Gen.T honouree Sarah Chen-Spellings discusses the real reasons behind the lack of funding for female-founded businesses and how she aims to change that with her company Beyond The Billion in the latest episode of our Crazy Smart Asia podcast
It is a known—and highly discussed—fact that women entrepreneurs face significant obstacles in securing funding for their startups. Of the global venture capital funding pie, only two to three percent is allocated to female-founded companies. Sarah Chen-Spellings wants to change that.
The 2023 Gen.T honouree co-founded Beyond the Billion, a global consortium of more than 100 venture funds that has pledged to invest $1 billion in female founders globally. Their motto: Driving returns through diversity. In just two years, $638 million of the billion pledged has been deployed into close to 800 companies—14 of those now unicorns.
Read more: Beyond The Billion’s Sarah Chen-Spellings on why female-led businesses are worth the investment
On a personal front, Chen-Spellings herself was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2020 and was a founding member of the Malaysia branch of Lean In, a platform that aims to address the issues of women dropping out of the workforce and the lack of them in senior management positions.
Speaking on our Crazy Smart Asia podcast, she shares how she secured a $30 million deal at just 25 years old and why she’s always looking to eat more salt.
Click the audio player below to listen to the full episode or subscribe via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
On making billion-dollar moves
“Nobody truly knows the end of what they’re doing. They know what they’re doing, but they don’t know how the end will shape up. They know what they want to achieve. So it’s just like the saying, ‘You don’t have to see the full stairs, you just take the first step.’”
On women outperforming their counterparts
“My best hires, investments and people I work with are women who are mothers because they recognise that they do not have the time. They do not have the luxury to play around. And so they’re extremely focused to get the job done.”
Read more: How to become a kick-ass entrepreneur, according to four-time exited founder Joel Neoh