The Accelerator for Enterprising Women is set to hold a series of free small-business festivals across the country, alongside a competition that seeks to uncover Australia’s next generation of women entrepreneurs.
The Accelerator for Enterprising Women’s Kickstarter Challenge will officially open on 26 March, open to all female entrepreneurs over the age of 18 with big ideas.
A panel of expert judges will select finalists in four categories:
- Health, wellbeing and the care economy.
- Climate change and sustainability.
- Community impact.
- FinTech or eCommerce.
A fifth finalist will be determined by public vote.
The winner of the Kickstarter Challenge will be awarded $30,000 in equity-free funding to develop her business idea. The other finalists will each receive $7500.
Meanwhile, those who are either interested in joining the competition or those looking to network and learn to help grow their small businesses are invited to attend the free Female Founder Festivals (Female Founder Festival host Caitlin Judd, co-founder of lady-brains, is pictured). The festivals, organised by the Accelerator for Enterprising Women, will be held in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hobart and Melbourne. They will be headlined by some of Australia’s most accomplished entrepreneurial women who will pass on their knowledge and insights to festival attendees.
In addition to the festivals, intensive AccelerateHER Workshops will be held to help attendees grow their ideas from a basic concept into something they can share with the world. The workshop program is delivered in partnership with the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA).
COSBOA chief executive officer Luke Achterstraat said that his organisation is keen to ensure that anyone who wants a future in entrepreneurship could create that career path.
“This competition will be a pivotal moment not just for the winner of the $30,000 in equity-free funding, but for a host of others who will find the courage, support and information they need to get their ideas off the ground too,” Achterstraat said. “Women in our community have so many transformational ideas we need to harvest for the good of society and our economy.”
The Accelerator for Enterprising Women’s spokesperson Miriam Rizvi said programs such as these were imperative as research continued to show how far women lag behind, with recent studies suggesting that only about one in three small businesses are run by women. There is also the latest State of Australian Startup Funding report by Cut Through Venture and Folklore Ventures which detailed the “severe imbalance in the distribution of funding” for women founders.
“We have chosen four entry categories ripe for some truly game-changing ideas and we’re excited to see what women across Australia come up with,” Rizvi said. “Initiatives such as this Kickstarter Challenge, and the Accelerator for Enterprising Women, uncover the depth of the talent out there and give women tangible paths forward to embrace their potential as successful business owners.”
