integrates four areas of growth: revenue, infrastructure, strategic growth, and human growth.
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Imaginal Ventures’ platform comprises four “rooms” that integrate these growth areas: design, development, dashboards, and deployment. These rooms allow teams to conduct a number of business activities, including developing strategies, managing projects, allocating resources, and consolidating documents. The platform also offers a community page, where users can connect and learn from each other.
“The ecosystem is built on Imaginal’s platform that provides leaders with the necessary coaching, learning, resources and tools, which will allow them the time to build their collective capability, access capital and be fully supported with continuous advice and mentorship as they scale their business and accelerate their impact,” Spence told BetaKit.
“We are thrilled that TD is the lead sponsor we will be working with to implement this new model. We have built out a cohesive technology platform with inaugural sponsors that will benefit corporates, incubators, venture capital and private equity funds,” Spence added. “We see massive potential to build out the capability of small and medium sized businesses, within Canada and globally, as we scale the platform.”
Recent reports have highlighted the lingering disparity between men and women in entrepreneurship. Many of these inequities have been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the fact that women are less likely to seek and receive financing than men, this has led to many women entrepreneurs reporting greater staff reductions as a result, according to one report from 2020.
Image source Unsplash. Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com.