Last Thursday, nine female founders took to the stage for the first We Are Emersyn Female Founders Pitch Competition.
Megan del Borrello launched We Are Emersyn (formerly Behind The Brands) in 2018 as a resource to shine a light on female entrepreneurs by profiling them, then added peer to peer mentoring and the business grew from there. The business is also providing programs for the City of Canning as part of the Canning Business Mentoring program.
Despite growing support and attention for women founders in Australia, women founders received just 0.7% of private sector funding in FY22 according to a Deloitte report.
Along with 120 guests from government, funders, industry connections, founders, and supporters, an opening address at the event was given by Perth City Councillor and former Deputy Perth Lord Mayor Sandy Anghie who summed up perfectly why this event was needed and the economic opportunity that exists with female founders.
Aside from Ms Anghie, some of the guests on the night included:
- Charlie Gunningham, Director of Innovation at Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (JSTI), and several of his colleagues.
- Pia Turcinov and Glenn Butcher, of Fund WA.
- Jason Balchand, Chair of Startup WA.
- Carmen Braidwood, a well-regarded media trainer.
- Carla Bonner, an Australian actor.
- Kylie Gerrard, Director of Purpose Ventures
The startups (and their founders)
No Code Odyssey | Elizabeth Knight (Judge’s Choice)
No Code Odyssey empowers entrepreneurs, business owners and creators to build incredible apps and websites without coding, 10x faster and cheaper than software development.
Industry OneCARD | Kareena Waters
Industry OneCARD is REG-TECH and is tackling head-on the escalating administrative nightmare companies face collecting, maintaining, and tracking employee training licence and induction records.
Coffee Van Collective | Emily Zaborski (People’s Choice)
Coffee Van Collective is a software solution for mobile coffee vendors across Australia to manage their day-to-day operations in one centralised location and to connect them directly with event organisers for bookings.
Humyn.ai | Holly Bridgwater
Humyn.ai is the new way data science work gets done. A web based platform, Humyn.ai is a talent marketplace that connects companies with top talent around the world to execute data science projects, without needing to hire.
Juliaewert.com | Julia Ewert
Julia Ewert helps companies with turnover between $20m and $200m establish perpetually effective and scalable sales functions, with sales and negotiation skills based on world’s best practice and FBI negotiation techniques, through The Infinite Sales System™.
Strength Heroes | Fiona Perrella
Strength Heroes runs art and play workshops for primary school aged children that incorporate art, storytelling, movement and STEAM activities to develop the art of resilience.
Brown Girl Bloom | Valerie Weyland
A wellness space for Black, Indigenous and Women of colour to slow down, heal and bloom. They are simplifying women’s journey towards inner well-being through a culturally accessible wellness and meditation app.
Mud Organics | Imogen van Haagen & Courtney Thornton
A natural skin care and supplementation brand that in its first year generated revenue of just under $1 million. Mud’s products combine a unique blend of supplements and ingredients that can be ingested or applied to the skin.
Australia for Cedar Tanzania | Nina Hjortlund
Australia for Cedar Tanzania creates positive sustainable change in rural Tanzania through numerous projects, empowering people to live free of poverty and to have access to quality healthcare services.
Judges commented that the No Code Odyssey pitch was clean, confident and powerful.
“The market opportunity and growth potential for No Code Odyssey is outstanding.”
Judges feedback for No Code Odyessey
Elizabeth received a scholarship to EMERSYN Elevate Program – valued at $10,500 – a three-month Female Founders Hub coworking membership at Riff, an annual membership at VentureX HQ, Financially Empowered Business Money Mentoring with Grace Mugabe, a Mette is Baking gift pack, a one-hour coaching session with Carla Bonner, one of Australia’s most prolific female actors and a 12-month membership to The Leverage List and one-hour mentoring with Lanna Hill courtesy of Leverage Media.
For being the People’s Choice winner, Emily of Coffee Van Collective received a scholarship to Emersyn Startup School and an annual membership of VentureX HQ.
Congratulations to all of those that participated.
~~
Riff is powered by Spacecubed, a sponsor of Startup News, and the City of Perth also sponsor this publication.
