Access to capital is crucial to any small business’ growth trajectory.
The Boosting Female Founders Initiative, started in 2020, is designed to support female entrepreneurs by providing access to early-stage capital in order to grow and scale their start-ups in both the domestic and global markets.
The aim of the grant is to help female entrepreneurs overcome the disadvantages faced in getting access to finance and support to grow their business. The investment by the Federal Government is aimed at strengthening the Australian economy, and empowering more female entrepreneurs that will create more jobs for Australia.
In 2021, the grant will support 51 female-founded start–ups that are majority owned and led by women, with grants of between $25,000 and $480,000.
The Federal Government has allocated a total of $55.2 million in grant funding to the program over five years to 2024-25, with an estimated $11.6 million available during this (second) round. Round one saw 51 successful recipients ranging from a pet health platform, Parent TV, a digital platform offering parents resources and wellbeing content to ioT technology that was trailing the minimisation waste of water in Brisbane.
This targeted grant is to help Australia’s women reach their potential to launch bold and new innovative ideas.
The intended outcomes of the program are:
- Increased number of start–ups founded by women
- New products and services are brought to market by start–ups founded by women
- Increased financial investment in start–ups founded by women
- Women improve their earning potential through entrepreneurship
- Increased job creation and economic growth.
Eligibility:
To be eligible you must be a female founded (majority owned and led by women) start-up, and be led by women for the duration of the grant. Additional funding is provided for those located in regional area, is an indigenous business, or a founding member has a disability.
The closing date for applications is the 22 April 2021 at 5pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (3pm WST). For more information follow this link: https://business.gov.au/grants-and-programs/boosting-female-founders