After a bootcamp and input from the public through an open voting process, the 10 women-led startups taking part in the first SheStarts accelerator program have been revealed.
With the six month program set to kick off in January next year, each startup will receive $100,000 in pre-seed funding in exchange for 15 percent equity.
In addition to funding, the women will be mentored by the likes of Elaine Stead of Blue Sky Ventures, AngelHack founder and CEO Sabeen Ali, and Jennifer Westacott, chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, and will be given discounted access to in-house product managers, developers, and designers to take them from idea to launch.
The participants will also travel to Silicon Valley at the end of the program to learn about the investment landscape in the US, with their every move throughout the program to be chronicled for an online documentary series.
The startups selected are:
VetChat, Claire Jenkins – a telehealth service for pets
Refni, Xiao Han Drummond – a discovery engine that lets you see the world as someone else to diversify your thinking
AudiBle, Anna Wright – technology looking to change the way public spaces can be navigated and information accessed by visually impaired people
Honey, Georgina Bird – harnessing the power of community to help women achieve their financial goals
Longevity, Carla Harris – micro-savings app which links a user’s everyday transaction accounts to their superannuation account so that every time they pend, a small percentage goes into super
Brontech, Emma Poposka Kardaleva – through its platform My Bron, Brontech is translating the value of our data to actual digital currency that people can spend to purchase products and service
MediText, Krupa Bhagani, Kruti Balakrishnan, Vikram Balakrishnan – a real-time messaging and integration-friendly platform for team collaboration in the medical sector
Habot, Alex Armitage – aiming to improve the quality of life of children on the autism spectrum and their families by leveraging wearable technology to enhance their ability to complete routines on time and organise themselves independently
Shark Share Global, Lauren Meyer and Madeline Green – a database functioning as a virtual tissue bank, allowing researchers from around the world to lodge available samples into a simple, searchable toolbox
FarmPay, Naomi Klein – allowing farmers to receive real-time payment for on-farm grain sales, reducing the risk while also improving cashflow
Image: the SheStarts cohort. Source: SheStarts.
