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.

The post Meet the 34 grant recipients sharing in the $11.6 million Boosting Female Founders Initiative appeared first on Women's Agenda.

Since 2020, the proportion of funding allocated to these enterprises has plummeted to just 3%. Despite women founding 22% of startups, a meagre 0.7% of the total funding in FY22 was channelled to companies solely established by women. This imbalance not only reflects an ingrained bias but also signifies a missed economic opportunity. Achieving gender equality in business could add a staggering $2.88 trillion to the global economy. Investing in women is not about charity; it’s about smart business.

The exclusion of women from the startup world extends beyond the opaque deal-making in rooms they are seldom invited to. It is also baked into the way they are expected to present their businesses, when raising capital. There are some gains being made, such as a growing number of VCs waking up to investing in women. Other steps toward progress include the recent bill signed into US law, which requires VC firms to disclose the gender and race of the founders they back and include disability status and sexual orientation; an initiative driven by women-focused fund, F5 Collective. However, there are other scripts that need to be flipped in order to bridge the gender gap in entrepreneurship.

Traditional pitching needs to change

The evolution of the pitch deck in the startup world exemplifies a shift from substance to style, a trend that’s become increasingly concerning. Historically, pitch decks were straightforward presentations, highlighting key business points. However, they’ve transformed into overly designed, complex slide shows where aesthetics often eclipse the essence. As the Head of Community at One Roof, a platform supporting over 1,500 founders, I’ve observed this shift firsthand. Founders are spending too much time crafting visually appealing decks when they should be redirecting that energy into validating propositions, testing prototypes and speaking with customers. It’s much easier to hide behind a screen refining a slide than it is to get outside the building

This trend towards style over substance is more than just a distraction; it’s a fundamental misdirection. Founders are now pressured to compress their entire business model into a limited slide count, presented within a strict timeframe. The emphasis on brevity and visual appeal in these presentations often overshadows the actual business potential. This format not only prioritises those with graphic design skills and public speaking prowess but also inadvertently excludes a diverse range of entrepreneurs, especially those who may not fit the conventional mould due to their appearance, accent, or presentation style.

Furthermore, the reality of pitch competitions starkly contrasts with their televised counterparts like “Shark Tank.” In reality, securing funding in such settings is rare, with the format leaning more towards entertainment than actual investment. This approach hasn’t seen significant change in over a decade, signalling a dire need for a revamp. The current system, in its rigidness and superficiality, excludes more than it includes, failing to capture the full spectrum of entrepreneurial talent and innovation.

A move towards the Anti-Pitch

Having hosted Australia’s largest women-focused pitch events for the last five years, we are rethinking traditional pitch events, in order to foster a more inclusive and impactful startup ecosystem. We’re no less passionate about elevating women and showcasing women-led startups and rather than boycotting pitches entirely, we’re proposing a new, ‘anti-pitch’ format, prioritising the core of what startups are about: addressing and solving significant global challenges.

The anti-pitch format eschews the conventional approach of timed presentations, rushed speeches, and superficial pitch decks. Instead, it involves fireside chats and sit-down conversations between founders and judges, creating a space for genuine dialogue. These discussions will delve into topics like the founder’s personal connection to the problem, their proposed solutions, learnings, wins, and visions for the future.

We’re also reimagining the judging process. Moving away from private deliberations, judges wsill share their thought processes on stage, providing transparency and insight into the decision-making process. This shift aims to demystify the evaluation process and foster a more open and educational experience for both participants and the audience.

This year’s finalists include Vivian Shen, Cofounder of Toastie, a digital health app that serves as a one-stop shop for all your medical needs, Jeannie-Marie, the Founder of Brenna, an innovative communication app designed specifically for residential aged care and Suzie Betts, Founder of Boob Armour, who was also recognised as the 2023 Emerging Entrepreneur at the Women’s Agenda Awards.

This new format is designed to create a less intimidating and more inclusive environment for diverse founders. It’s about moving away from a focus on entertainment and towards a genuine reflection of the real-world challenges and solutions that startups offer. For those interested in experiencing Australia’s first anti-pitch, One Roof is excited to host the inaugural Startup Women of the Year Competition next week, affectionately known as The Ultimate Anti-Pitch. 200 applications have been received so far, indicating the new format is resonating deeply with women. The competition is supported by VC funds focusing on women, impact and diversity including F5 Collective, who are contributing $10,000 cash to the main prized valued at over $50,000, as well as Giant Leap, Scale Investors, Artesian, which has launched its $100 million Female Leaders VC Fund among others.

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A successful female start-up founder is the living embodiment of the triumph of hope over adversity. But I was well into my start-up founder journey before I truly understand what that meant.

Don’t get me wrong, as a mature-aged, female, woman of colour tech start-up founder – I knew the odds were stacked against me from the get-go, but I had hoped it would be fair if not easy.

And did I say I am leading a tech-start up in political data? Something no one else has done before? Nor is there even some understanding of what the potential market sizing even amongst niche investors?

