According to the government, the round saw 697 expressions of interest applications that were assessed by an Independent Assessment Committee made up of successful women entrepreneurs.

Launched by the Morrison government in 2020 and headed by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR), the initiative offers grants to help women-led businesses scale into domestic and global markets. 

In order to be eligible, the startup has to be at least 51 per cent women owned and led.

The total grant funding available is $11.6 million for this round. Here’s a rundown of the startups who’ll be receiving a slice of the pie. 

Successful grant recipients, Round 3 of Boosting Female Founders Initiative

Accessi Group Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Achieving global expansion of Credit Risk Management Software Platforms

Access Intell’s project is developing a credit risk software to protect businesses from bad debts. Businesses struggle to manage debtors ledgers across disjointed systems with limited access to cost effective credit intelligence. Access Intell aggregates data from multiple sources and integrates with business systems to deliver a continuous risk assessment on every customer.

The grant funding will allow the business to scale-up, expand into global markets, become self-sufficient and create jobs and wealth for Australia.

Bestie Kitchen Pty Ltd, $249,600

Project Title: Scale Pet Supplement & Sustainable Food Range

Bestie Kitchen has commercialised intellectual property developed with CSIRO, to make a unique form of nutraceutical gummy chews for pets. This tapped into a growing market for pet supplements.

The key project activities will grow awareness and customer acquisition in Australia, secure distribution with key distributors and retail chains and penetrate key export markets in Asia.

Black Box Trading Company Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Farming tools driven by data

Black Box Trading is providing analytics to the agricultural supply chain. The project funding from this grant is key to the product vertical, as Black Box have ambitions to build livestock dashboards to help farmers, feed-lots and processors with decisions derived from their database of 3.5 million animals.

Black Box’s service is aimed at working across the beef supply chain, from the paddock to grocery shelves to aggregate data, apply machine learning, and give each stakeholder insights into their livestock.

Butter Insurance Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Scaling Butter Insurance – Revolutionising Contents Insurance

Butter Insurance is revolutionising the way young Australians access, purchase and manage insurance. The project will focus on commercialising technology enabling data-lead instant quote and bind processes, flexible single-item policies and cost-effective pricing without lock-in contracts across key distribution channels. Butter’s goal is to bridge the insurance gap for the critically underinsured Australian renters’ market and under 35’s.

Compassion Creamery Pty Ltd, $270,000

Project Title: Retail Ready Launch of Compassion Creamery’s Award-Winning Oat Creme Cheese

Compassion Creamery is looking to scale their Oat Creme Cheese operations by increasing in-house manufacturing capability in Australia, as well as build commercial capacity including increasing shelf life through formulation alterations. Compassion Creamery will allow hundreds of foodservice outlets to contribute to the expansion and acceptance of plant-based alternatives in the market; ultimately driven by the urgent need of creating a more sustainable and ethical food system.

Driveschool Enterprises Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: myDRIVESCHOOL® – social & global

myDRIVESCHOOL® is an award winning road safety program to teach people how to drive online, using simulation, gaming and artificial intelligence (AI). With BFF funding we will develop additional learning modules to address behavioural change and combine all for global markets.

Education Ontrack Pty Ltd, $462,833

Project Title: Flohh Assessment Platform Scaling and Integration

The project for Education Ontrack will focus on integrating Flohh’s online essay marking platform into School Management Systems (SMS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) to facilitate student data transfer and eliminate double-handling for teachers. This will also enable the business to scale internationally and enhance product performance.

Evolve Communities Pty Ltd, $443,100

Project Title: Accelerating Allyship & Reconciliation supporting Statement of the Heart

Evolve Communities is a majority Indigenous owned, female-founded organisation that teaches Practical Reconciliation and Allyship. The project will expand their unique frameworks, educational resources, multi modal delivery, accreditation and licensing programs to make their training and accreditation the gold standard for professionals and organisations in Australia.

Fonz Moto Pty Limited, $393,847

Project Title: Fonz Moto – Australian designed & made EV motorcycles market expansion

Fonz Moto designs, builds, sells and rides electrifying two-wheel motorcycles & road-scooters for the future of mobility. The project boasts a highly innovative Australian designed and manufactured product that has disrupted the Sydney market, and will continue its rapid growth both locally and overseas.

Future Anything Pty Ltd, $294,150

Project Title: Future Anything Enterprising Education Applied Learning Platform

Future Anything’s project will transform teacher-led enterprise education programs into a new student facing applied learning EdTech experience.

The project will create an innovative new standalone product that will enable Future Anything to scale rapidly and sustainably into the domestic and international market.

Gaykamangu, Liandra; $437,500

Project Title: Liandra Swim International Expansion

Liandra Swim is a premium fashion brand that focuses on sustainability whilst celebrating Indigenous Australian culture. Liandra Swim presents contemporary fashion collections showcasing hand-drawn signature prints.

The theme of each collection links the audience to a carefully considered narrative through the ancient Indigenous art of storytelling. The project will support the expansion and diversity of available swimwear inventory into the domestic and international market.

Givvable Pty Ltd, $397,600

Project Title: Givvable – helping businesses reach their sustainability targets, faster

Givvable has developed an artificial intelligence-powered software as a service (SaaS) platform for businesses to discover and track the sustainability attributes of suppliers mapped to widely-used reporting frameworks. The project will leverage existing local distribution partnerships to expand further into the domestic and international market.

