Your 9 finalists for 2022 Female Founder Grant Challenge

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!

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