Yup that is me and I am a glutton for punishment. Guilty as charged.

I also knew what it would be to face rejection after rejection. As a published author, I knew to expect a wall of naysayers, but I didn’t expect the veritable comedy to shyster investors I would need to pitch to.

Investors who weren’t even interested in listening to me other than the fact that I filled their quota of listening to ‘women of colour’ box that needed to be ticked to meet their annual KPIs. One investor even recommended that I follow the Twitter account of this amazing Sri Lankan -Australian woman he’d heard of who tweeted about politics ..oh what was her name? Yes, something something..Dharmapala. Sri Lankan like you – do you know her?

Yes. I am her.

Been her, since the day I was born.

Tech start-up life is not for the faint hearted. More start-ups go under than any other investment sector in Australia, but I can tell you that investing in mature women-led start-ups is always a good idea and here is why:

1. Our start-up ideas are pre-vetted and have had the most rigorous due diligence you can ever have. Why? Because middle-aged women are the most self-critical cohort of humans on the planet. We workshop things and find a million reasons as to why something may not, would not, or could not succeed. So if our start-up ideas have got past our own self-criticism and product-market fit analysis – just wave it through
2. We are coachable. Women founders listen to more feedback and pivot more easily to market forces. We are the mothers/sisters/wives of tech dudebros – we know we don’t want to be them. We don’t even want them in our houses.
3. We will work and we work hard because we are working for something we believe in. Most of us don’t have a Plan B or Plan C. See point 1 – we ditched Plan A through our own due diligence
4. We don’t come through the front door. Look for us at the side stage or around the back in the kitchens. That is because we are where the work needs to be, not just talking the fluff
5. We are fun. Most middle-aged women start-up founders I know are a stack of fun. We have been through the wringer a few times and know that if you don’t smile, the other option is tears and we’d much rather not cry.

So my message to you angel investors and VCs is this – go out there and find women to invest in. Older women with complex lives and searing passions. Women with drive. Women with real lived experience of what it is to work for what they want. Women who not only dream big but will work to get it.

Just. Invest. In. Women.

Oh – did I mention I am seeking investment for polipedia.com.au?  – You can find me on LinkedIn.

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The now-annual a16z Marketplace 100 is based on data from analytics company Bloomberg Second Measure, which analyses billions of purchases to track real-time consumer behaviour.

Envato chief executive Hichame Assi said making the list — and the top half at that — “solidifies our reputation as a leading independent brand supporting creativity around the world”.

Founded in 2006 by husband and wife team Collis and Cyan Ta’eed, Envato runs several marketplaces for web designers. As of November 2020, over 81,000 creatives had made more than a combined US$1 billion through the platform.

In the 2019-20 financial year, Envato made operating profits of about $18.75 million, 20% of which was distributed back to its 600 staff members. That equated to a $6,250 boost per employee.

At the end of 2020, co-founder Collis Ta’eed step back chief executive after 14 years, handing over to Assi.

a16z Marketplace 100

Making international lists like this one positions Envato for international success in the future, Assi said in a statement.

“We’re not comfortable with just being an Australian success story.”

The number-one marketplace was named as grocery delivery platform Instacart, which accounts for just over 70% of the total gross market value of the entire list.

That was followed by games development platform Valve in second place and — perhaps surprisingly — home rental marketplace Vacasa in third.

A sneaker sales marketplace and pet sitting marketplace took the fourth and fifth spots, respectively.

In the report, authors D’Arcy Coolican and Brandon Barros noted that 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic was “a gut-punch” for many businesses in the marketplace category. Ticketing marketplaces for events along with childcare marketplaces, for example, saw a significant downturn.

“However, many marketplaces proved to be extraordinarily resilient — a testament to the flexibility of the model,” the authors wrote.

This was evident in marketplaces that allowed people who were laid off during the pandemic to monetise their skills, and that allowed for food deliveries, online learning and second-hand retail therapy.

Some 25 of the businesses are new entrants on the list. Five of those operate in the food, beverage and groceries categories, while others span, travel, fashion, shopping and even cannabis.

Envato was also one of only 12 companies featured that are headquartered outside of the US, and the only representative of the Asia-Pacific region.

Four businesses are headquartered in Canada and two are UK-based, while France, Brazil, Israel, Austria and Lithuania each had one company in the ranking.

This article was first published by SmartCompany.

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In fact, my parents explicitly asked me not to. After all, they ran a small business themselves. Growing up, I had seen the relentless effort that it required. With the full burden of the business resting on their shoulders, my parents often worked seven days a week and rarely took holidays.

Refugees fleeing the Vietnam war and communist rule in the 1970s, mum and dad were eventually granted asylum in Australia and they began their new lives with next to nothing. To make ends meet, they worked various jobs – mum as a teacher’s aide by day and a waitress by night while dad worked in a car parts factory, at a glass cutting manufacturer as well as trying his hand as a locksmith and painter.

