
Bertrand van Leersum, Investment Manager at Borski Fund, describes how the Value Creation Model enables StartGreen to assess investment propositions and to help impact entrepreneurs grow. 'We are not an investor who watches from the sidelines. We want to actively maintain a relationship with entrepreneurs and regularly check with them what is going on.'

Borski Fund has invested $10 million together with DSM Venturing, Calm/Storm Ventures and three angels in inne† With this investment, inne will expand its hormone technology: from fertility to perimenopause.
Inne offers women more insight into hormone levels and thus into their health and fertility. Thousands of women across Europe use inne's minilab, which measures progesterone levels with a saliva biosensor.
Perimenopause
Inne is now expanding its progesterone tracking capability into perimenopause through an exclusive US partnership with Phenology, the new women's health brand from the team at Hologram Sciences. Women will soon be able to use the minilab to monitor hormonal changes during perimenopause – the early stage of menopause when hormone levels begin to decline. It is the first time that this is possible with a personalized test device for home use.
Nice femtech investment
Fund director Simone Brummelhuis: 'We are delighted to invest in inne and her exceptional team led by Eirini Rapti. The product is best in class for hormone level testing at home. Within a short period of time, inne has been shown to be a leader in quantified self-solutions for women. We're excited about its many uses, from fertility to birth control and perimenopause. At Borski Fund we invest in femtech and AI solutions, because this offers enormous opportunities for all women.'
Testing stress levels
In addition to extending to perimenopause, inne will also add the ability to analyze stress with a special cortisol tracing strip. Persistently high cortisol levels lead to a drop in estrogen levels, which can lead to weight gain, night sweats, sleep problems and mood swings. Tracking cortisol levels allows women to adjust their lifestyle and improve their long-term health. This can be especially helpful if they're trying to conceive or want to control perimenopause symptoms.
about inne
Eirini Rapti founded inne in 2017 to provide women with technology that helps them understand their bodies' hormonal levels. Inne's biosensor minilab allows women to measure their daily progesterone levels with a daily saliva test. Saliva measurement with the minilab has been proven to be as accurate as a laboratory progesterone test. Inne is now in the process of being certified as an official contraceptive.

January 28, 2022
Our co-founder Laura Rooseboom is a jury member in the election of the MT/Sprout Startup of the Year. In an interview on mtsprout.nl she tells how and why Borski Fund the funding gap want to close.
Despite the large number of start-ups and scale-ups founded or run by women, there is still surprisingly little investment in female start-ups and scale-ups.
'As research also shows, this partly has to do with how we, men and women, view women,' says Laura in the interview. 'So also how investors deal with start-up founders. They get different questions, they are looked at and listened to differently.'

January 4, 2022
Febe van den Bergen did an internship at Borski Fund for 4 months. After completing her bachelor's degree in Business Administration at Erasmus University, Febe chose to gain practical experience in a gap year and learn everything about the world of venture capital. In this blog she shares her experiences.

Nov 3, 2021
On behalf of Borski Fund, Amelia Peden researched FemTech: the Future of Female Health sector. A rapidly growing, but underinvested sector. Based on her research, a further European-wide study was done in connection with Insead. This is the first of a series of articles by Borski Fund, dedicated to the Future of Female Health.

Simone Brummelhuis, director of Borski Fund, has been nominated by Business Angels Netzwerk Deutschland for Female Business Angel of the Year. She is the first Dutchman to have a chance.

Simone Brummelhuis will compete against three other candidates from Germany, Switzerland and Australia. It is the fourth time that the German investor network presents the award for female business angels in collaboration with Business Angels Europe (BAE). Never before has a Dutchman had a chance to win the prize for female investors.
With the prize, the German businessangel network wants to draw attention to female investors. The organization aims to have a female share of business angels of 25 percent by 2025. "There are many committed female investors in Europe," the organization says in their press release, "and this will only increase in the future."
In the article on investors.nl Simone explains why women are in the minority in the investment world: 'That's partly because investors are mostly former entrepreneurs. So it's a chain reaction. By supporting female entrepreneurs, Borski Fund hopes to breed more female business angels.'
Borski Fund is an innovative venture capital fund that invests in technology companies with a diverse team. With its investments, the fund encourages more diversity in companies, more women who undertake risk-bearing business and more women who invest risk-bearing. This is the only way to create a diverse Dutch entrepreneurial landscape and a balanced situation for women in top positions. Success has no gender. More about Borski Fund.

