A Tyrone businesswoman has been awarded two high-profile angel investment awards in Berlin and London, making her the first person ever to do so.
Mary McKenna was crowned UK Angel Investor of the Year at the UK British Business Angel Association in London and European Female Angel Investor of the Year at the Business Angels Network Deutschland in Berlin.
The entrepreneur who runs Awaken Hub — a community of women founders— and more recently Awaken Angels — an organisation described as a crowdfunding, angel syndicate for investment in female-led businesses by female investors, is the first person to win both awards in the same year and the first person to win from here.
She said: "I am humbled and deeply honoured to be named both Europe Female Angel Investor of the Year and UK British Angel Investor of the Year, not to say that it should happen within a 24-hour period!
”These awards are a testament to the incredible work being done by entrepreneurs and angel investors.
"I accept these awards on behalf of all women angels everywhere working from the ground up to change the environment for women founders and investors.
"I firmly believe that investing in early-stage companies and providing mentorship is crucial for building a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
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Mary said she will use the platform created by the wins to continue her efforts in supporting and empowering founders, particularly women.
“I will use it to put the spotlight on female investment. Winning these awards come with an ambassador role and it will give me a platform to do more.”
Mary has dedicated much of her time over the last three years to AwakenHub, as part of an all-women from all over Ireland as well as a Global Diaspora Ambassador Mary Ann Pierce based in NYC.
The community now has in excess of 3,000 women founders at all stages of their journey.
AwakenHub has had a number of firsts since its inception including being the first all-island community focused on changing the landscape for women founders and the first cross-border accelerator programme for early-stage women founders (SheGenerate) now open for applications for its third cohort.
Mary adds: “Since we launch AwakenAngels, we’ve had a lot of interest from women, which people told us wouldn’t happen. We have a target to bring on 50 new angels in our first year and I’m confident we can do that for our partners.”