Grant’d Pty Ltd, $382,122

Project Title: Grant’d 2.0 Automating and Scaling The Personalised Grant’d Experience

This project will create a subscriber based platform that automates our unique grants service, transforming Grant’d into a scalable tech based business. This investment will boost the scalability of Grant’d by eliminating our current manual processes and removing cost barriers for users through: A purpose-built Software as a Service (SaaS) platform using generative AI to deliver and maintain Grant’ds vision to become the go-to digital solution for grant seekers in Australia and globally.

Lactamo Holdings Pty Ltd, $365,000

Project Title: Scaling-up Lactamo to respond to demand nationally and internationally.

Lactamo is a world first in MedTech innovation for breastfeeding. Lactamo uniquely combines temperature, movement and compression to address the common breastfeeding problems. Independently clinically validated and IP protected, Lactamo is both proactive and reactive for breastfeeding.

The project will focus on 3 key activities consisting of marketing (domestically and internationally), the expansion of the team, and operational expansion support to facilitate growth, creating a secure foundation for the core business areas.

Leap4ward.ai Pty Ltd, $399,600

Project Title: Tech development of artificial intelligence-enabled virtual health coach

LeapForward.ai’s project is an artificial intelligence-enabled application that supports injured individuals to recover from a compensable injury or illness. The minimum viable product’s core function will implement a chatbot (“Virtual Health Coach”), which delivers virtual support and responds to users with scripted responses deployed via basic algorithms.

The project will utilise advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand the user’s expression, tone and sentiment.

Life Skills Group Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: Develop an SDK to integrate wellbeing data and tools into web-based systems

Life Skills’ project is a Software Development Kit that allows the integration of existing wellbeing data collection, measurement and analysis tools into third party applications. It is a platform to measure the emotional wellbeing of students.

Lush Organic Hair & Spa Forest Glen Pty Ltd, $150,000

Project Title: Penny Black Organic hair products – domestic and global expansion

Lush Organic Hair trades as Penny Black Organic (PBO) and is the only Certified Green Salon in the Southern Hemisphere. Lush Organic has developed 16 certified organic hair products.

The project will focus on scale manufacturing and organic packaging, product range expansion for direct customer sales both domestically and early international sales, recruitment of skilled management team to implement brand awareness and marketing.

Maxme Pty Ltd, $380,599

Project Title: Hodie+: Powering the Great Reconnection in the Digital Age

Maxme’s project is an immersive and digitally-enhanced human skill development learning experience underpinned by a digital learning application, empowering individuals to take control of their skills, careers, and futures, driving retention and engagement in the small to medium sized enterprises market. The gamified solution bridges the gap between employees and their jobs, integrated into daily work life through the application.

Meditati Pty Ltd, $330,000

Project Title: Commercialisation of tampon innovation to disrupt the FemCare market

The project will undertake Multi-Cultural Research for the commercialisation of a revolutionary applicator to disrupt the FemCare market. Key activities for the project are to create Go-To-Market brand, web-based education for schools and health practitioners. The project is developing a revolutionary soft applicator insertion solution. The New Zealand market pilot study will refine the go-to-market strategy for the Australian release.

Mettleaje Pty Ltd, $225,995

Project Title: Scaling Thirsty Turtl skincare boosts global Indigenous extracts market

Thirsty Turtl is an Australian skincare startup that launched in December 2022 with three products. The project will focus on growing the global market for Indigenous-sourced Australian native plant extracts.

This will be achieved through product expansion, sales growth via domestic and export-focused distributors, more efficient manufacturing and employment of specialised staff to build brand awareness.

MIIROKO Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: MIIROKO’s establishment and expansion into Japan

MIIROKO’s innovative vegan hair colour formula is free from ammonia, resorcinol, and paraphenylenediamine, empowering women with affordable access to salon-quality hair colour that is both gentle on their hair and environmentally friendly.

The project will focus on enhancing its digital capabilities, establishing a robust back-end team, and securing investment to leverage existing organic growth within the domestic market to scale into the lucrative Asian market, beginning with Japan.

Mineral Fox Pty Ltd, $262,500

Project Title: Mineral Fox National Expansion

Mineral Fox exists to help people return to nature and is a supplier of innovative, Australian-made natural plasters and renders that provide a sustainable, healthy a beautiful alternative to conventional wall coatings.

This project will support accelerated national expansion through additional headcount, systems, marketing and training.

More Good Days Pty Ltd, $396,318

Project Title: Digital Evidence-Based Pain Management Program for Fibromyalgia

This project will accelerate the build of MoreGoodDays pain management digital platform, and help accelerate growth across Australia and internationally.

Neomorph Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: NeoMorph – An innovative mouldable alternate to the dental-made mouthguard

NeoMorph Prodigy is an innovative over-the-counter, re-mouldable alternative to the dental-made mouthguard. The patent pending design, interlocks a dual polymer combination to provide a mouthguard that is securely custom fitting, protective and comfortable, to address the current concerns of end-users and the Australian Dental Association.

Our Trace Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Automate carbon footprinting for SMEs to scale in Australia and overseas

This project will focus on automating the process of collecting data from businesses and enhancing the accuracy and useability of the carbon inventory to power decarbonisation and enable Trace to scale. By integrating with technology that companies use every day, such as spreadsheets, accounting and travel management software, Trace can gather data required to measure, reduce and track emissions and establish channel partnerships with third parties already servicing our target customer.

Parking Spotz Pty Ltd, $388,917

Project Title: Parking Spotz – Electric Vehicle (EV) charging market expansion and execution of growth plan

Parking Spotz is developing an integrated hardware and software solution that automates parking bay security and optimises usage, turnover, and a return on investment through data-driven insights for electric vehicle (EV) charging bays.

