Alberta Female Founder, Funders and Fortifiers (ABF4)
Supporting Women in Technology in Alberta
The Alberta Female Founders, Fortifiers, and Funders (ABF4) is a committee of the VCAA to help foster a more diverse and inclusive technology industry
ABF4 is dedicated to supporting women in tech through networking events and informative panel discussions Our network includes founders, executives, service providers, investors, and community supporters. Anyone can join and attend our public events. Continue to check our Eventbrite page and LinkedIn for updates on upcoming events.
We are open to innovative ideas to bring people together, if you have an idea or suggestion for a future event in Edmonton or Calgary, please contact ab4f@vcaa.ca.
Some of our event series:
ABF4 Founder Summit: In January 2024 we hosted a Founder Summit and delved into typical startup topics such as sales and marketing, finance, product development and more.
Speed Networking Event: We’ve hosted investor and startup speed networking events to establish connections between founders seeking capital and investors, fostering the growth of the Alberta technology ecosystem. If you are a founder that would like to be invited to the next one, please fill out this form.
Be a Part of the Community
If you’d like to reach out to support or learn more contact ab4f@vcaa.ca. If you want to hear about the newest events, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on LinkedIn.
Who are we
Alberta Female Founders, Funders and Fortifiers was founded in November 2018 by David Edmonds from A100/Accelerate Fund III, Brenda Slauko from BDC, Ha Nguyen from McRock Capital, and Andrea Drager from Azure Capital Partners, with the purpose of supporting females in tech through networking and curated content events. With support from the BDC’s THRIVE group, ACF III, AEC and The A100 the group has hosted over 15 breakfast networking events and specialized panel events reaching over 500 women working in the technology industry in Calgary.
Raissa Espiritu from Audaxa Ventures and Innovate Calgary, Shruti Sharma from Yaletown Partners, and Nadia Lachman from Amplitude Ventures now lead the ABF4 planning committee.
Brenda Slauko, BDC
Brenda has over 26 years of experience at BDC, and currently serves as the National Director in BDC’s Technology Industries group scaling tech companies from seed to Series A with non-dilutive funding.
Andrea Drager, Azure Capital
Andrea is a Partner at Azure Capital Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with over $750 million under management. Leading their Canadian office, based in Calgary, Andrea evaluates investment opportunities across Canada and select investments in the US.
David Edmonds, Community Supporter
David was the Chairman Industry Committee at the A100 and an accomplished technology entrepreneur and a vital advisor to Accelerate Fund II and III companies.
Ha Nguyen, McRock Capital
Ha is a Vice President of McRock Capital, a venture capital firm focused exclusively on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). She has experience working with tech companies and entrepreneurs in both the venture capital and private equity industries.
Shruti Sharma, Yaletown Partners
Shruti is an Investment Analyst at Yaletown Partners.
Nadia Lachman, Amplitude Ventures
Nadia is an Investment Analyst at Amplitude Ventures. She has a background in health science and biomedical technology. During her MBA, she supported many Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) ventures in the Prime stream
Learn more | LinkedIn
Raissa Espiritu, Audaxa Ventures
Raissa is a Partner at Audaxa Ventures.