But they aspired to a better life in Australia and they believed that by working for themselves, they might be able to achieve it. They wanted to get ahead and when I asked them why they wanted to run their own business, they said that if they didn’t want to work hard, laborious jobs that paid little money, they had to strike out on their own.

One day, they met a man who owned a children’s clothing shop in Sydney’s southwest. The man seemed to be doing well. He lived in a large house with a pool and so mum and dad figured that this must be a good business to be in. With the little savings they had from working odd jobs, they rented a small shop opposite the train station in Bankstown and, despite having no experience in fashion or children’s clothing, in 1984, Little Swan Children’s Wear opened.

My parents had to learn everything on the go, including sourcing suppliers, merchandising and even learning to make clothes from scratch when they could not find the stock they wanted.

They did well and eventually opened a new shop where I remember spending much of my time growing up, doing homework out the back and even spending Christmases there some years when we stayed open until midnight to meet demand. When I was old enough, I helped on the shop floor doing stock take, sales and security.

Mum would tell me to keep an eye out for the customers she suspected were fond of five fingered discounts. I do think back and wonder what people thought of this tiny Asian girl following them around the store. While my parents mostly hid their stress from me and my sister, they encouraged us not to follow in their footsteps. Instead they wanted us to seek the financial security and prestige of climbing the corporate ladder.

So I did what was expected.

I worked hard at school and university and was thrilled when I landed a graduate job at multinational corporation KPMG, eventually becoming an Associate Director.  It was during my 15 years at the company, that I met and worked as a project manager with Andrew May, who had sold his business to KPMG and was working as a Partner heading up KPMG Performance Clinic.

When Andrew left to launch his own company, we kept in touch. I was excited by the work Andrew was doing with companies to change people, to change the approach to optimising physical and psychological performance and to change culture, but I felt uneasy about leaving the “safety net” of a large organisation. And there was the niggle of my parents’ hopes.

After umming and ahing over it, I decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up, but when I finally did make the leap in 2019, it was a shock to the system. It took me about six months to adjust to a very different way of operating. I went from having a quite defined role to wearing many different hats. I also had to learn an entrepreneurial mindset.

I quickly realised controlling my time as much as I could (and not always reacting to others), managing my energy and deciding where to focus my attention was the key to success in small business. It’s also the ability to think on your feet and make decisions and I think the biggest one for me was to be OK with failing but to fail fast, learn quickly and adapt.

I didn’t appreciate how hard it is to run a small business. Having to just figure everything out from scratch, the tenacity, the persistence and not being willing to take no for an answer – it’s a whole new level of respect that I have for my parents and for all small business owners.

As a result of my own experiences and seeing my parents’ experiences, I believe small businesses need more support. They need tools and strategies to support their physical health, promote resilience, mental health and wellbeing as well as offering resources to take care of business.

When you’re in a small business, people feel guilty for looking after themselves because they feel like if they’re not contributing to their business and growing their business then they’re losing money or not being there to take on the next opportunity.

This was why Andrew and I were so keen to develop a program that provides important resources to SMEs and as a reminder to take care of yourself first so that you can take care of your business and the people who are important to you.

I’m hoping this will give business owners permission to look after their physical and mental wellbeing, and in turn, improve their relationships, their wellbeing and ultimately their business because they have more energy and capacity to grow.

StriveStronger has partnered with NAB to provide a complimentary digital program and Business Fit Podcast to support SMEs and their staff be more resilient, transition to new ways of working and sustain physical and psychological wellbeing. Sign up at NAB Business Fit

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The Australian economy (alone) could grow by about $25 billion if we supported more women into the workforce and empowered them to achieve their full economic potential. Minister for Women, Hon Marise Payne, in the 2020 Women’s Economic Security Statement said, “When women’s individual economic security improves, their participation in work and leadership has flow-on benefits for business, industry, and whole economies.”

Barriers to female founders and female leaders are well documented and systemic. The Wade Institute of Entrepreneurship found accelerators and incubators improve the chances of startups receiving funding to scale and increase the chances of survival. However, female founders are not well represented in these accelerators. One of Australia’s best-known accelerators, Startmate, revealed their Melbourne 2017 intake had 15 startups, but only one with a female co-founder.

Furthermore, research in the US and UK points to findings that female-led or co-founded startups have lower failure rates, produce more capital-efficient companies and achieve venture-level returns. However, the Wade Institute revealed that of Venture Capital early stage funding of companies in Australia around 29.4% have at least one female founder, compared to 70.6% of male-only founders.

While a number of programs have been introduced in recent years to encourage and support our female entrepreneurs, such as Advance Queensland’s Female Founders program, and Commonwealth Government’s Boosting Female Founders Initiative, more is needed.

Activity reports highlight that women are participating in entrepreneurship training programs, but when it comes to accelerating their startup to founding a business attracting money (and gaining traction) they are not converting like their male counterparts.

Australian universities could play an important role in changing the narrative, addressing clichés and increasing the number of female founders, leaders and female run startups to improve economic opportunities.

