Earlier this month, one of Canada’s most powerful women in fintech, Elisabeth Laett joined Montreal’s Holt Fintech Accelerator as Managing Partner. This after acting as an Advisor for Holt since its inception in 2017.

“I cannot think of a better person for this role. We are honoured and thrilled to see Elisabeth go from one of our very own highly engaged Advisors, to joining our team full-time. As an Advisor, she delivered big results for our teams, and we are confident the value to our portfolio companies and associated ecosystem will substantially increase within this new role” stated Brendan Holt Dunn, Managing Partner at Holt.

A recent report revealed that among the executive teams managing over $6.1 billion CAD in active venture funds, only a tiny fraction have female partners. Furthermore, of the thousands of applications Holt Accelerator received in 2018 and 2019, only 8% came from startups that were founded by women, however the tides are changing and according to Crunchbase. Their data shows 20 percent of global startups which raised their first seed funding in 2019 had a female founder.

“I’m excited to be enabling more women’s achievements in fintech, and helping to close the gap between the number of men and women who receive funding for their ventures”, said Laett in a statement. “I look forward to ensuring that we are also seeking out top women led fintechs and helping them make it through to the final selection phase out of the hundreds of applicants we are expecting this year.”

Whether occupying senior roles in Fortune 50 technology companies, investing in startups or being hands on to accelerate growth, Elisabeth is no stranger to the startup scene. With over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurial experience, her keen eye to understand a business and its potential for success is a great asset to the Holt team, says Jan Christopher Arp, Founding Managing Partner at Holt Fintech Accelerator. “Elisabeth has been instrumental in supporting Holt Accelerator, and me personally, from the very start. I’m very excited to be able to work alongside her and I look forward to witnessing first hand the impact this will bring to our Canadian early stage fintech ecosystem.”

Holt also recently announced the opening of its application process for its 2020 Cohort. The application deadline is May 9th, 2020. More information can be found here, on their website.