A partnership between LIFTwomen Group, a leading Australian women-focused funding marketplace, and Labamu, an Indonesian FinTech startup, has led to the Wanita Tumbuh Bersama (WTB) Competition – a grant challenge that will award 4 Indonesian female-led businesses with business support.

Submissions are open from 15 May 2023 to 15 June 2023.

Melbourne, 1st May 2023 –  Women make up almost half of early-stage entrepreneurs in Indonesia and yet the majority are constrained by limited access to resources and funding. The WTB competition recognises these hurdles and invites Indonesian women from all industries, aged 20 and above, to participate and showcase their business ideas, receive mentoring and funding, and ultimately contribute to the country’s economic growth.

“After 18 months of elevating female-led businesses in Australia with funding and business resources, we are excited to team up with Labamu and expand our impact to Indonesia. We believe that by backing female entrepreneurship, we are helping women and their families, and therefore communities, to live lives to their fullest potential,” said Irene Tsang, Founder of LIFTWomen Group

“We are committed to promoting and supporting women entrepreneurs to build the next line of exceptional businesses in Indonesia, which would further contribute to the country’s economic growth and development. We hope that the WTB competition will encourage more women to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams and inspire other organisations to support female entrepreneurship in Indonesia,” said Emmanuel Van de Geer, Labamu’s Founder.

The WTB competition is held in partnership with LIFTwomen Group, Australia’s first female-focused crowdfunding platform that has supported over 500+ women-led businesses. Labamu is an app that accelerates cash in SMEs by digitising sales and has a user database that is primarily made up of female-led businesses; Labamu’s partnership with LIFTwomen Group means that Indonesia female entrepreneurs can be elevated in a significant, financially meaningful way.

The WTB competition has a simple participation process to increase accessibility, starting with an online application followed by a live pitch presentation by the finalists on the Grant Pitch and Gala Night (to be held in Jakarta on 15 July 2023).

There are 4 prize kits available with 2 core categories, Sustainability and Innovation, as well as a People’s Choice and Overall Winner awards. The total prize pool of the competition is valued at over $80M IDR with Labamu and Lift Women platform access, coaching and advertising resources. Participants will also receive business mentorship and training at all stages of the competition.

To take part and to see exact prize inclusions, visit www.labamu.co.id and submit your business project between 15 May 2023 and 15 June 2023. Ensure you are available on 15 July 2023 to be in Jakarta for the Grant Pitch and Gala Night.

About Lift Women

Lift Women is Australia’s first and leading female-focussed crowdfunding platform that is closing the gap to back women in entrepreneurship and empower them to live a life to its fullest potential. We connect female entrepreneurs to not only backers, but pivotal resources and relationships, while also operating on a social impactful model.

For more information about Lift Women visit www.liftwomen.com

About Labamu

Labamu accelerates sales and improves productivity in micro, small and medium enterprises. We do this by digitising product management, marketing and sales processes and empowering customers with more options.

For more information about  Labamu visit: www.labamu.co.id

Meet Your 2022 Female Founder Grant Challenge Winners

As we still soak up the high of our 2-day Future. Female. Funding Summit, we’re excited to share with you the winners of the 2022 Female Founder Grant Challenge.

As part of the Summit, these 9 finalists pitched in front of a crowd of over 120 judges and audiences, live and streamed, to win 3 JumpStarter Kits worth $15,000! These 3 Kits were awarded across the categories of Tech for Good, Social Impact and Next Gen Innovator. We also had a Backer’s Choice Award.

Every female founder spoke with such passion and enthusiasm – as expected, considering the high-standard and impact of their projects and businesses. Thank you to each and every one of the 9 finalists for your time – you did a fabulous job!

And now, announcing our 4 winners…

Tech for Good 

Agili8 by Esther Oh

Using XRAI Vision™ smart glasses to deliver healthcare for emergency rescues, remote surgeries and Indigenous communities

Agili8 crowdfunding page 

Social Impact 

DEIR iSTEM Co. by Dr Ruwangi and Dr Morley

A STEM jobs board designed by women for women with Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Retention at the core.

DEIR iSTEM Co. crowdfunding page 

Next Gen Innovator

Compassion Creamery by Sarah Qian

The world’s first vegan oat cream cheese that’s delicious, nutritious and good for the planet. Free from coconut oils, soy and nuts

Compassion Creamery crowdfunding page 

Backer’s Choice Award

Seedling Giving by Kylie Wallace

A charity matching platform helping you do good, better. Making the process of giving simpler, easier and safer.

Seedling Giving crowdfunding page 

We can’t wait to watch your businesses be elevated with the cash, connections and resources in their JumpStarter Kits. 

Well done to all the finalists! They all did an incredible job pitching and didn’t make it easy for the judges. They are all winners!

