A message from Clare McGee
Quick update from Washington DC as I head back to Dublin Airport— it’s been a pretty extraordinary few weeks for the AwakenHub and AwakenAngels community.
In a whirlwind month we’ve:
Returned from our US St Brigid’s Day Annual trade Mission from NYC and Boston with a spring in our step!
Shown up & facilitated sessions at the InterTradeIreland VC conference in Belfast 5 march
Co‑led the EIC Women TechEU Celebration in Brussels, where AwakenHub, as a core delivery partner, has supported 160 deep‑tech women founders across Europe to access £75K grants plus wrap‑around support. 6 March
Delivered another powerful SheGenerate Accelerator module for 25 brilliant women founders across the island.
WeScale Mentor Matching session and we Ran a double WeScale residential in Galway, bringing 33 women founders together for deep dives, mentoring and scaling conversations with are delivery partners Cranfield University.
In Derry, we hosted Minister Patrick, Parliamentary Under‑Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, for a roundtable on investment and international opportunities for women founders. In Galway’s PorterShed, AwakenAngels held a packed pitch night alongside a brilliant fireside chat with Suzanne Moloney Founder of HidraMed Solutions and on Saturday night with Áine Kerr — broadcaster, entrepreneur and exited founder.
And it’s been seriously international. Over the last 3 weeks our team has been in Belfast, Dublin, Galway, Louth, Sussex, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brussels, NYC, Philadelpdia, San Francisco and Austin Texas and oh of course Derry!!
I was in New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, meeting diaspora leaders and potential new angels, and building connections for upcoming trade missions.
Here’s the bigger picture.
AwakenHub and AwakenAngels are doing something no one else is doing on this island: we are rewiring who gets funded and who gets to be an investor. We started during the pandemic as a grassroots community for women entrepreneurs locked out of capital. Five years on, that community has become an all‑island engine backing some of the most exciting women‑led companies in Ireland.
AwakenHub is the front door: an all‑island founder community with structured programmes that move women from idea to scale. WeScale, SheGenerate, Women TechEU, Activate AI and our US Trade Missions. Our annual St Brigid’s Day mission to New York and Boston and our Fall mission to San Francisco are now templates we want to extend to Philadelphia and Chicago, creating a repeatable pipeline of export‑ready women‑led companies meeting capital and connections where it lives.
AwakenAngels is the capital engine behind that pipeline: Ireland’s first all‑island women‑led (not women‑only) angel syndicate, backing women‑founded companies where at least one woman holds a meaningful equity stake. We set it up because we were underwhelmed by the pace and ambition of traditional investors. Women are still dramatically under‑funded — and at the same time, too many women with the means to invest are sitting on the sidelines. We’re changing both sides of that equation.
Since late 2023, AwakenAngels has helped eight portfolio companies raise more than €4.3–€4.5 million, with more deals in the pipeline. We’re not just writing cheques: we’re building an education‑led, peer‑driven angel platform with ticket sizes from around £2,000, robust deal screening and experienced deal leads. In February we signed an MOU with the Global Network Women in Innovation to deliver our CPD‑accredited investor training to their network. Our portfolio spans technology, health, mobility and consumer brands — including Gigi Supplements, now in over 200 outlets like Boots and Holland & Barrett.
Today, 90% of AwakenAngels investors are women. More than 115 new investors have come through our CPD‑accredited Investor Academy so far, backed by a growing bench of seasoned angels. We’re proving that when you make angel investing accessible, transparent and community‑driven, women step in — and step up.
So what’s our ask?
Capital: We’re seeking Irish diaspora who want a real legacy back home. We provide the education; the ticket sizes are deliberately accessible. We also invite US‑based angels and family offices to co‑invest alongside AwakenAngels in women‑led deals.
Strategic partners: We’re looking for accelerators, universities and corporates to host visiting founders, offer mentorship and explore pilot or market‑entry partnerships.
Doors and visibility: Introductions to local angel networks, women‑in‑business groups and diaspora leaders who care about returns and impact — and who might want to adapt our investor education model for their own communities.
There have been some pinch‑me moments too — including a quick chat with Sarah Jessica Parker about her support for Irish women and creativity.
Mary McKenna has also been keeping the global momentum going: connecting with the Digital Irish community in New York during the St Patrick’s celebrations, representing AwakenHub and AwakenAngels at SXSW in Austin, and then heading on to the St Patrick’s San Francisco series of business events and meet‑ups.
And we’re not slowing down. This week I have been in Washington DC with a packed schedule of meetings and events with diaspora leaders and partners then back to Derry for the Derry Chamber President’s lunch. We have been speaking at the UK Tech Cluster Roundtable in Manchester (16 March), And Coming up: the inagural Derry Summit on 26th March, the Wealth Reimagined conference in Exeter on 27th March, and of course our Activate AI Showcase and Tech Cluster Roundtable in Derry on 25 March, TechStars Women’s Start Up weekend in Dublin & AwakenAngels Fireside with Tim Deeson.
Alongside that and While I’ve been on the road Denise, Maria, Sinead and Niamh ensure the core work continues every week — community events, founder drop‑ins, due diligence on new investments, angel training, WeScale and SheGenerate delivery and mentoring, and delivery of the Women TechEU programme supporting 40 deep‑tech women founders across Europe — plus vital planning for our upcoming SheVentures Summit, 7–9 June 2026. If you haven’t already, join the waitlist: tickets and a very exciting programme and speaker announcements are coming soon.
We’re a small but mighty team at AwakenHub and AwakenAngels — but the energy of this community across Ireland, the UK, Europe and the US is electric. Join us on the mission.
