Solai’s story: Stepping into start-ups
Find out how Solai Valliappan transitioned to the world of start-ups, after starting her career as an actuary in the insurance industry. Solai is now a clean-tech investor and champion of female founders, in an industry dominated by men.
Our guest today is Solai Valliappan, an investor in the tech space, with a keen focus on start-ups that are bringing about positive change.
She’s also a champion of female founders and hopes to inspire more women to start their own companies and get the backing they need to bring their big ideas to the world.
Solai decided to become an investor after observing the lack of women on the funding side – particularly women of colour – and realising that having more female investors would ultimately lead to more funding for female founders.
It was a whole new world for Solai who spent the first 10 years of her career in the insurance industry, starting out as an actuary for a big global firm.
In this episode, Solai talks about making the leap from corporate life to the start-up world, what she’s learned from being one of the few women at the investor table, her role as a #ChooseMaths ambassador to encourage more young women into STEM careers and a new documentary series she’s involved in called ‘Women’s Work’, an initiative of Sydney Women’s Fund, which aims to get more women thinking about their financial future.
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