Angie Madara - Born Ambitious Ambassador
We connected with Angie Madara through LinkedIn and immediately thought she would be a perfect Born Ambitious Ambassador. We were right!
Angie comes from Kenya from what she describes as a “big family of eight” with “a very strong mum.” Angie’s very first business was actually in partnership with her mother; they took discarded wedding dresses from landfill sites and repaired and restored them, to then sell on. This gave Angie a taste for the satisfaction of “earning money from your own sweat that you can see.”
She studied IT at undergraduate and as part of her course she built and launched a health platform (no apps in those days!) that sent notifications and reminders to pregnant, postnatal, antenatal and diabetic people. The business received funding and is active to this day. The success of this really ignited Angie’s passion for tech: “You can see the impact it has on people’s lives.”
Angie has since started other businesses, several successful, one which failed. On the latter she reflects that she was “looking for a quick buck” and that this was “not the right mindset.” But having taken some time out to re-energise, she came back ready to face her next challenge.
The rest is history in the making: Angie is now an award-winning technology entrepreneur and investor. Most recently, she founded Athena FundX as a direct response to her lived experience of the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. Athena FundX is an AI tool providing support, resources and visibility to women starting their own businesses. Some of its broader aims include financial inclusion and empowerment of women, and gender equality in the world of entrepreneurship. You can access Athena Fundx’s AI coaching tool here.
Angie likes to think big: she also launched an initiative called ‘1 Million Women in Entrepreneurship’, which aims to provide free tech entrepreneurship training to one million women worldwide. One key aspect of the initiative is a fund for women and young entrepreneurs, designed to provide seed and test funding for women and youth-led startups to help support their growth.
Angie’s work was recognised when she was named “Technology Innovator of the Year” from the Women Tech Network, one of the “Iconic Women Creating a Better World for All” by the Women Economic Forum (WEF), and one of the “Top Women in Technology to Watch” by Yahoo! Finance, among other accolades.
Supporting young people and new generations is really important to Angie, and that’s partly what appealed to her about Born Ambitious. We invited her to one of our members, Caius House, where she was shown around by two young women, before being interviewed by resident podcasters and best friends Blu and Leona. Enjoy the highlights from their conversation in the video below.