The project will focus on product integration with new EV Charging partners, optimise and automate manufacturing processes for scaled production, execute sales growth plan with the recruitment of specialised management team and launch new data analytic modules to deliver valuable insights and position us as leaders in parking and EV data analytics.

 Pixii Pty Ltd, $133,740

Project Title: Changing women’s experience everywhere by bringing equality to bathrooms.

The project will result in a second generation dispenser for Pixii organic period products being brought to market, including new tech-enabled capabilities for stock monitoring and automated re-ordering. This will enable more building and facility managers to offer period products as part of their fundamental hygiene suppliers to staff and guests, just like soap and toilet paper.

The Paw Grocer Pty Ltd, $400,000

Project Title: Scaling for Expansion in the Domestic and Export Premium Pet Food Markets

The multi-faceted project will scale The Paw Grocer in both domestic and export markets. The grant funding will be used to improve our manufacturing capability & production efficiency, implement an inventory management system, and bring new products to market.

The One Two Pty Ltd, $362, 521

Project Title: The OneTwo domestic and global expansion

The OneTwo creates an easy bra shopping experience with hyper-personalised e-commerce, including a proprietary world-leading fit algorithm and innovative products.

The project aims to accelerate revenue growth in two years through commercialisation into the domestic and international market, as well as investments into intellectual property and technology.

Theratrak Pty Ltd, $150,000

Project Title: Theratrak, scale-up and market expansion to support the disability sector

Theratrak is developing an innovative online and mobile application based tool for therapists working with children with disabilities. Theratrak will support a wider cohort of people living with a disability, such as adults living with autism, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy and other physical and mental health challenges.

Theratrak will support a wider cohort of people living with a disability, such as adults living with autism, intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy and other physical and mental health challenges.

Vapar Innovation Pty Ltd, $300,000

Project Title: Innovative AI sewer technology expansion to the USA

Vapar Innovation is developing artificial intelligence for sewer technology expansion into the United States of America. Vapar will implement a channel strategy to reach early adopter customers and set up sales operations internationally.

VETNexus Pty Ltd, $200,000

Project Title: Bridging the National Digital Skills Gap: Leave no-one behind

VETNexus has developed a Digital Literacy Licence (DLL) which is a suite of online courses with digital badges. These badges can be displayed on a participant’s social media profile and resume to verify their skills when applying for employment.

The DLL takes participants on a journey of discovery and decision making, actively engaging with the concepts covered to ensure they have developed the full range of foundational digital skills by the time they complete their full DLL.

The project will include digital skills roadshows, marketing materials, learning content to promote and raise awareness of digital literacy.

X-Hemp Pty Ltd, $480,000

Project Title: Scaling X-Hemp, Building Homes, Elevating Women, Capturing Carbon

X-Hemp uses waste agricultural materials and purpose planted crops to make environmentally-friendly hemp building products.

The project aims to deliver synergistic investments in people and processes, equipment and business enabling infrastructure, new product development, branding, marketing and new market activation.

Zondii Pty Ltd, $427,000

Project Title: Zondii Wool Scanning Device + Female Leaders Project

Zondii’s technology goes beyond human senses to measure the true value of food and fibre. The prototype is currently in on-farm beta trials and its application in wool measurement has attracted a growing waitlist.

The Zondii Wool Scanning Device + Female Leaders Project will fund an industrial design and refinement process; product launch in Australia and New Zealand; and professional development for Zondii’s female leaders.

This project will establish Zondii as a financially sustainable female founded startup, with a commercial product in domestic and global markets, and will provide economic growth for wool growers, improved earning potential for women, and job creation internally and within the industry broadly.

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The AI-based sewerage system maintenance business was backed by Dutch water technology specialist VC PureTerra Ventures, supported by US engineering and construction software giant Autodesk.

“As a women-led start-up, we understand the unique hurdles women face in leadership and funding, and we’re thrilled for VAPAR to be part of the positive change,” the company tells Women’s Agenda.

“We hope that we can inspire other women and the start-up support network to continue backing women and providing a diversified space for all entrepreneurs to drive change.”

Co-founded in 2018 by two engineers, Amanda Siqueira and Michelle Aguilar, the innovative startup was inspired by Siquiera’s experience as an engineering intern. She would manually review sewer inspection videos for 8-hours a day, an error-prone and subjective process that ignited the idea for a streamlined, tech-driven, AI-based solution.

“VAPAR’s technology unlocks the necessary efficiencies in pipeline investment decision-making,” Siqueira said. 

“Billions are spent every year by global water utilities on fixing their pipes, over half of which is spent in North America. Despite the massive investment, there isn’t enough data and dollars available – utilities must commit to doing things differently.” 

“Artificial intelligence can unlock unprecedented efficiencies. Our vision is to create a world where critical infrastructure investment meets the needs of our communities.”

Over 3 billion feet of sewer pipes are inspected globally each year, according to VAPAR, with sewer overflows and flooding becoming more common as a result of aging pipes, climate change and growing populations. 

VAPAR currently serves water authorities in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, with a multi-regional team of 17 members. 

With this new $5 million investment, the company plans to build on its established customer base in these regions as well as fuel further expansion across North America to transform aging infrastructure. 

“The face of AI is changing rapidly, and we’re proud to be pioneering this deep learning technology in such an impactful way for the water industry,” said Aguilar.

“With our increasing customer base, we now support a wide range of industry standards, time zones and languages. Investing funds to double our team, add new verticals and start our North American office will ramp the number of customers that can benefit from this technology.”

For the past four years, VAPAR’s revenue and product usage has doubled annually. 

