The “Golden Aurora”, the prize for the best female business angel in Europe, this year goes to Portugal – more precisely to Porto, the home of Lurdes Gramaxo. The nine-member European jury chose Lurdes Gramaxo ahead of the two second-placed winners Regina Llopis from Spain and Brigitte Baumann from Switzerland.
The prize was awarded this year for the fourth time by Business Angels Netzwerk Deutschland (BAND), the association of business angels and their ecosystem in Germany, and Business Angels Europe (BAE), the European federation of national business angel associations. “The fact that a Portuguese woman is this year’s award winner shows that female angels are making inroads across the continent into a domain thought to be male and are investing successfully,” says Ute Günther, board member of BAND. In order to further strengthen this trend in Germany as well, BAND has proclaimed the “Women Business Angels Year 2020” under the patronage of Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier.
Lurdes Gramaxo is a partner at Bynd Venture Capital, formerly Busy Angels, with more than 30 active investments in its portfolio. She invests in seed and early-stage companies in IT/digital and sustainability (e.g. life sciences, clean technologies) from Portugal and Spain, as well as in startups related to these markets. As a member of the Board of Directors of Associação Portuguesa Business Angels, the Portuguese equivalent of BAND, she is also committed to improving the environment for angel investors and startups in Portugal and in Europe.
Lurdes Gramaxo studied economics and psychology at the University of Porto. After a career of more than 20 years in various management positions in a multinational family-owned company based in the Netherlands, she has been a partner and board member of Bynd VC since 2015.
“I am very honored to receive this award. It is not only a wonderful recognition for the work done so far, but above all a great motivation to continue contributing to the growth of the ecosystem in Portugal and Spain, while promoting the participation of women in entrepreneurial roles, both as investors and as founders,” said this year’s winner.
Originally, the award was to be presented already on November 08, 2020, during a festive event in Cologne, but due to the pandemic it had to be postponed to next year. The award ceremony will be held in autumn 2021.