A joint report between Universities Australia and Startup Muster on Universities and the startup economy finds that more than four in five Australian startup founders are university graduates. They concluded that almost one in five benefited from an acceleration or incubation program; and, with female founders more likely to have a university qualification (89%), and postgrad degree than male founders, university-based accelerators and incubators are perfectly positioned to change the startup economy for female founders.

How is one university making a difference?

At The University of Queensland (UQ), increasing the number of female students involved in entrepreneurship programs has been a key aspect of its broader strategy. In 2018, UQ introduced LeadHers, a leadership and confidence building program. LeadHers has grown from an initial cohort of 140 in 2018 to more than 360 participating in 2020. It is clear that there is demand from female students to gain skills and networks to support them to build their entrepreneurial mindsets.  

In 2020, UQ has achieved parity in a number of its entrepreneurship programs, including Idea Hub Unlimited, where students test their early-stage ideas for startups, which has 50% female participation; and, 59% for Social Enterprise Explorer, where students learn key social entrepreneurship tools and methodologies.

Yet while many of the introductory and intermediate programs have seen increased numbers of female participants, when it comes to the University’s accelerator program, the numbers are not as positive. Over the past three to five years, the ilab Accelerator program attracted only 11% of female founders. Why?

Confidence is potentially one of the reasons. While scholars have debated the extent to which increased confidence actually enhances career prospects, anecdotally the women involved in UQ’s programs say that lacking confidence is a challenge when taking the leap with their ideas.   

The first female Chief Student Entrepreneur at UQ, Rachael Dagge, notices that young women do not engage as much as their male peers, because they always underestimate themselves.

“When I interned at a startup in San Francisco every time we went to an event, the men put their hands up so confidently and asked questions, but all the women thought that because they didn’t have absolute expert knowledge in the space they couldn’t ask or they were embarrassed to ask,” said Rachael.

Another reason could be the lack of visible role models.

Expanding programs and achieving 50-50 balances are important, but seeing and hearing examples of others who have walked the path ahead are critical. Significant effort has gone into improving ratios of guest speakers and mentors at UQ, which are around 30% female (the target is 50% by 2022).

Raising the profile of female founders and successful female entrepreneurs is one way to show women ‘this is possible!’

There are young female Unicorns in Australia leading the way, like Melanie Perkins, Founder of Canva, an online graphic design company worth almost $4 billion. Or successful tech startup Envato, a digital assets and services company, that can generate real money – without external investors. Co-founder Cyan Ta-eed was named one of nine women on the 2019 Young Rich List (104 Australians in total). AFR estimates her wealth at $799 million. But we need more examples.  

The Courier Mail recently profiled ‘Queensland’s 10 most successful start-ups’ and not one female founder was among them, which is a surprise given Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur is tech founder Leanne Kemp; who was named one of the top 20 most influential female founders of 2020.

Why is it so important to show women making it as entrepreneurs?

Not all startups are run by male engineers.

Afghanistan born, Melbourne-based Samira Tollo an electrical engineering graduate who started her own Fintech startup, Elbaite, at 23, has secured investor capital at a valuation of $3.6 million. She used connections like LeadHers to get guidance on how to run her startup.

“Having an entrepreneurship community at UQ normalised the career choice I really wanted to make,” said Samira.

“Especially doing engineering, my peers just wanted a well-paid job.”

Samira is one of only 14% of females represented in the fintech space.

While at UQ, Samira received awards to help her step into entrepreneurship, such as the Australian Government New Colombo Plan scholarship to intern at a startup in Singapore; and, a Queensland Government Supporting Women Scholarship for women studying in male dominated fields.

Plus there is mentorship, funding, and access to opportunities

CEO and Founder at ParentTV, Sam Jockel, joined UQ Ventures as the first female Entrepreneur in Residence.  

“I would advice any young woman wanting to pursue their own startup to do everything they can to quiet the voice inside them that says they are not enough,” said Sam.  

“Last month, I got a revenue deal (not investment) over the line! This solo female founder and mum of three from Redcliffe signed up a billion-dollar company on a three-year contract using our product across their network of 500 childcare centres.”

Australian universities have many of the key ingredients for supporting a richer, more inclusive national innovation and entrepreneurship eco-system. They are built on cultures of discovery; bring the brightest minds from around the world together; and, provide a safe environment for challenging assumptions, testing new ideas and accessing multidisciplinary perspectives.

Changing the dial requires all components of the eco-system to work together – innovative government programs and policies, support from industry and a vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship culture for our universities.  

There is no better time to mobilise our female founders and leaders to rebuild our economy, create new jobs and make a positive impact on our global community.

UQ Ventures will celebrate Women’s Entrepreneurship Day on 19 November. This event is open to the public and free to attend.

Dr Jessica Gallagher is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Global Engagement and Entrepreneurship, at The University of Queensland.  Josepha Dietrich is the Intelligence and Engagement Coordinator at The University of Queensland.