A big thank you to our wonderful audience and voters!

We loved meeting you on the night and seeing the community of family, friends, supporters and investors come out in droves to cheer on our founders. We encourage you to continue following the stories of the businesses and female founders via Instagram, Facebook and other channels.

Last but certainly not least, to our incredible local and global business partners who made this Grant Challenge possible with your generous prizes, thank you for helping us Lift, Inspire, Fund and Trust women in business.

Please stay in touch with Lift Women via our Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

You can also join our mailing list at www.liftwomen.com.

The second year of our Grant Challenge saw 85 projects submitted across 3 new categories – Tech for Good, Social Impact and Next Gen Innovator. 

To say we were blown away by the calibre of everyone’s ingenuity, passion and intelligence is a huge understatement. Thank you so much for sharing your dreams with us. From these, we have selected 9 finalists to pitch in front of judges and an audience to win 3 JumpStarter Kits worth $15,000.

Below is who you can expect to hear from on 19 October from 5.30pm to 9.30pm at South Melbourne’s MicDrop. The winner will be announced on the night – to further add to the excitement!

The pitch night is part of our 2-day event, Future. Female. Funding Summit. This summit brings together experienced industry leaders, entrepreneurs, advisors and investors to share their knowledge and insights, focussing on the future of funding and upcoming investment trends for females. We’d love to see you there:

[FREE TO ATTEND ONLINE]         [$20 TO ATTEND IN-PERSON]

Without further ado, meet our finalists:

TECH FOR GOOD 

Virtual reality meditation

AtOne, by Edwina Griffin, is Australia’s first virtual reality meditation solution that targets stress and improves performance.

Up until now, AtOne has only been available to businesses. They now want to offer to consumers, including children, and develop content with some of Australia’s Indigenous communities in native languages and dialects as well.

Smart glasses for telehealth

Agili8 XRAY Vision™, by Esther Oh, uses XRAI Vision™ smart glasses to deliver connect frontline health workers with remote specialists, making telehealth possible for those such as disadvantaged Indigenous communities in regional, rural and remote areas.

They are currently conducting pilots to gather clinical evidence and secure government funding.

A plant marketplace

Wylde, by Juliette Donaldson, is Australia’s first plant and plant accessory marketplace – like the Etsy for plants! 

By making it accessible to buy and sell second-hand plants, Wylde is spreading the health benefits of a connection with the natural world, as well as encouraging sustainability practices.

SOCIAL IMPACT

Charity matching service

Seedling Giving, by Kylie Wallace, provides personalised, vetted and trustworthy recommendations for donors who are looking for a charity to donate to.

They also monitor the charity, providing an Impact Update every 6 months on how the donation has been used. They also advise on donation benchmarking – on how much to give, including tax benefits.

Online reading programs

Beyond Books, by Lucy Huang, delivers interactive and live online reading programs for year 2-12 students. The programs use high-quality, award-winning books across different subjects and genres.

Beyond Books strives to instil a love of learning in children that goes beyond reading and the school curriculum. They have expanded into the Australian-Chinese community and are looking to improve their systems and interface.

A jobs board for women in STEM

DEIR by iSTEM Co’s Dr Ruwngi and Dr Morley Muse (Women’s Agenda Emerging Leader in STEM winner), stands for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Retention and is a jobs board designed by women for women in STEM, particularly women of colour and women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds who experience higher unemployment rates.

They are seeking to develop this jobs board with a goal of eliminating bias in recruitment and increasing transparency with pay and salary.

NEXT GEN INNOVATOR

Haircare for women of colour

Embrace Your Frizzique (EYF), by Zarah Garbrah, creates innovative and sustainable solutions for curly and afro hair to empowering black women and women of colour to feel good about who they are.

They are starting with a styling creme, the most requested product amongst their community, with the goal to have a full-scale haircare line by 2024.

World’s first vegan oat cream cheese

Compassion Creamery, by Sarah Qian, is making the world’s first vegan oat cream cheese that’s delicious, nutritious and good for the planet. Unlike many vegan products, this cheese is free from coconut oils, soy and nuts.

They are currently scaling production to launch into retail supermarkets.

Sustainable gardening platform

Plante, by Nguyen Hanh Nguyen (LaunchVic CiviLab People’s Choice Winner), is a service startup that’s empowering urbanites to learn about the food system through sustainable gardening. 

They are now working to launch their interactive platform this December to help every family can their own food and integrate healthier eating habits.

And you can vote for one of them to win our Backer’s Choice award too!

Vote here with voting closing 18 October 12pm AEST. 

Special thanks to our local and global partners for making this happen

Thank you to all for another year of incredible support. Stay tuned for updates from our 2-day summit and of course, to learn who our 3 amazing winners will be!

