Award-winning entrepreneur and founder of Birmingham-based Rem3dy Health and Nourished, Melissa Snover, has been named as one of ten winners in the Department for Business & Trade's (DBT) Venture Capital Unit's inaugural Female Founders initiative.
The national campaign was launched by the DBT to identify a cohort of ten of the UK’s most promising female-led companies. An esteemed panel of VC judges comprehensively scored each of the shortlisted companies, with only the most innovative products with great market potential, scalability and commercial viability making it into the first cohort of 10.
At a special launch event in London, Melissa, along with her fellow female founders cohort, delivered one-minute elevator pitches describing their innovative solutions, providing a powerful platform to engage with some of the most prominent stakeholders and investors in the international VC sector.
Innovative women-led start-ups have been notoriously held back due to a lack of finance, with the proportion of equity capital investment going to all-female founder teams sitting at around 2% in the UK for the past decade.
In response to this disparity, the Department for Business and Trade’s Venture Capital Unit launched a national campaign to identify and support the UK’s 10 most promising tech female founders. Over the coming year, each will be offered opportunities to access the Venture Capital Unit’s global investor network.
Melissa Snover, said: “Recently, investment into female-led businesses has been heavily scrutinised, so today’s launch is significant, not just for me and the other nine female founders in the cohort, but for the entrepreneurial and investment communities as a whole.
“At a time when it’s becoming increasingly difficult to access funding, I’m absolutely delighted to have been selected in the DBT’s first ever Female Founders initiative. For over two decades I’ve been passionate about innovation in the field of nutrition and improving lives through science, and my latest company, Nourished, is creating something unique in the market.
"Securing a place on this initiative will give me an invaluable opportunity to showcase the brand and our breakthrough product to a global network of investors, all of whom are actively looking for investment opportunities here in the UK.”
With over 20 years’ entrepreneurial experience, including multiple successful exits, Melissa has established a strong track record for innovation and brand building. A registered nutritionist and inventor of several patented technologies, in 2019 Melissa founded Rem3dy Health and raised the highest ever female founder seed round in UK history.
Rem3dy Health is dedicated to pioneering personalised health solutions for both preventative and curative care through its brands, Nourished (personalised nutrition) and Scripted (personalised medicine).
The firm was recently honoured with the prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation, for its use of patented 3D printing technology and a unique vegan encapsulation formula - both developed in house to create authentically personalised nutrition on demand under the brand Nourished. Nourished is Melissa’s latest creation, and is the world’s first 3D printed personalised gummy stacks.