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Piloted for 2020, the Boosting Female Founders Initiative — or BFF Initiative — offers grants of between $25,000 and $480,000 to help women entrepreneurs expand their business.

Grants are pegged for specific projects, and will cover 50% of project costs. Founders match the funding through private investment or industry partners.

The idea is to help stimulate women’s participation in business, encourage investment in women-led businesses, and improve access to capital for women. That’s intended to increase the number of startups headed up by women.

Initially, the scheme had $18 million in grants to play with, equally split over three years.

This year’s budget pledged a further $35.9 million over five years, starting in the 2020-21 financial year. So far so good.

But, once you dig into the details, the BFF Initiative has strict eligibility requirements that have the potential to exclude a lot of businesses we would typically consider to be ‘women-led’.

The scheme requires a startup to be “majority owned and led by women”, defining this as at least 50% owned by women.

Further, 50% of the founding team or senior managers — think C-suite — must be women.

That means a woman running a business with a male co-founder and a 50/50 ownership split would be eligible.

But, as soon as that startup raises even a small amount of capital from a male investor, and hands over any amount of equity, it loses eligibility.

It is no secret, after all, that the majority of early-stage angel investors in Australia are male, and most of the VC firms are owned and run, for the most part, by men.

There are, of course, women-led angel groups such as Scale Investors, women-focused accelerators such as Atto, and investment and empowerment groups such as SheEO.

And many VCs are focusing on addressing the issue — AirTree, for example, has launched its Explorer program, in a bid to diversify the pool of angel investors in Australia.

All of this is important work. But, we’re nowhere near gender parity in investment yet.

Most of the cash coming into Aussie startups is from the pockets of men.

Somehow, that has become a barrier to women-led startups accessing grants specifically designed to help them.

A hindrance, not a help

Earlier this year, Skye Theodorou, co-founder and chief of insurtech startup UpCover launched a petition, calling on Minister for Industry, Innovation, and Science and Minister Karen Andrews to reconsider the BFF Initiative criteria.

“The eligibility terms set hinder the very progress that the initiative pledges to make,” Theodorou wrote in the petition.

UpCover came through Antler’s inaugural start generator program last year. But, Theodorou had already been working on the business beforehand.

Through Antler, she met her now co-founder Anish Sinha, and secured her first $100,000 in investment, as she progressed to the second phase of the program.

Those two events were marks of success for UpCover, Theodorou tells SmartCompany. But now, they’ve made the business ineligible for the BFF grants package.

“A year ago, I needed a co-founder — that was my first big thing — and then I needed to raise some money,” Theodorou recalls.

“For those two things to make you ineligible, it’s actually almost like the grant is discriminatory,” she suggests.

“How does that make me any less of a female founder, because now I have 45% of my company?”

Theodorou feels the strict criteria undermines the very principle of the thing.

The point was to support early-stage startups, including those that already have investment and are gearing up for growth and scale, she suggests.

“Going from those origin principles to the final concept, it’s really confusing to me,” she says.

“At any stage in your business, to have more than 50% is really rare. And if you do, that might be indicating that you’re very early on in your journey,” she adds.

“The thing you should be celebrating, actually, is the fact you’ve got co-founders, and that you’ve raised investment. Those are the kind of businesses you probably should be doubling down on.”

Cortina McCurry, co-founder and chief of women’s health startup Caia is in a very similar position. McCurry also has an equal ownership split with her co-founder Rob Haggett, and secured funding through the very same Antler program.

“If the goal is to boost female founders, what they’re saying is it has to be an all-female team really,” McCurry says.

While she acknowledges that businesses with all-women founding teams do need support, she doesn’t feel the eligibility goes far enough.

“There are a bunch of other women out there who might have been a single founder and then raised funds and reduced their majority share, or they have a male co-founder,” she says.

“If we really want to support female businesses, how do we take a hard look at what it’s going to take?”

Fuel for 500 founders?

A spokesperson from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources told SmartCompany the government is “committed to giving female-led businesses the best opportunity to succeed”.

“[The department] consulted widely on the design of this Initiative and heard that women entrepreneurs face a number of challenges in establishing and growing their startup businesses, including accessing capital and funding, and accessing support networks,” they added.

The first round of the program attracted more than 2,200 applications, the spokesperson said.

The department did not share how many businesses would progress to the second round of the application process, only that those applications are currently being reviewed by an independent all-women committee, and will be announced “in due course”.

However, the spokesperson also suggested the BFF Initiative has enough funding to support “more than 500” women-led businesses over the next five years.

It will also provide “up to 4,300 mentoring engagements”, they said.

In part two tomorrow, we get into the numbers, and try to figure out just how many women-led startups are excluded from the BFF Initiative, as well as how Theodorou has found a loophole.

We’ll also unpack exactly why this tight eligibility is so problematic, consider some of the broader implications, and chat with an all-women-led startup to see how such businesses fare.

Stay tuned.

This piece was first published by Smart Company.

