Queensland female founders are being recognised for their contribution to Australia’s innovation ecosystem with almost $1 million in support from the State Government.
Eleven successful recipients – including two universities – form part of round one of the Accelerating Female Founders Program.
This program is a pilot initiative focussed on funding business and supporting initiatives that foster a pipeline of innovative Queensland female founders.
“The Palaszczuk Government is backing female founders. Last year at the Women’s Investment Summit we announced $3 million over three years to support female founders and the Premier announced an additional $5 million as part of this year’s budget,” said Innovation Minister, Stirling Hinchliffe.
“The program is part of our commitment to increasing the number of women participating in the state’s innovation economy and supporting those already on their journey to reach the next stage of their business success.
“Female entrepreneurs represent the fastest growing category of entrepreneurship worldwide, creating good jobs and driving economic prosperity.”
The 11 organisations will provide a host of practical business development and technical skills programs for almost 500 female founders and leaders of innovation-driven enterprises.
There are opportunities for female founders from across the state and at different stages of the entrepreneurial lifecycle to access these programs to help them nurture, develop, grow and expand their businesses, the Minister said.
Five of the 11 applicants are based regionally, including Rockhampton, Cairns, Toowoomba and Sunshine Coast.
“This program is vital to engaging with female founders across the state, helping them grow their confidence and capacity to really deliver on what their business opportunities are,” said Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, Julia Spicer.
“Female founders will be able to access support and expertise around some of the key barriers that they might have in their business at the moment. Whether it’s mentoring, access to investors or a roadmap around the strategy of their business.
“We know only 22% of founders across Queensland are female and we want to see that increase, so more women share in the economic wealth and opportunity of really viable businesses across all of Queensland,” she said.
The Accelerating Female Founders Program is part of Advance Queensland’s Backing Female Founders Program, which first launched in 2019.
“We are thrilled to be accelerating the success of women in business through the Queensland Government’s Accelerating Female Founders Program,” said ARM Hub founder and CEO, Dr Cori Stewart.
“We will help these female founders through our inaugural Female Founder Business and Technology Roadmap Development Program, providing business owners with access to world-class experts to develop strategies to identify and overcome product and technology gaps and become investment ready.
“ARM Hub is the nation’s trusted choice for sovereign manufacturing and is leading the digital transformation of Australia’s manufacturing.”
The 11 recipients are:
- Advance Robotics for Manufacturing Hub, Northgate
- Startup Onramp Pty Ltd, Ashgrove
- Impact Boom Pty Ltd, Red Hill
- Central Queensland University, Rockhampton
- Health Management Pty Ltd, Cairns
- University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba
- Spacecubed Ventures, Fortitude Valley
- Australian Sport Technology Network, Newstead
- Australian Computer Society, Fortitude Valley
- Food and Agribusiness Network, Sunshine Coast
- Circulanation Ltd, Cairns.