Alex Crowell, Partner at PureTerra Ventures, praised the startup’s performance, calling it a “standout in the evolving water management technology space”. 

“Showcasing their strong customer advocacy, a quick-to-adopt product and an impact-driven team made our decision an easy one,” he said, referring to their backing of the company.

“This investment will not only expand VAPAR’s customer reach but also substantially reduce pipe failures, which reflects our shared commitment to sustainable water infrastructure development globally.”

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It marks the first time the Ultra Violette has taken outside captial and comes ahead of the brand’s five-year anniversary. The sunscreen brand was first founded in 2019 by Rebecca Jefferd and Ava Chandler-Matthews. The pair hatched the idea while working together at Mecca Cosmetica.

Already, Ultra Violette’s success in Sephora Australia has seen it expand into 12 European markets. It’s also in New Zealand, Hong Kong and South-East Asia, Net-A-Porter globally as well as Space NK, Liberty and Harrods in the UK.

With this latest backing from Aria Growth Partners, the business has its sights set on North America. They expect to be stocked across Sephora Canada from March 2024 and are eager to jump into the US market in 2025.

“Strategically, [Aria] brings strong expertise in North America, which is very important to us,” Jefferd told the AFR. “This capital raise is not about the money, it’s about embracing the opportunity to expand into North America. We want the resources and knowledge to move into that market.” 

Following the investment, Mathews and Jefferd will remain majority owners of Ultra Violette and continue to helm the business. 

Aussie cosmetics on the rise

Australian cosmetic and beauty brands are having their moment. This partnership between Ultra Violette and Aria is only the latest backing in a string of high value investments.

Last year in April, L’Oréal acquired the Australian cosmetics brand Aesop for $2.5 billion, the largest ever acquisition for the French conglomerate. 

Australian self-tanner and skincare brand Bondi Sands was acquired last year by Japan’s chemical and beauty giant Kao Corporation for an estimated $450 million.

And in July last year, Australian luxury tan brand, Loving Tan, received a notable investment from private equity firm Gauge Capital.

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What she didn’t expect was that career pathway would formulate inside tech—an industry she’d always deemed as one for “geeky boys”.

But a chance break into a role at a training and development company in 1997 saw Warren working side by side with the IT manager and a passion for all things tech, rapidly form.

From there she went on to working at SAP, Microsoft, and Workday with roles in direct sales and building channel businesses.

Throughout it all, her mentors were men.

With few women in the industry at that stage, and fewer still at the decision-making table, Warren also noted a pervasive culture of women viewing each other as competitive threats.  

It was this realisation that saw Warren build ELEVACAO, a global pre-accelerator for women tech founders.

The 100% virtual program focused on founders in the early stage (pre-seed/seed) of business growth and went on to empower 175 women across the US and Australia to raise $100m+ and produce 3 Exits.

“It was, you know, this strange concept of women helping other women which just was not happening at the time. There’s just been a lot of talk and not enough action in the industry”, Warren puts it simply.

It was the success of ELEVACAO that solidified Warren’s mission to help women founders pull ahead.

“There’s something in me that that wants to see women successful. I want to see more billion-dollar businesses founded and led by women”, she says.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, funding for female founders dried up overnight but Warren’s initial instinct was to shift the dial. Contacting Kate Vale, former Google exec, she pitched the idea of starting a venture fund.

Vale jumped heartily on board with the idea, and the pair spent six months considering the investment thesis and the impact they wanted to have, setting up the back office. By 2021, they’d started fundraising and deploying capital.

Warren notes the pair’s belief “that the ideal founder is a combination of both Aussie and US,” but with Australian markets having been capital constrained for many years, the founders were focused on capital efficiency and thinking about revenue generation strategies from the outset.

ALIAVIA is uniquely based in California but investing exclusively in female tech founders in Australia and the US.

“If you get a combination of all those characteristics of an Australian founder with the US ambition and drive it works. You can’t build a venture scale business just focused on Australia. You have to expand out and quite often the next market is the US, but then to survive in the US. It’s so competitive”, Warren notes. “You need to think big you need to be competitive and really on your game so that’s why we like investing across both markets”.

While ALIAVIA, is open to all industries, Warren suggests some spaces where she’s seeing significant growth include health, fintech, media, entertainment, HR and data analytics.

The Fund is backed by well-known Aussie LPs including Carol Schwartz (Trawalla, EQT and Climate Council), Tattarang (the Forrest Family Office), Robyn & Victoria Denholm (Wollemi Capital Group), Dom Pym (Euphemia, Founder of Up Bank) and Cynthia Scott (Zip Co), and has already invested in Aussie startups including healthtech company, Eugene, Loupe, HowToo and Othelia AI. 

With just 2 percent of female-founded companies in the US per year securing VC funding, and the figure even lower for Australian-owned ventures, Warren knows how much we’re losing out on.

“We know that when you have a diverse leadership team, they make more money,” she says.

“Female founders, they’re more collaborative, build better innovation, get more of an understanding of the target demographic, you know? All of these things that equate to the end result of achieving on average, 35% higher ROI”.

Warren also suggests the need for more women at the managing partner level to have power over investment decisions as well as the importance of having an investment mandate to invest in female founders. A third critical driver she says, is having corporate quotas and KPIs to drive behaviour changes and to develop a gender lens on investment strategies.

She also criticises the cultural tendency to perceive female-owned ventures as “side hustles” but believes that overtime, and with true support in place, the tide will turn.

“You will still have those biases from old school. But I think what we can do about it, we’ve just got to help women to be successful and then start showcasing them.