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn and join our mailing list here

Lift Women announces $45,000 Grant Challenge to fund and empower women-led founders across Australia

Lift Women have launched their Female Founder Grant Challenge for 2022 and are seeking to fund three female-led businesses with a Jumpstarter Kit, valued over $15,000 each.

On a mission to make funding more possible and accessible for girls and women, Lift Women, Australia’s first female-focussed reward-based crowdfunding platform, is back with the 2022 Female Founder Grant Challenge – and this year, there are three categories, meaning three winners, as well as a Backer’s Choice Award, which will be based on public voting.

The categories are Tech For Good, Social Impact and Next Gen Innovator, reflecting the commitment of Lift Women to creating a better world. The three-winning female-led projects on their crowdfunding platform will be awarded a Jumpstarter Kit, valued over $15,000 each.

Each Kit includes a $5,000 cash grant and personalised support in the areas of strategy, accounting, mentorship and community support, marketing and more – everything needed to start or scale the winner’s business! This includes $3,000 worth of strategy and taxation advice from AP Family Office, $1,000 worth of PR support from Candice PR, 5 to 7 minutes news interviews and features on Ticker News’ Winner’s Circle, $700 business mentoring package with She’s The Boss, 1-year membership of $500 with One Roof, Australia’s leading female-focussed virtual coworking space, and much more.

In 2021, the inaugural Grant Challenge received overwhelming interest with over 100 applications. The two businesses that won were i.Am skincare, a tech-powered solution to skincare, and The Clean Swap Box, a subscription clean beauty box supporting female-founded Australian brands; both winners are testament to the calibre and commitment to a better world shown by all applicants, reflecting the values of Lift Women.

Cherisha Koshy, co-founder of i.Am skincare says, “The Grant Challenge changed our whole business. It was actually really, really meaningful. The funding that we got from them and the support pushed us to start our business. It was everything for us – we wouldn’t have launched without it.”

Simply through participating in the Grant Challenge, many more women were able to raise the desired amount to elevate their business, including Monique Montfroy of Texcoco Collective. Monique’s project was fully funded through the platform, empowering her to sell a pre-launch collection of vegan leather handbags. She said, “To be part of the Female Founder Grant Challenge was a really big boost to my confidence and ability to know that I can run a business.”

To learn more about the Grant Challenge and enter, click here.

You can also book your free consultation call to guide you through the process here.

And the WINNERS are…cue the drumroll….🥁🥁🥁

The time has come! Over the last couple of weeks, we have had an overwhelming number of votes in support of our eight finalists. We would like to give a big thank you to everyone who voted and made this possible (and for making our decision-making process a whole lot easier!). 

We created the Female Founder Challenge with the intent to lift up women and girls who want to bring their dreams to life. Globally, only 2.3% of VC funding went to women-led startups, and only 28% of total crowdfunding projects worldwide are female-led. There is an unhealthy gap in these statistics, so we’ve taken it upon ourselves to shake things up!

The winners will receive extra funding and support to begin their journey. We’ve teamed up with some awesome partners to offer everything they need to kick-start a successful business. This grant includes access to growth strategy, marketing creatives, legal and accounting support, all valued up to $15,000 for each winner.

The female founders did an amazing job presenting their innovative, purpose-driven projects. There was lots of support, smiles and even some tears. What an amazing bunch of inspiring women!

So, with the help of our judges and the public, we’d like to announce our Winners of the 2021 Female Founder Challenge…

• Best Project Award: I.am Skincare
• Backer’s Choice Award: Clean Swap Box

A big congratulations to I.am Skincare & Clean Swap Box! We can’t wait to watch their business be lifted into the right direction with the help of their $15,000 Jump Starter Kits.

We would also like to say a big well done to the finalists who made it this far. Your incredible work hasn’t gone unrecognised, and we can’t wait to see where you take your ideas!

Natasha Lam – High-End Hammy Downs: A Matching App for your Kids Clothes.

Alison Smith – MuMEcations: Not-for-Profit organization on a mission to help mums take time out for self-care.

Nicola Allen – Rock Bottom Nappies: Biodegradable Bamboo Nappies supporting Survivors of Family Violence.

Ashley Mardesic – Peek a Bras: One bra, lots of possibilities. Like one pillow, many pillowcases.

Sall Grover – Giggle: The Female App. A female-only social networking platform.

