Counting women in: Meet the graduate backing women in business

Candice Tait’s first business launched (unofficially) in Johannesburg when she was 11. She knocked on doors, found customers and put her brother to work washing cars.

“I also washed quite a few myself and waitressed for several years.”

As a young person, she was drawn to the arts, physics and cosmology, but it was her entrepreneurial spirit and financial acumen that eventually led her to raise over $2 billion for start-ups, launch a business supporting female founders and graduate with a PhD in finance from the University of Auckland.

“Growing up in Jo’burg, it was just my mum, my brother and me. We didn’t have much for school or extras, so I was always finding ways to earn money. It was a dangerous place, but it taught me resilience and awareness.”

Candice has used those life skills to help her navigate the corporate world, sometimes as the only woman in the room. As she says, “I’ve learned how to fight my corner”.

After moving to London at 13 with her mum and brother, she enjoyed choir, orchestra and painting at school. She never thought she would end up in finance, but straight out of high school she landed an entry-level role at Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY). “They said they would support me to become a chartered accountant; it was a great opportunity.”

Candice loved working with numbers and was “surprisingly good at it”. She went on to complete her Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) qualification and a MSc in Business from Manchester Metropolitan University before beginning a role with a private equity–backed tech firm.

At 27, she was managing 15 staff around the world.

“It was exciting. Joining a fast-growing, private equity–backed business accelerated my career. The company I was with at the time eventually went through a highly successful exit; it was all over the news, and my profile rose dramatically.”

Candice was approached by private equity investors to “parachute in” as chief financial officer for a range of companies.

“I’d go into potential or newly purchased companies, help build out their finance teams, and prepare for investment. I did that for a long time, did a lot of due diligence, and worked in private equity and venture capital for pretty much my whole career in London.”

They were intense, fast-moving roles, and over the course of her London career, she was part of multiple fundraising processes that collectively raised more than $2 billion. The standout was HR tech firm Reward Gateway, where she helped engineer a 14-fold return on a private equity exit by getting customers to commit four and five years in advance “bringing cash forward and creating the kind of stickiness investors loved”.

Soon Candice was ready for a new adventure and flew to Australia to visit her brother. An avid rock climber, she also hopped over to New Zealand for a quick climbing trip.

Then, the pandemic hit, and she found herself unexpectedly locked down in Wānaka with just her backpack and a couple of pairs of shoes.

“I didn't want to return to chaotic London, where the covid situation was horrific. And during lockdown, I asked myself: how can I add value in my career, and how can I remain in New Zealand?”

The answer to both questions came in the form of a PhD at the University of Auckland’s Business School.

Her research examines how responsible investing operates across different markets and the impact of private equity on businesses and sustainability. It explores shareholder pressure on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and finds that, in New Zealand’s private markets, investors are keen on responsible investing. However, many lack a clear picture of how well their investments perform on ESG measures.

“Something else that emerged from data, and I wasn’t anticipating this, is that female investors place more emphasis on environmental and social issues than men. And because there are so many more male investors than female, the weighting of the female perspective on sustainability isn’t being reflected in decision-making. That opened up a can of worms for me.”

During her studies, Candice also mentored start-up founders and found herself increasingly working with women.

“It's so different working with female business owners,” she says. “They view sustainability differently and are very authentic and honest about finance. I gravitated to working more and more with women.”

In 2024, Candice launched her business, Founded to be Counted, where she works exclusively with female founders, providing financial education, financial modelling and support for raising capital.

Her motivation has grown since having her daughter Maggie, now almost two.

“Every time I think about the real purpose of what I’m doing, it’s for her.

"Every woman deserves financial fluency and the skills to create a business, talk about finances, manage their own money and be financially independent. If I teach as many women as I can, it trickles down to their children and makes us all stronger, more independent human beings.”