Eventually that’ll start turning the tide and that’s what we started doing with ELEVACAO and now we’re transitioning with ALIAVIA, because people love following success and backing success and then eventually that’ll start turning the tide.”

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At the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship (SSE), we are driven by a belief that entrepreneurship is a powerful catalyst for change and our Digital Internship Program aims to contribute to this change by harnessing the ideas and energy of aspiring entrepreneurial thinkers to help solve the real-world business challenges of three female-led startups.

At SSE, our aim is to empower more individuals with the skills needed to create improved outcomes and futures for themselves. The Digital Internship Program is open to anyone who’s keen to engage in lifelong learning, better understand the world of entrepreneurship, and develop sought-after, transferable skills recognised through a digital credential. This program is self-paced, free of charge, and all participants gain a verified microcredential upon completion. (The Albanese Labor government has commended microcredentials as one of the pathways to addressing Australia’s significant skills gap).

Startup life, highs and lows

Ask a group of founders what they love about being in business and they’ll generally agree: launching a new idea or business is an opportunity to make a real difference and add value to people’s lives. No two days are the same. You get to create your own thriving company culture, build the team of your dreams, and set in motion a potentially lifelong career in innovation or leadership.

Yet for every exciting day of collaboration and innovation, wherever you are in your startup journey, there are new challenges to overcome. Problems to solve. Growth roadblocks to navigate. Tackling these challenges is where the growth, development and progress lie. Just ask Danielle Owen Whitford, founder and CEO of Pioneera, an award-winning tech startup that uses a world-first approach to combining AI and psychology to prevent workplace burnout.

The best kind of growing pains

“Though Pioneera has built a roster of premium clients including ANZ and ING, scaling is our biggest challenge. So we’re excited to now be tapping into other budding entrepreneurs’ minds via SSE’s Digital Internship Program to help us identify possible future partnerships and explore partnership models that enable us to expand our national and global reach.”

The Digital Internship Program, designed in collaboration with Australia’s Tech Central in Sydney and the Greater Cities Commission, provides participants with a free, self-paced, and fully online program that gives them real-world insights into – and practical business experience with – three innovative, high-impact startups.

Tash Jamieson is the dynamic founder and CEO of another of the program’s partner startups, edutech Lockpick Games, which prepares children for standardised tests by harnessing their love for gaming.

“We’ve had a huge amount of support since we launched,” Tash explains, “but now, with the input and energy from internship participants, we can really delve more deeply into our customers’ pain points to help us define how we communicate with them and develop a plan for Lockpick Games and the way we grow.”

Marketing and brand building on a budget

The third pioneering female-led startup involved in SSE’s program is Arula, which harnesses 3D technology to print external breast prostheses for women who have had mastectomies due to breast cancer. Says founder Steph Weiss, “Right now we’re doing secondary testing, so we’re looking to get enough users to be able to go to market in the next few months.”

Like so many startups and small businesses, Arula’s biggest challenge is marketing on a tight budget. “We’ve tried several avenues already,” explains Steph, “including Facebook ads, self-promotion, and word of mouth, so we’re excited to now be receiving support from program participants by way of fresh marketing strategies to increase brand awareness and sign-ups.”

Upon successful completion of the program, all participants will receive an industry-recognised, digital microcredential badge that identify learning outcomes and demonstrated skills; a certification that can be shared online and verified in real-time.

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Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick handed down the new state budget on Tuesday, promising cost-of-living relief to households and businesses facing runaway inflation.

Under the plan, the state government will supplement the federal government’s energy rebate funding with $1.1 billion from its own coffers to ensure every Queensland household receives a rebate of at least $550.

Small businesses with annual power consumption below 100,000-kilowatt hours will receive a $650 rebate, a measure expected to provide relief to approximately 205,000 enterprises across the state.

While the government touts its energy relief as its headline item, the budget also promises $6.8 million over three years for initiatives designed to bolster the mental health and wellness of small business owners.

That funding comes in the wake of October’s $8.7 million funding boost, which launched resiliency resources for small businesses and dedicated wellbeing coaches stationed in Cairns, Mackay, Townsville, Toowoomba, and North and South Brisbane.

The Queensland government will expand its funding for the Female Founders Co-Investment Fund pilot and the Accelerating Female Founders program, pumping $5 million into the initiatives over two years.

Some $4.6 million will go towards the Women in Trade Apprenticeships Mentoring Program, designed to support women pursuing work in the trades.

As businesses struggle to fill specialised roles, some $5.9 million will grow the Micro-Credentialing Pilot Program, boosting an initiative designed to upskill and reskill workers in priority areas.

Additionally, the budget provides $645 million over four years from 2023-2024 to provide 15 hours of free kindergarten per week for children under four.

Kicking off in January 2024, that initiative is expected to save the family of an average kindergarten attendee about $4,600 a year.

“This will not only reduce cost-of-living pressures for families but will also support labour market participation and improve educational outcomes,” budget papers note.

Combined, the state government sees these measures as a solution to lingering labour market difficulties.

“Over the medium term, increasing labour force flexibility, skills and participation, and other actions to enhance the competitiveness and productivity of the state’s businesses, will help reduce supply side constraints and dampen pressure on prices and cost of living,” the papers state.

With digital threats on the mind of business leaders across the country, the budget will allocate $5 million to cyber security support initiatives dedicated to small and medium enterprises.

The budget also pledges to support the establishment of the Queensland Indigenous Business Network, which the government says will provide support and advocacy for First Nations-led businesses.

This article was first published by Smart Company. Read the original article here.