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The top-up brings the Series D round to $306.5 million, and Airwallex’s total capital raised to more than $564 million. As of April, the Melbourne-born startup had a valuation of $2.85 billion.

It also sees first-time investment from Skip Capital, the fund headed up by Kim Jackson and her husband, Atlassian co-founder and co-chief Scott Farquhar.

Paul Bassat’s Square Peg also invested, along with other existing investors, which have not been disclosed.

Airwallex has been one of the tech companies on the up and up throughout the COVID-19 crisis.

In Q3 this year, the fintech has seen a 50% increase in its global customer base compared to Q2, and a 100% increase in net revenue.

During the first half of the year, the unicorn also hired some 140 new staff members. It’s still seeking to fill more than 100 open roles.

“A major shift in the way businesses operate from offline to online is something Airwallex predicted from our inception,” Airwallex co-founder and chief Jack Zhang said in a statement.

“However, 2020 has fast-tracked this transition in a way no one could have foreseen. Businesses are now racing to embrace digital transformation at an unprecedented rate.

“We are more certain than ever that the digital economy is going to be the centre of the world’s economic structure.”

Speaking to SmartCompany for a feature earlier this year, Airwallex co-founder Lucy Liu echoed this, suggesting that in a post-COVID-19 economy, fintech will ultimately play a part in every business.

She drew a comparison to the move from private servers to the cloud. Where once that was a novel development, now, everything is on the cloud, she said.

“Fintech is almost like the new cloud. It’s everywhere.”

Airwallex was built to enable a digital economy, Liu explained. It’s designed to help clients expand their markets without having to open multiple offices and bank accounts, and without having to deal with various barriers to entry.

Perhaps ironically, many businesses the startup is working with are using the lockdown period to expand into new markets.

When you can’t travel, the domestic market starts to look pretty small, she noted.

“It’s actually good timing for them to think about other markets and not be so busy with their current product or customer base.”

This latest funding boost will be used to expand Airwallex’s global footprint to the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa, as well as boosting its presence in the Asia Pacific region, the UK and Europe.

In early 2021, the business plans to make its move into the US.

In a statement, Skip Capital chief Kim Jackson notes that Airwallex’s product solves a “major pain-point for customers transacting cross-border”.

“There has been rapid adoption amongst businesses both in Australia as well as internationally,” she added.

“With strong domain expertise and deep investment into core financial infrastructure, Airwallex is very well positioned to take advantage of the large payments market and the recent accelerated move to online.”

This article first appeared on SmartCompany. See the original here.

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The Swag’s product range — which includes reusable teabags, dry cleaning bags, food wraps, lunch bags, grocery bags and beauty wipes — is designed to preserve the freshness of fruit and vegetables, and minimise food wastage.

Launched in 2016, the company has achieved a growth rate of about 30% year-on-year and — with customers now reluctant to go the shops amid the pandemic — the business has seen purchases increase by over 50% during the past few months.

Founder and managing director Peita Pini says while COVID-19 may affect the company’s wholesale market due to air freight costs, it won’t affect long-term plans to scale up the business.

“Sales have gone through the roof over the last few months … and less trips to the shops have definitely been a driver for those sales,” she says.

“Fruit and vegetables are key to bolstering the immune system, and people are filling their [Swag bags] with confidence that [their products] will last two weeks or more.”

After being featured in Oprah’s O Magazine last year, which also led to a significant jump in sales, The Swag has been setting the foundation for further expansion in the US and other international markets.

The business has also changed the portion of proceeds it is donating to not-for-profit Destiny Rescue — which exists to end child sexual exploitation and slavery — from 100% last financial year, to 5% this year.

“We have taken a more strategic approach,” Pini says.

“We need to be able to scale and that requires money [but] they can see how passionate we are about growing the business … which will lead to much larger donations.”

With about 100 stockists across the US and Canada and about 200 stockists across Australia, the company is currently running a marketing and sales drive in the US, and seeking a tenfold increase in growth over the next three to five years.

“We brought in great talent to join our team, reviewed our IT systems and have gone into a large research phase with UX … we have also moved to a bigger [third-party logistics provider] and were invited to go onto The View, but that was affected by COVID-19,” says Pini.

“After a year of stripping back … all of our systems and processes are in place which will enable us to expand.

“There are great things on the horizon once we get through some of the supply issues [to do with] COVID-19.”

“Like sealing flowers and selling them in plastic”

Growing up in a zero-waste home on a north-west Sydney acreage, Pini came up with The Swag after being blown away by the amount of fruit and vegetables she was throwing away.

Pini, who was working in media sales before starting the business, says she noticed condensation growing in the bags of produce in her fridge and realised the food items were trying to breathe.

“It’s like taking flowers and sealing them in plastic. You wouldn’t do that — you’d put [them] in a vase with water, and give [them] the ability to breathe and hydrate,” she says.

This realisation kick-started the process of testing, refining and developing different designs for a reusable bag, before Pini settling on three different layers of unbleached, unseeded cotton.

