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Alice Reimer has been described as a founding father of Calgary’s high-tech scene.
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“I do not assume,” she countered wryly, “I’d ever use these phrases.”
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However she has been a fixture in that trade for 25 years and has spearheaded various inventive and thrilling ventures.
Born and raised in Calgary, Reimer earned her Bachelor of Science and MBA from the College of Calgary. She began her first enterprise in 1999 associated to international know-how, with headquarters and workforce members in Calgary. Amongst her many titles, she is co-founder and CEO of Evoco Inc., CEO of Fillip and in addition helped launch the Inventive Destruction Lab (CDL)-Rockies.
“It has been a really profitable program to speed up the tempo of deep science and technology-based ventures out of the college,” she mentioned.
In 2019, along with Shelley Kuipers and Judy Fairburn, The51 was launched.
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“It is actually a really attention-grabbing alternative,” she mentioned. “Lower than 5 % of enterprise capital – and the numbers will not be trending in our favor – goes to firms based or led by ladies. So we based The51 to alter that narrative and create alternatives for companies based by ladies.”
There are two items to The51.
“We need to be sure that there may be entry to capital for girls founders,” she mentioned. “The second half is that we partnered with the College of Calgary to launch one thing known as the Monetary Feminist Investing Lab. It is actually about educating ladies about early-stage investing. Usually ladies do not even get the cellphone name to speculate. We’re altering that narrative.
“And we additionally created some enterprise funds. We launched our first fund in 2020, introduced our meals and know-how fund this 12 months and are actually elevating our third fund.”
The surroundings is opening as much as ladies, however not as shortly as she would love.
“We’ve got work to do,” Reimer mentioned. “I’m utterly constructive about alternatives. The primary half was the notice and training, and that is what we have been on the journey to do. We admire that it is a collective and it requires the help of the enterprise group as a complete.”