Monique Montfroy – Texcoco Collective: Ethically hand-crafted vegan cactus leather handbags, putting the Mindfulness back into Consumption – one ethically, handcrafted bag at a time

We’d like to give a big thank you to, not only our voters but our incredible local and global business partners who made this Grant Challenge possible:

You Glow Girl – Mental Health & Positive Wellbeing Program for Girls 6 – 11 years Successfully Backed 106% AU$3495 Created by Syndi Brambau, You Glow Girl is a wellness centre focussed on empowering young girls, tweens and adult women, aimed to help them in feeling educated and inspired.     Believe Succeed – Empowering Women to Achieve Financial Success Successfully Backed 100% AU$6002 Created by Kylie Mar and Elizabeth Houghton, this online step by step program was created to provide women with the right money mindset, and the tools to become financially independent.     Texcoco Collective – Putting the mindfulness back into consumption Successfully Backed 101% AU$2016 Monique Montfroy founded Texcoco Collective with the vision to share unique, high-quality designs with the ethos of nurturing the earth, and not contributing to harmful plastic production.

The team at lift women treat me like the CEO and inventor I’m meant to be. They are an extension of my company and have nothing but the best intentions and show it with action. I’m very grateful to be part of the incredible platform. ” – Peek a Bras

The Lift Women platform is a great opportunity for all businesses, regardless of their size or stage of establishment, to raise funds for a specific project or cause.” – MuMEcations

Have you got a business idea you’d like to lift? Why not Start a Project?

We’re here to socially and economically empower women. Now more than ever, we need calls for unity, financial inclusion and connection of women. When women work towards something together, we become unstoppable! We’ll lift you high enough to reach, touch and grab your dream.

The time has come!

Over the last few months, we have had an overwhelming response to our Inaugural Female Founder Grant Challenge. We have received over 100 applications in just 8 weeks, and because there are so many incredible, innovative and inspiring projects, we’ve decided to increase our finalist’s number from 6 to 8!

Need a recap?

Here at Lift Women, we’ve created this special challenge with the intent to lift up women and girls who have a passion for business and want to bring their dreams to life.

To give the two winners some extra funding and support to begin their journey, we’ve teamed up with some awesome partners to offer everything they need to kick-start a successful business. This grant includes access to growth strategy, marketing creatives, legal and accounting support, valued up to $15,000 for each winner.

We’ve been looking through all of your incredible entries, and it’s safe to say that this has been one of the toughest decisions our team has ever had to make. We are in absolute awe of all the incredible women and girls with a passion for change. Your desire to make a difference in this world is truly inspiring – you’re all winners in our eyes!

Regardless, we still had to make the hard decision. So, without further ado
meet our finalists:

• Natasha Lam – High End Hammy Downs: A Matching App for your Kids Clothes. 
• Alison Smith – MuMEcations: Not-for-Profit organization on a mission to help mums take time out for self-care.
• Nicola Allen – Rock Bottom Nappies: Biodegradable Bamboo Nappies supporting Survivors of Family Violence.
• Ashley Mardesic – Peek a Bras: One bra, lots of possibilities. Like one pillow, many pillow cases.
• Sall Grover – Giggle: The Female App. A female only social networking platform.
• Rena Joseph & Cherisha Koshy – i.Am Skincare: Using creative technology to provide skincare that actually works. 
• Mandi Vance & Whitney Hartmann – The Clean Swap Box:  A subscription clean beauty box supporting emerging female founded Australian brands.
• Monique Montfroy – Texcoco Collective: Ethically hand-crafted vegan cactus leather handbags, putting the Mindfulness back into Consumption – one ethically, handcrafted bag at a time

Again, we just want to give a big thank you to everyone who entered. You are all so gifted and we can’t wait to watch your ideas grow! This is just the beginning.

Now, we need your help. Get involved in determining the Backer’s Choice Award Winner and vote for your favourite project!

Voting Started: 14 Sept
Voting Closes: 4th Oct 6 pm (AEST)
Grant Pitch Night: 6th Oct 6 pm (AEST)
Winner Announced: 6th Oct 8 pm (AEST)

Thank you all for being so supportive of this initiative and to all women-led projects that are trying to make a difference!

Stay tuned for more exciting news to come. Together we can make amazing things happen!

LIFT women’s platform and crowdfunding opportunities have given us tremendous confidence to push beyond our fears and step out of our usual comfort zones!  Even if you haven’t mapped out every step and scenario of a potential idea, trust yourself and your instincts enough to move forward and share your idea. We believe Irene’s vision for LIFT women will take Australia one step closer to closing the gender gap, and developing Australia’s diverse start-up ecosystem. – I.AmSkinCare

“The team at lift women treat me like the CEO and inventor I’m meant to be. They are an extension of my company and have nothing but the best intentions and show it with action. I’m very grateful to be part of the incredible platform. Irene and her team work incredibly hard for every single person, company and project that signs up for Lift Women. They are true experts in their fields making sure to share every bit of knowledge they have in order to get the absolute best outcome.”  – Peek A Bras