Pini launched the product on Facebook in 2016 with muted expectations.

“People were managing my excitement and saying that lots of people don’t get sales outside their friends and family during their first month but, by the time I got home, we had 50-60 orders from strangers,” she says.

“It showed me that many people were facing similar issues with food waste, which encouraged me to keep going.”

After selling over 60,000 Swag bags in 2018, Pini appeared on Channel Ten’s Shark Tank, which she says was more of a marketing exercise than an investment pitch.

After a heated debate with the judges over the $3 million valuation of the business, she took a $150,000 deal with the shark Glen Richards for 25% of the company.

But Pini says the deal didn’t go through.

“By the time we did our due diligence, our revenue had grown significantly and there was no use taking on that level of investment and giving away that amount of the company.

“Our valuation was accurate and [Shark Tank] didn’t put in some of the financial numbers, but that’s the drama they create around the show.

“It was a great experience, and a great marketing exercise for our product and our business.”

‘They realise the planet is sick’

Pini predicts the company’s COVID-19 sales boom will continue as consumer habits change, and Australians seek to minimise the five million tonnes of food that ends up in landfill each year.

She also says the natural product sector is booming in the US, as evidenced by the growth of Expo West — the world’s largest natural and organic products event — which has “quadrupled in size over the last two years”.

“People realise our planet is sick, we’re the ones making it sick, and we need to change our behaviour,” she says.

“Living waste- and plastic-free seems hard but, once you start doing it, it’s easier than you think.

“You feel good cooking with fruit and vegetables that are singing at you.”

This is an edited version of a story that first appeared on SmartCompany. It is republished here with permission.

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Two years ago, women entrepreneurs made up 25.4%  of the industry. Today, it’s dropped down to 22.3%.

Why are more women shying away from founding their own businesses?

For Sheryl Thai, it might be the absence of an online community of women in this industry. She says she’s been receiving continual requests for ‘coffee catch-ups’ for years from other women keen to learn how she had overcome her own business and personal challenges. Thai is an entrepreneur, cupcake aficionado, and founder of Cupcake Central; she turned her love of cupcakes into a business which she ran for ten years.

She’s also the CEO of the League of Extraordinary Women, a movement of female entrepreneurs in Australia launched in 2011 by four female entrepreneurs.

Its annual ‘Run the World’ conference will take place this Saturday in Melbourne’s ARIEL arena in South Wharf.

The League currently has over 200,000 women in their membership, and held over 400 events. It exists to connect and inspire women to bring out their extraordinary and curates events, workshops and conferences to provide the power of connection to foster real conversations.

This Saturday, Thai will launch a tech platform to give women the opportunity to ‘hire’ other women in 45 minute blocks, enabling an unlimited and affordable number of global connections between women, whether they be self-employed or climbing the corporate ladder.

The online platform will target women seeking to achieve their own sense of fulfilment and provide access to a range of  mentors offering varied expertise.

The experience and expertise will derive from various aspects in industry, including personal growth, branding, social impact, health and fitness, finances and entrepreneurship.

“As my business grew, so did the number of women reaching out to learn from me, which was problematic because, as much as I wanted to sit down with each and every one of them, I didn’t have the time and it became apparent that a face to face, one on one model just wasn’t sustainable,” she says.

“During my own journey, I experienced a desire to learn from other women who had skills and expertise I wanted to tap into but I didn’t have a genuine way to connect with them. This platform offers both parties a way to engage for mutual benefit.”

So far, the League has attracted thousands of women to their events. Thai believes it’s because women are hungry to connect with other women who they perceive as more successful than them, but often don’t have the confidence or channels to reach out to engage with them directly.

So which extraordinary women will be present at this conference? 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1pBRBeh1ND/

The co-founder of Lord of the Fries, Amanda Leigh Walker, will be one of the first mentors available to mentees on the platform. Lord of the Fries, a multi-million dollar vegan international fast-food franchise, opened its doors in 2004, and now has over 23 stories across Australia and New Zealand. Walker, who hails from Canada, graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor’s in sociology and women’s studies. 

“This type of unprecedented access to successful mentors is invaluable to any woman who is chasing a dream of her own and is likely to only expedite her learning and increase the likelihood of her success in the process,” she said.

The platform, which Thai has created in partnership with Austrade and Afterpay (an Australian financial technology company)  hopes the platform will encourage women to bridge gaps in their own skill sets, and increase their confidence in launching their own business.

CEO of Hunting for George, an award-winning e-commerce brand, Lucy Glade-Wright, will also be present at the conference this weekend.

She said, “I myself have a female mentor and it’s hard to put into words just how important her guidance and support has been throughout my business journey. There are so many talented women in business that want to pass on their knowledge and support the next wave of leaders, so this new platform is an important connector to help facilitate and nurture those relationships.”

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Fah answered questions posted via Twitter from the crowd and the first got straight to the point. 

“Why did your company decide to only focus on Indian women?”

