{"id":42907,"date":"2023-10-20T15:24:40","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/bluechilli-launches-1-million-fund-and-accelerator-program-to-back-the-most-promising-female-startup-founders-in-australia-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:24:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:24:40","slug":"bluechilli-launches-1-million-fund-and-accelerator-program-to-back-the-most-promising-female-startup-founders-in-australia-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/bluechilli-launches-1-million-fund-and-accelerator-program-to-back-the-most-promising-female-startup-founders-in-australia-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"BlueChilli launches $1 million fund and accelerator program to back the most promising female startup founders in Australia – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Blue<\/div>\n

Sydney accelerator BlueChilli has unveiled a $1 million early-stage startup fund to back the most promising female founders in Australia.<\/p>\n

The fund will support participants in the SheStarts accelerator, which has just opened its applications to find 10 female founders for the inaugural program.<\/p>\n

SheStarts director Nicola Hazell says BlueChilli has been supported by the likes of ANZ, MYOB and SunSuper to establish the fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cAcross Australia, people are realising that we need to invest in women if we\u2019re going to create a strong economy, whether it\u2019s in the startup environment or the corporate environment,\u201d Hazell tells StartupSmart.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t take action, we won\u2019t achieve the future we want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The accelerator, which will be showcased online through a 32-week documentary series, will take founders through an intensive six-month program kicking off in January with an immersion experience in Silicon Valley hosted by Google.<\/p>\n

Each participant will receive $100,000 in pre-seed capital and co-working space at BlueChilli incubators in Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that there are not enough women getting started in this country right now, they don\u2019t necessarily have the ability to hit that runway and access to pre-seed funding is really hard to come by,\u201d Hazell says.<\/p>\n

Should you apply?<\/h3>\n

Hazell encourages women with an idea from every nook and cranny in Australia who has an idea to apply for SheHacks.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re engaging with the unusual suspects, not just the traditional startup community,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re determined to see women from all different walks of life see themselves in this opportunity. That could be a real game-changer for them and our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The application period for SheStarts ends on October 31, with 20 candidates then selected to enter a \u201crapid validation boot camp\u201d where ideas and the founders themselves are pressure tested.<\/p>\n

This stage will culminate with a pitch in December where the final 10 will be chosen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe genuinely believe that anyone can become a tech startup founder,\u201d Hazell says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t one industry, in fact it\u2019s every industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are women working in all parts of our economy all over the country who\u2019ve got great ideas that can become high impact, game-changing companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changing the face of tech<\/h3>\n

Earlier this year, BlueChilli announced the SheHacks accelerator<\/a> in response to criticism over the lack of women in its programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly 7% of people in tech are women and not everyone within this is going to launch their own startup,\u201d BlueChilli corporate innovation general manager Colette Grgic told StartupSmart<\/em> at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you start looking at the 1% of 1% of 1% of the 7.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazell, who recently became BlueChilli\u2019s head of diversity and impact programs<\/a>, says SheStarts will spark a nationwide movement that redefines the course for innovation in Australia.<\/p>\n

“What excites me the most about this project is that SheStarts is about collective impact, it\u2019s how we connect up an ecosystem to really change the face of startups and provide a runway for more women to start,\u201d Hazell says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really going to be able to tell a different story for what it means to be in tech and to be in startups.”<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sydney accelerator BlueChilli has unveiled a $1 million early-stage startup fund to back the most promising female founders in Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}