Mentorship
Part of our Empowering Equity commitment for diversity and inclusion
Mentorship
Part of our Empowering Equity commitment for diversity and inclusion
The Empowering Equity Mentorship and Mentorship+ programmes aim to support aspiring and early career female fund managers by providing advice and connecting them with more experienced peers.
This is a joint initiative of the EIF, the EIB, and the European Union under the #InvestEU Advisory Hub. Together we want to make the EU ecosystem more diverse. This is why we are helping new generations of fund managers enter the industry.
Meet the mentors

Simona Gemeneanu
Partner at Morphosis Capital
Co-founder of Morphosis Capital – a growth fund focused on SMEs in Romania - Simona has over 20 years of experience in private equity, finance, strategy, and M&A roles in Bucharest, Paris, and London. An inspiration to many women fund managers.

Barbara Ellero
Partner at Anthilia Capital Partners
In Anthilia since 2013, Barbara pioneered the private debt market in Italy. Before joining Anthilia, she spent nearly 18 years in corporate finance in leading investment banks, developing extensive experience in advisory and private capital.

Marie Bursaux
Investment Director at Eiffel Investment Group
Marie joined Eiffel Investment Group in 2019, from Aviva Investors where she worked as a portfolio manager within the Private Debt & Real Assets platform, looking after financing and restructuring of corporates, infrastructure, and assets financings.

Deepali Nangia
Partner at Speedinvest
After starting her career as an investment banking analyst, she moved to investing in growth-stage financial institutions and finally turned to the venture world as an angel investor in female-funded technology companies.

Eleni Bathianaki
Managing Partner, Halcyon Equity Partners
Eleni is the Founding Partner of Halycon Equity Partners SICAR, which invests in Greek non-listed mature Scale-up SMEs and Small Mid-cap companies with a scalable business model and high growth potential. She brings 23+ years of experience in investment banking, strategic advisory, and private equity positions.

Zoe Chambers
General Partner at Frontline Ventures
Experienced in investment banking and corporate law, Zoe has been working with B2B software companies at pre-seed and seed stages in Europe and at growth stage in the US.

Dr. Gesa Miczaika
Co-founder at Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund
The Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund is a venture capital firm co-investing with at least one female founder in Europe. After being the Deputy President of the German Startups Association and a member of the "Young Digital Economy" Advisory Board to the Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy in Germany, Gesa founded the Evangelistas, a network of female business angels with more than 350 members in Europe.