Fah, who is also the managing director of Sydney-based international business advisors, CEO Strategic, the group that launched the project in June last year, clasped his hands together and smiled faintly before explaining. 

They decided to concentrate their efforts on Indian women for a few reasons. One was the fact that the #MeToo movement had became such a big phenomenon in India last year, in which Indian survivors of sexual assault began sharing long ignored or unreported instances of abuse.

Fah said he and his team saw an opportunity to mobilise the support women were receiving and they wanted to foster corporate goodwill between India and Australia. 

The session was part of the Future Asia Business Summit, which the City of Sydney hosted over two days. Its theme was “Sydney thriving in a smart Asian century”  and was aimed at building international connections between Sydney and Asian cities and attracting top talent from across the region. 

The Virangana Project was conceived by Shalini Chauhan, a human rights lawyer and women’s advocate from India, who recognised that support for female entrepreneurship remains low.

“The landscape is still extremely tough terrain for women,” Chauhan said in a statement released by CEO Strategic. “In addition to historical and cultural issues in India’s male-dominated start-up scene, women entrepreneurs remain underrepresented in the economy and still face biases from investors when all that should matter is the idea. Material issues, such as ‘Is it solid? Innovative? Scalable? Will it make revenue or change lives? can often be overlooked when they see a woman is involved.”

This project aims to identify and select groups that are founded by or significantly managed by women that have the potential to significantly benefit Indian society. 

CEO Strategic came on board and now works to raise investment capital directly from international investors. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpGCvtvHBrq/

In October last year, the project selected 12 Indian female entrepreneurs to fly to Sydney to participate in a special event at the annual Spark Festival, Australia’s largest gathering for startups, innovators and entrepreneurs.

Its Program Director, Maxine Sherrin heads a team dedicated to providing opportunities for individuals of diverse backgrounds to succeed in a career of entrepreneurship through events and other activities.

Shalini Chauhan, Co-founder of Virangana

During the festival, Virangana ran Australia’s first ever Bollywood themed pitch fest event, where the 12 entrepreneurs battled it out for their ideas to be championed. 

The program attracted Indian women from all industries, from high-end technology to social enterprise. Other ideas included an app to provide treatment options for chronic conditions based on stem cell technologies, a leisure travel app, a vegan clothing line and an automated wearable device for the detection and management of diseases. 

Tony McAuslan, the Communications Director for the project, believes Australia will benefit by laying the foundations for a stronger investment environment with India. 

“Investment in an Indian start-up goes a lot further than in an Australian one,” he said in an official statement. “It gives you access to an incredible pool of well-educated talent, and if your start-up kicks a goal in India, you have a consumer base greater than $1.2 billion and a well-off middle class ten times the size of the entire Australian population.”

Chauhan believes in the power of this collaborative project to build bi-lateral ties between Australia and India, but most importantly, provide a leg up for Indian women:

“This collaboration with Australian businesses will equip these  women with new skills and direction and give them the exposure they need. They play a central role in driving the Indian economy forward and The Virangana Project is now harnessing the power of technology to drive social change for women in India.”

Read more about how you can be involved in The Virangana Project here. 

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O’Brien will join from LGBTI health organisation ACON, and previously worked at not-for-profit YWCA NSW, as well as being involved in establishing not-for-profit startups.

Now, she plans to bring a sharp focus on social enterprise to Fishburners, she tells StartupSmart.

O’Brien is hoping to have an impact on the whole startup community, she says, “looking at the multiplier effect of that in society in general”.

There are more and more profit-for-purpose startups emerging, and “I would hope that would be something I could contribute to”.

O’Brien is also a passionate advocate for equality, diversity and inclusiveness, and “will definitely be bringing that lens to the role”, she says.

In startups, as in more areas, there is likely more to be done here, she adds.

“Certainly promoting and celebrating an inclusive startup culture is so critical to the richness and the value of our society more generally.”

Further, the new chief plans to work on making Fishburners as inclusive as possible, encouraging both diverse startup founders and social enterprise startups “to be part of the Fishburners community”, O’Brien says.

“I will be looking at internal policies and procedures around how we engage with diverse communities and how we’re promoting the Fishburners community to diverse communities as well,” she explains.

Being relatively fresh to startupland, O’Brien sees the sector as one that is growing fast, and thriving.

“It’s a very competitive space now,” she observes.

“A lot of infrastructure has been established to support the startup market.”

She also notes there’s an opportunity to continue to grow the space, and to support a “culture of entrepreneurialism in Australia”.

This is something “we haven’t been that great at doing here”, she adds, saying we can learn from other parts of the world who value innovation a little more.

“It’s so important to the economy and to our global competitiveness that I would really hope to be singing from the startup songbook,” she says.

“That will involve really continuing to support other entrepreneurs who have been successful, as well as government and our big corporates.”

Startups create new jobs, breed innovation, tech development, ideas and inspiration, she says, and there is a lot to be gained from supporting them.

“I would hope to be garnering that level of support and commitment to the sector,” she adds.

This piece first appeared on SmartCompany

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