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Describing her achievement of being a female founder CEO of an ASX listed company as “a rare breed”, Carr remarked on the task of “creating a brand and growing a business from zero to $100 million turnover that peaked at $800 million market capitalisation when it hit the ASX300,” as one that “takes a certain amount of zealous tenacity.” 

In her post, she thanked the “incredibly talented and passionate people” she worked with, describing them as co-workers who shared her vision to “grow happy, healthy families through clean nutrition.”

“I have always believed a positive people-first culture creates high-performance culture,” she explained. “Of course, I did not achieve this on my own.”

Carr’s post also confirms speculations her ousting last month came without warning. 

“To the amazing Bubs Family (past and present) who I was prohibited from saying goodbye to, I want to say a heartfelt thank-you,” she wrote. 

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“Through all the ups and downs, you found innovative solutions to combat the onslaught of challenges and demonstrated agility and gumption in finding new growth horizons.”

Carr, whose company won Australian Exporter of the Year just six months ago, also took the opportunity to offer advice to female entrepreneurs and C-suite leaders.

“You never need to apologise for your passion, emotion or undying grit to succeed,” she wrote. “They are your best qualities that will deliver your heartfelt mission. The corporate paradigm needs you! Dare to dream, disrupt and make positive change in the world and the workplace.”

“There will always be bullies who try to bring you down. Even if they win, they do not define who you are and cannot take away what you have achieved.”

Katrina Rathie has replaced Dennis Lin as executive chair of the company’s board, and remains the only woman on the board. In April, Carr expressed her admiration for Lin –her former colleague and mentor–describing him as the “smartest, most strategic person I’ve ever met,” and adding that she stood by him “100 per cent.” 

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Despite this vital rescue work, the organisation is facing a financial crisis and the unfortunate possibility of closure without immediate assistance.

Speaking with Women’s Agenda, the owner of Life of Pikelet, Calley Gibson says that despite their huge social media presence (their dedicated following is over 300,000) and extensive online supporters, they are a 2 person volunteer run rescue and receive no government funding. They rely solely on community funding. 

“Dog rescue, or animal rescue of any kind, is mostly a free service to the community run by people in the community that volunteer their time, energy, compassion, resources and more often than not, their personal finances to fund rescue, rehabilitation and rehoming,” says Gibson, adding that without this support, “small rescue organisations simply would no long be able to to endure and survive.”

“While I believe owning a pet is a privilege, a lot of humans believe it is a right,” says Gibson. “Yet we in Australia have no government funding provided at all to private rescue organisations who have the compassion to try and help reduce and change the epidemic of such high turnover and disposal of companion animals.”

Gibson’s motivation to found Life of Pikelet Rescue in the first place, stemmed from a desire to help the “under dog”. Whether that’s black dogs, deaf dogs, mutts or any other pup that others may deem undesirable, Gibson says those are the ones she loves most. 

“When I moved more into specialising on neonates with birth anomalies/defects, it was really because I had accidentally discovered that there were little to no rescuers, vets or even breeders out there in Australia that seemingly understood how to provide the care needed,” says Gibson. 

“And as a direct result of even professional vets not having the experience, euthanasia was (and in most places still is) considered to be the only and ‘kindest’ answer to the problem.”

Now a renowned rescue organisation, Life of Pikelets is one of only four rescues in Australia that specialises in this neonate care, and earlier this year, they were forced to suspend accepting new animals for several months as there was a lack of financial resources to keep up operational expenses.

“I honestly think people have donation fatigue when it comes to Life of Pikelet and possibly rescue in general,” says Gibson. “People are just struggling everywhere right now.”

As they navigate Australia’s challenging economic environment and soaring cost of living, Life of Pikelet’s goal is to have DGR charity status by the end of 2023 as this means all donations will be tax deductible, and they’ll be better able to reach out to businesses who look for that tax deduction when making philanthropic decisions. 

Gibson says they have a small team of rescue minded LoP adoptive families that are currently working with charity lawyers in Sydney to help get this DGR charity status.  

“Right now, we rely solely on the generosity of people who are not fussed with a tax deduction donation,” she says. “But that is just not sustainable and we have our limits when it comes to donation caps in each state of the country.” 

“Rescue across this country is on fire at the moment,” says Gibson. “There isn’t a single rescue out there that is not struggling. Most of us are considering shutting up shop, but if we do that, then who will save these precious animals in need?!”

“It’s just overwhelming and upsetting, and we all feel so helpless.”

Gibson’s pet rescue is currently in need of funding for new ICU equipment and a transport vehicle as they’re the only rescue covering locations in NSW, ACT Victoria and South Australia. If you’re interested in supporting Life of Pikelet, they have a Chuffed Fund page for donations.

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The launch of the SBE Advisory Collective follows last year’s inaugural research report from SBE and Deloitte which showed that only 3.7 per cent of private sector funding went to solely women-founded companies through 2017-2021. This number dropped even further in 2021-22 to 0.7 per cent. 

Deloitte researchers surveyed 155 individual businesses that were supported by three major female focused investor groups: SBE Australia, Heads over Heels, and Scale Investors. 

Based on survey data from past participants, Deloitte estimates that the 341 businesses facilitated over $1 billion of economic activity to the Australian economy and almost 5,000 equivalent full-time roles from 2021-22. These businesses were supported by SBE Australia, Heads over Heels, and Scale Investors over the past 10 years.

“What that research did was illuminate a gaping hole in support for funding women-led businesses in general,” said Nicole Cook, CEO of SBE Australia. “It was jarring. When we started the research project, we thought the percentage of funding going into the channel would be far greater.”