Borski Fund and Participatiefonds Duurzame Economie Noord-Holland (PDENH) are investing in The Next Closet: a platform for sustainable fashion run by female entrepreneurs.
The two female founders recently strengthened their management team with Peter Koning (COO), from OLX – a global network of online marketplaces – and Suzanne Kats (CCO), formerly Sr. Director Global Brand Strategy at Tommy Hilfiger. The team will use the 3 million euros raised in funding to recruit more talent and further expand its leadership position. In addition to Borski Fund and 4impact, PDENH participates as an existing shareholder in this financing round.
Rising demand for vintage
The fashion industry is the second largest polluting industry, with 50 billion new pieces of clothing thrown away every year. Thanks to an increasing awareness and the recently introduced product responsibility (UPV) for textiles by the government, the demand for second-hand fashion is expected to increase sharply.
Sustainable and inclusive
The second-hand clothing market is expected to grow twelve times faster than the fashion market as a whole and even become twice as big as the market for second-hand clothing. fast fashion. With the financing, The Next Closet can grow with this explosively developing market. By placing quality over quantity, The Next Closet also contributes to the international UN environmental goals (Sustainable Development Goals).
Borski Fund is an innovative venture capital fund that invests in technology companies with a diverse team. With its investments, the fund encourages more diversity in companies, more women who undertake risk-bearing business and more women who invest risk-bearing. This is the only way to create a diverse Dutch entrepreneurial landscape and a balanced situation for women in top positions. Success has no gender. More about Borski Fund.
About PDENH
PDENH stimulates sustainable activity, employment and innovation and thus contributes to a sustainable economy in the province of North Holland. The fund is specifically intended for companies and projects that give the sustainable economy an extra boost and focus on the energy transition, a circular economy and sustainable mobility. More about PDENH

LIOF invests in Borski Fund, a fund with a focus on diversity and technology
Research shows that only 5% of all venture capital investments are provided to mixed teams of men and women. Only 1% will be invested in female-only teams and 94% of the Venture Capital investments will be invested in male-only teams. Gaby Zandbergen, investment manager at LIOF explains: “Various teams bring other innovations to the market and companies with various teams present better financially. In addition, diversity and inclusion are no longer a vision but a necessity. For us as an investor, in addition to a moral appeal, it is also a financially correct decision to invest more in various teams. ” In addition, with this investment, LIOF increases the opportunity to come into contact with companies with a diverse team and thereby co-invest in these companies. And LIOF will actively work to offer female entrepreneurs in Limburg access to existing networks.

Start-ups and scale-ups in Limburg with a diverse team will benefit from the partnership between Borski Fund and LIOF. Think of joint events where investors share their expertise and where you expand your business network. The collaboration also offers companies the opportunity to participate in the so-called online coffee hour in which investment opportunities are discussed. You can register here.
Diversity and inclusion (D&I) are high on LIOF's agenda. The focus is increasingly on social impact and investments are not only looking at economic returns, but also at the effects on the transitions energy, circularity, health and digitization and D&I. Together with entrepreneurs and partners, LIOF is working towards a smarter, more sustainable and healthier Limburg. That is the ambition for the coming years.
Borski Fund is an innovative venture capital fund that invests in technology companies with a diverse team. We believe in diversity, gender equality and fair opportunities. That is why we encourage more diversity in companies, more women who do business in a risk-bearing manner and more women who invest in a risk-bearing manner. This is the only way to create a diverse Dutch entrepreneurial landscape and a balanced situation of women in top positions. We help entrepreneurs realize their ambitions by leveraging our entrepreneurial experience and sharing our extensive and diverse network with them. Success has no gender.
More about Borski Fund.
LIOF is the regional development agency for Limburg and supports innovative entrepreneurs with advice, network and financing. We are there for every start-up, scale-up and SME with an innovative idea, a business plan or a financing request and for (foreign) entrepreneurs who want to establish themselves in Limburg. We also help with cross-border cooperation and international business. Together with entrepreneurs and partners, we are working towards a smarter, more sustainable and healthier Limburg by focusing on the transitions of energy, circularity, health and digitization.
More about LIOF.