Our dedication towards building da city. for. good.
One of daphni’s core values and mottos is “build da city. for good” — a motto, which is not only a common thread in our portfolio, but also proven in our social engagement. We have taken a deep look at how we can help our own industry, Venture Capital, to improve, as well as how we can contribute to making the tech scene better. During 2019, we engaged in six different initiatives, tackling pressing and important topics. We are looking forward to continuing working on and with these initiatives throughout 2020 and beyond and truly build da city for good.
We are very proud to be part of these initiatives and hope to grow and develop them further throughout the new year!
Included VC
Mission: Increase Diversity in Venture Capital
In early 2019, daphni became a Venture Partner in Included VC, an initiative to help increase diversity in Venture Capital, by sharing knowledge about everything surrounding VC — from deal flow analysis, to fund structure to branding. The 12-month program is run together with Notion Capital, Mangrove, Enern, Point Nine, K Fund, Seedcamp and Santander, with the first cohort selected during late summer, and the first masterclass taking place in October. Throughout the year, we will host more masterclasses, retreats, workshops and mentoring for 30 fellows selected for the first cohort.
We are very proud to present the first, incredible cohort of fellows; from 16 nationalities, 14 cities out of which 56% are black, Asian or mixed, 60% female & 10% neurodivergent. Brilliant, smart, intelligent, curious and kind people, with a strong willingness to give back to their own communities, and who we have a lot to learn from.
In November 2019, the first Included VC retreat took place in Berlin, which was an absolutely incredible experience, and we are really looking forward to continuing working with the fellows and getting to know them better.
Learn more about Included VC here: www.included.vc
Reach out to Shabir if you want more info: [email protected]
Techbikers
Mission: Bringing together the tech startup community to help children in need by supporting the literacy charity Room to Read.
TechBikers is a collaboration within the European tech community to help children in need by supporting the charity Room to Read. Room to Read is an international nonprofit transforming the lives of millions of children in low-income countries across Africa and Asia by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organisations and governments, the organisation develops literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and supports girls to complete secondary school with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond. In 2015 Room to Read reached its goal of impacting 10 million children and this year 15 million children are anticipate to be reached. So far, close to £1,000,000 has been raised to Room to Read via Techbikers.
Through highly organised 300km+ bicycling rides, where the goal is to cross at least one country border, the tech community is brought together — to give back. At Daphni, we want to contribute to positive societal change, as well as push our limits, for which reason we hosted Techbikers Perpignan to Barcelona in May 2019 together with Samaipata. Beyond being an incredible (and sweaty) experience, we are very proud to say that we raised £24,000+ to Room to Read.
Learn more about TechBikers here: https://techbikers.com/
Learn more about Room to Read here: https://www.roomtoread.org/
Learn more about our amazing experience here: Medium
Reach out to Stan if you want more info: [email protected]
WakeUp Café
Mission: WakeUp Café supports inmates who are motivated to reach a sustainable reintegration into society
The French association WakeUp Café was created in 2014 by Clotilde Gilbert, aimed at supporting inmates. The association offers rehabilitation courses, individual support and a community, with the goal of fighting recidivism and isolation. WakeUp Café acts on three pillars, being;
Empowerment: to give inmates better self-esteem for them to regain the desire and energy needed to become the driving force behind their reintegration.
Guidance: accompany inmates from incarceration until they are hired, and beyond long-term hiring
Awareness: better educate society and business leaders of the benefits of giving inmates a second chance
Since 2014, WakeUp Café has supported more than 400 inmates and encourages inmates who have successfully reintegrated into society to support others in the process. In France, 80.000 people are incarcerated every year, out of which 60% who leave go back to prison within 5 years, and 30% within 6 months. One inmate costs society around €50,000 per year.
As a key leader in the digital scene, having a lot of expertise in building the future and creating job opportunities, we believe that we have a lot to contribute to WakeUp Café. This, not only financially, but also through transmitting knowledge, sharing our network and educate the market about the importance of taking a stand in this question.
Read more about WakeUp Café here: https://www.wakeupcafe.org/
Reach out to Aurelie if you want more info: [email protected]
Solidaires en Peloton
Mission: Raises awareness on multiple sclerosis and helps raising funds for the ARSEP Foundation (research on this disease).
You may have heard about multiple sclerosis before, a disease affecting more than 100,000 people in France, and 2,500 new are diagnosed each year. Unfortunately, research on this disease is still lacking.
Then we met Thibaut Vauchel-Camus, skipper and winner of multiple sailing competitions. He presented Solidaires en Peloton, representing the ARSEP Foundation (helping research on multiple sclerosis) in different sporting challenges. Their goal is to raise awareness on the benefits of sport on this disease, and to help collect funds for ARSEP Foundation.