The research examined the question of why so many promising women-led businesses that exist aren’t getting funded and Cook said “a major finding was that while support for early-stage businesses through accelerator programs and grants is fairly strong, there is a cohort in the middle that just don’t have the critical support they need to get funded for commercialisation.”

“They are the group that sit between early and mature businesses, what we would call ‘scaleup’.”

Now in its 11th year, the alumni of SBE’s various programs represent more than 110 businesses classified as ‘scaleup’ and more than 250 startups (early-stage businesses). More than $2 billion in capital has been raised and 17 exits have been recorded as IPOs or trade sales and thousands of jobs have been created in Australia and offshore.

Following these success stories, SBE has designed the Advisory Collective to provide a boost to mid-stage businesses by giving specific advice on either increasing growth or preparing to exit. SBE says the group’s focus is on providing high growth scale-ups with the strategic support needed to achieve the business’s goals. 

“This is about providing the critical support that the ‘scaleup’ cohort needs to qualify for funding through our existing programs and now through advisory services delivered by our partners through the Advisory Collective,” said Cook. 

“We’ve learnt that the current ecosystem of support for women founders is disjointed and is not going to stimulate parity in entrepreneurship fast enough. By wrapping advice around the scaleup founders and CEOs, they can be better placed to achieve their business growth metrics and qualify for investment.”

“We hope that by doubling down on building a pipeline of investment-ready scaleup businesses, the quantum of funding allocations going to women-led businesses will get closer to parity.” 

While there are many businesses already known to SBE through their previous programs, Cook encourages other businesses at similar stages to come forward and seek support from their advisory services. 

“The natural candidates to access the advisory services will have completed one of our accelerators, but there are many other businesses out there not yet known to us that need this kind of support,” said Cook. “We also encourage those teams to get in touch, to become SBE members and get access to a group of services that can otherwise be very hard to access independently.”

Partners to SBE’s Advisory Collective include BDO, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Real Time Australia and other leading firms. 

There are around 100 service providers included in the advisory council as well, and Cook says SBE welcomes other specialists that can contribute expert services to members.

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Here, Nicole Eckels, founder of Glasshouse Fragrances, shares more on her journey to building such a beloved Australian brand name and her powerful approach to business.

Eckels is also featured in our eMagazine with snapshots of 50 impressive leaders building a more inclusive, sustainable and equal world.

As a true lover of fragrance, Nicole Eckels moved to Australia from the United States, and it didn’t take long before she wrote up a business plan for the quality candles she was struggling to find.

When she arrived in 2004, there was a gap in the Australian market for candles and many people told her the idea ‘wasn’t going to work’ or that they ‘didn’t understand’ what she was doing.

Even with all the naysayers, Eckels says “it was belief that drove me” and she had enough evidence from her home market in the US to know they were wrong.

“I was the girl that was obsessed with trying new products, whether it be in perfume or fragrant candles or whatever formats– I couldn’t live without fragrance,” says Eckels.

“I really believe that your sense of smell is the most powerful one of all.”

Since founding Glasshouse in 2005 with her business partner, it has truly become a household Australian brand.

From the outset, Eckels was on a mission to build a global fragrance brand and wanted people to know the name of the product but admits that she “didn’t think it would be as prolific as it has become”.

For Eckels, who is now based half of the time in New York, she always took the success of her business seriously. In the early days, she didn’t wait for demand, but rather, just sent her products to retailers and told them to put her candles on the shelves.

“I selected stores to send our product to free of charge, in order to quickly get distribution across Sydney”, says Eckels. “The retailers had never heard of us, and I didn’t ask them to pay, our product simply turned up at their doorstep with a note to display the product- if it sells, well then you can pay for it sort of thing.”

“There were a few retailers who were quite annoyed because the product arrived 2 weeks before Christmas which is a very tricky time to manage inventory in their shop, however, the vast majority were thrilled.”

Even now that Glasshouse is a global fragrance brand, Eckels and her team continue to strive to be a leading brand, providing products that people love.

“I’m still at the helm and we don’t accept mediocrity,” says Eckels. “We are pushing all the time because we don’t take [our customers’ excitement] for granted.

Cultivating an engaged team is a huge focus for Eckels as she wants to surround herself with passionate people.

“Basically, I’m an entrepreneur,” she says. “I didn’t go to Harvard Business School. I don’t have a rule book. I didn’t have all these things, but I had worked for several companies, and what matters the most to me is that my people feel motivated, engaged and happy.”

For Eckels, her purpose comes down to ensuring her employees love being at work, and says that when it comes to leading in a large business, she starts with the people and the culture.

“I always think to myself, we are supporting hundreds of people and families. That’s actually what we do here, and if they’re happy and productive, they’re giving back to their communities, to our economy,” Eckels says, adding that every one of Glasshouse’s products are made here in Australia and that’s not going to change.

“There’s plenty of reasons to go elsewhere. Financial reasons, but that’s not what we’re about.”

The tenacity Eckels has put into building the powerhouse company that is Glasshouse Fragrances also translates into the advice she’d give to other women looking to get a start as an entrepreneur, or in business.

“Fake it ‘till you make it,” is what she’d say to anyone sitting in a boardroom, feeling unsure of themselves.

Her no-nonsense approach is that, “Insecurity or lack of confidence is the thing you need to forget you have.”

“It has to be your dirty little secret that you just do not tell anyone and you need to own and act like it doesn’t exist because business is tough.”

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Depressive not just because it writes of the failure of startups to raise capital, but more so because it ignores the specific challenges faced by many founders in the Australian environment.

Although the article doesn’t cite anything other than anecdotal evidence, it does do one thing really well. It highlights the incredible challenges female founders face in the capital environment by its very structure.

