Alberta Female Founder, Funders and Fortifiers (ABF4)
Supporting Women in Technology in Alberta
The Alberta Female Founders, Fortifiers, and Funders (ABF4) is a committee of the VCAA to help foster a more diverse and inclusive technology industry
ABF4 is dedicated to supporting women in tech through networking events and informative panel discussions Our network includes founders, executives, service providers, investors, and community supporters. Anyone can join and attend our public events. Continue to check our Eventbrite page and LinkedIn for updates on upcoming events.
We are open to innovative ideas to bring people together, if you have an idea or suggestion for a future event in Edmonton or Calgary, please contact ab4f@vcaa.ca.
These are a couple of events that we are planning in the near future:
Summit event on January 17th, 2024 in Calgary, AB
AI event in late February or March in Edmonton, AB
Investor Speed Networking event in April in Calgary, AB
Be a Part of the Community
If you’d like to reach out to support or learn more contact ab4f@vcaa.ca. If you want to hear about the newest events, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on LinkedIn.
Who are we
Alberta Female Founders, Funders and Fortifiers was founded in November 2018 by David Edmonds from A100/Accelerate Fund III, Brenda Slauko from BDC, Ha Nguyen from McRock Capital, and Andrea Drager from Azure Capital Partners, with the purpose of supporting females in tech through networking and curated content events. With support from the BDC’s THRIVE group, ACF III, AEC and The A100 the group has hosted over 15 breakfast networking events and specialized panel events reaching over 500 women working in the technology industry in Calgary.
Melania Antoszko from Accelerate Fund/Yaletown Partners and Nadia Lachman from Panache Ventures now lead the ABF4 planning committee.
Brenda Slauko, BDC
Brenda has over 26 years of experience at BDC, and currently serves as the National Director in BDC’s Technology Industries group scaling tech companies from seed to Series A with non-dilutive funding.
Andrea Drager, Azure Capital
Andrea is a Partner at Azure Capital Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with over $750 million under management. Leading their Canadian office, based in Calgary, Andrea evaluates investment opportunities across Canada and select investments in the US.
David Edmonds, A100/Accelerate Fund
David is the Chairman Industry Committee at the A100 and an accomplished technology entrepreneur and a vital advisor to Accelerate Fund II and III companies.
Ha Nguyen, McRock Capital
Ha is a Vice President of McRock Capital, a venture capital firm focused exclusively on the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). She has experience working with tech companies and entrepreneurs in both the venture capital and private equity industries.
Melania Antoszko, Yaletown Partners
Melania is an Investment Analyst at Accelerate Fund, co-managed by Yaletown Partners and the A100. Accelerate Fund supports the growth of early-stage Alberta technology companies with a venture capital fund that matches angel investment.
Nadia Lachman, Panache Ventures
Nadia is an Investment Analyst at Panache Ventures, an early-stage fund supporting Canadian entrepreneurs across a wide range of industries. She has a background in health science and biomedical technology. During her MBA, she supported many Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) ventures in the Prime stream
