Maria Eugenia Giron (MBA 1992) is an entrepreneur and investor in the luxury goods industry, based in Madrid. She’s a cofounder of Rising Tide Europe, a women’s angel investing group that is part of an international movement to provide investing, learning, and networking for women investors. In this interview, she talks about the opportunities for women in Europe and beyond.

“We realized a few years ago that the number of women angel investors was still less than 10 percent. We decided to do something to change it. The result is Rising Tide Europe, a program for learning while investing in European startups. We raise awareness for women and invite them to be investors, and also share best practices and network and change the reality that we face to improve those numbers.

“We want to inspire more women to be investors. We build investment portfolios; network; we share our experiences; we have a lot of fun. We are launching Rising Tide Europe 3. Our purpose is to invest in the best projects; sometimes they are women-led, other times they are not.

“What we are achieving is that more women are discovering the fascinating adventure of investing in startups while being equipped with all the tools to manage the risks of this asset class. There are already more than 200 women participating as investors in Europe. And this is not the only place where they exist. There is a Rising Tide Africa coming out, and one in the US. And we hope that in very many countries there are women ready to become investors and participate in the startup economy and learn about innovation and network and meet each other and contribute to change the world with their investments.”

(Published October 2018)

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