Capital raising is a hard slog, and it should be. This summary of the why though ignores some of the most significant factors that create barriers to right-fit investment. And it’s not just that founders aren’t good storytellers, and it’s not just that founders *confuse* the definition of small business versus start-up.

The reality in the funding environment is there are systemic barriers to start-up funding for women, and articles like this perpetuate those barriers and support the status quo.

Capital for women remains elusive. The experts cited in this article are all men. For me, it’s that in one single photo, the challenges facing female founder is illustrated.

The article names Tractor Ventures Co-Founder Matt Allen, and shares a picture of him, but doesn’t acknowledge in the same photo stand his key co-founders. Aprill Allen and Jodie Imam are not even identified in the photo, let alone cited in the article as experts in capital raising.

One of the most significant barriers to growing and starting businesses is access to finance. Women’s business starting capital (internationally) is 50% lower than men’s. It’s not just an Australian issue – for every pound of VC in the UK, only one pence goes to female-founded business.

The disproportionately adverse impact on women’s careers throughout the pandemic is well documented and will be felt for decades, and this extends to capital raising as well.  Since the pandemic there has not been a decrease in overall VC funding, however, since 2019, there has been a substantial drop in venture capital funding for women-led startups.

When seeking capital or to funds raise, female-founded enterprises suffer from “pattern matching habits”, where VCs fund what they usually/normally have and are risk-averse to funding “others”. What they “normally” see are not women and not mothers.

It’s one thing to be “re-educated by the market” but rather than accept this is the way things are, and startups just are not good enough for funding, why aren’t we changing the conversation about what the Australian market needs to start doing to make the market better for our economy as a whole?  

We need to be having constructive conversations about how VC can look, how we can educate early about capital and access, and how we can celebrate success and learn from other countries getting it right. 

Currently, only about 12% of decision-makers at VC firms are women, so substantially more women would need to enter this field to bring about change in traditional VC funding avenues. How do we increase the number of women who are in charge of the capital? Well, a good first start would be acknowledging the women already working in the space. A good first step is naming them in a photo, and seeking their input in any commentary about the investing environment. 

We need to be highlighting ways and examples to change the experiences and trajectory of funding for female founders and entrepreneurs. 

We need to change the tone of the conversation about capital raising for female founders. And importantly we should be advancing the normalisation of female VCs and the funding female founders.

This is an edited version of an article first published by SmartCompany.

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And there’s a good reason for it; in Australia, it is estimated around 60% of all businesses fail within their first three years.

The best founders acknowledge their fear and do the hard thing anyway, but there are many who struggle to push through. Pervasive self doubt leads to questioning every decision. Perfectionism leads to paralysis. A founder’s inability to have a hard conversation stops businesses from moving forward. While fear of failure is commonly spoken about in the startup space — and acting in the face of it is celebrated — what’s not spoken about enough is many founders’ deep-rooted fear of success. 

Over the past five-and-a-half years mentoring founders through my business lady brains, I’ve met many who harbour a fear of success that’s masked as something else. After peeling back the layers, what appears to be impostor syndrome, a lack of confidence or indeed a fear of failure, is actually a fear of centred around realising their dreams.

What’s interesting is that most of the time the founder has no clue about the root of their fear and how it’s driving their action or inaction. But without awareness of the true cause, lasting change can’t be made.

In my experience mentoring founders, here are the most common reasons they’re scared of succeeding that subconsciously hold them back. 

The fear of what success will cost

Those with a fear of success often focus on the opportunity cost of their achievement. Unlike people who are terrified of failing and losing it all (their life savings, status or respect), if you’re scared of succeeding you might be fixated on what you’ll lose if, in fact, you make it. You may freak out about losing friendships without enough time to invest in them, or losing your freedom if the growing business requires your unrelenting attention, or you might be scared to lose yourself in the process. 

The fear of higher stakes

Often people who experience success are faced with higher stakes. Expectations are greater, problems are bigger, decisions are more complex and responsibilities increase. You may have investors you’re accountable to, employees to look after, and more customers who are counting on you to deliver. This responsibility can be a heavy burden to carry and it’s not uncommon for founders to subconsciously play smaller to avoid facing these bigger responsibilities. 

The fear of judgement and criticism

It’s well known that when founders share their origin story and the ups and downs of the journey, people are more likely to buy into their brand. But despite the clear connection between putting yourself out there and increased customer engagement (especially for consumer brands), founders with a fear of success are hesitant to do so. In their eyes, the more public facing and successful they are, the greater the chance of being served up for judgement and criticism. 

The fear of being exposed as a fraud

The more successful you are the brighter the lights that shine on you. For founders who don’t feel like they’re worthy or competent or capable (despite clear evidence to the contrary), they self sabotage to move away from the spotlight.

The fear of having to let go of control

A common barrier for founders transitioning from a startup to a growth-stage business is the inability to let go and empower others to run the day-to-day. After all, if your business is your baby, why would you want someone else to raise it? With this inability to surrender control, many founders feel like growth will unsustainably increase their workload and require more than they’re able to give. I’ve seen founders who are unable to delegate say no to awesome opportunities because they’re terrified of the work once they succeed. 

There are lots of ways the fear of success disguises itself as something else. The next time you feel fear or resistance, take a moment to unpack where it’s really coming from. What invisible stories are you telling yourself in this moment? What subconscious thought processes are whirring in the background, influencing your behaviour and acting as the shadow CEO? When you become truly aware of what’s happening beneath the surface, you’ll be better equipped to make your way through.

This article was first published by SmartCompany.

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