In 2022, Solidaires en Peloton is celebrating its 10th anniversary and we are very happy to unveil that we’re joining forces to support Thibaut.
We warmly thank Thibaut for his trust and dedication. We can’t wait to be onboarded on Solidaires en Peloton and we are very happy to take part in this important cause.
Read more about Solidaires en Peloton here.
Reach out to Aurelie for more info: [email protected]
SISTA
Mission: Close the funding gap in France
Sista VC Inclusive Hours, co-founded and -run together with Tatiana Jama from Sista and Edna Ohana Cohen from 360 Capital Partners, is a series of monthly event hosted by VCs in Paris aiming at contributing to a more equal French funding ecosystem. Together with firms such as Idinvest, Elaia Capital and Isai, we started hosting events around Paris and now, almost all of 2020 is scheduled with Inclusive Hours. Each event has different themes and is run around a panel discussion with inspiring entrepreneurs and investors sharing their experiences. Of course, as the name indicates, the events are inclusive, meaning that both women and men are welcome to join — we need to work together to create long-lasting change.
Daphni’s Inclusive Hours was an active deal flow simulation, where entrepreneurs had to put on their investor glasses and discuss a made-up company together with the brilliant panel; Macha La Hausse de Lalouvière from Arkea, Laurence Hémery from Chausson Finance and Amira Haberah from our portfolio company Zoov. To say the least, we had a blast!
Sista Inclusive Hours is working closely with Sista VC, an initiative by Raphaelle Martin-Neuville and Clara Juppé at Aster VC to bring together female VCs in Paris. Today, Sista VC has more than 160 Parisian based female investors in the network, helping each other to thrive in the ecosystem.
Sista, founded by Tatiana Jama, Valentine de Lasteyrie and Celine Lazorthes, is an association supporting female entrepreneurship and equal funding in France, with the aim of increasing the funding allocated to female led startups. Earlier this year, the Sista team successfully had over 50 French VC funds, including daphni, sign their pledge — to have at least 25% female funded companies in their portfolio by 2025.
Reach out to Aurelie if you want more info: [email protected]
CHAMS NGO
Mission: Create highly employable tech talent and inspired entrepreneurs in refugee areas through innovative tech education
In December 2019, we decided to support one of our dear daphnipolitans, Said Sofiane Ammar, who has created the inspiring NGO, Chams, together with Antoine Meunier. Chams is a non-profit startup that builds and operates coding schools and entrepreneurship bootcamps, in and near refugee camps, with the ambition to train 10,000 students by 2025. The non-profit has designed a peer-to-peer tech education solution to train cohorts of 30 to 300 students. CHAMS partners with local and international stakeholders in refugee host countries, and have initiated their operations in Jordan and Kenya.
“We commit to mixing people from underserved local communities and refugees in our training programs, to foster a creative community of bold young men and women who want to be a force for positive change in their communities. The first cohort is 50/50 Jordanians and Syrian refugees, and 50/50 men/women.” — Said Sofiane Ammar
Chams aims at connecting refugees with European startups for a remote internship after the 6 months coding training, as a professionalisation engine. This will allow the students to integrate in the market and it opens the opportunity for startups to engage in a tech diversity social act globally.
We are very proud to support CHAMS in their work.
Read more about CHAMS here: https://www.chamsngo.org/
Reach out to Aurelie if you want more info: [email protected]
Leaders for Climate Action
Mission: combat the climate crisis with our own actions and demand stronger measures from political leaders. As a non-profit, we have no commercial interest and only one goal: To make the biggest possible contribution in the fight against the climate crisis.
There are many ways that one can show support for climate action during this time, and at daphni we chose one that we will share with you!
There is indeed a big gap between awareness of the climate problem and a call to action. 90% of CEO’s claim that they are personally committed to ensuring that their companies lead on the sustainable development agenda. However, fact is — less than one-third of these CEOs have a plan or idea on how they would implement it.
To this day, the NGO — Leaders for Climate Action — gathers 500+ members across the world in the digital industry working towards one common goal… to build a sustainable future! (Sounded exactly like a daphni goal since our inception)
LFCA provides a clear path towards effective climate action on a global scale with:
- an ‘in-house’ global platform to measure, reduce and compensate your carbon footprint on personal and office scope.
- an international community that builds a movement of committed leaders and companies
- & Events, using political influence
Read more about LFCA here: https://www.lfca.earth/
Reach out to Aurelie if you want more info: [email protected]
