About the program
The Female Founders Co-Investment Fund is a pilot fund that aims to support eligible businesses to leverage funding and secure new investment to build business capacity, and will:
- help Queensland female founders access Government funding,
- support Queensland female founders across a wide range of industries to grow innovative businesses,
- increase the number of female founders participating in the Queensland innovation ecosystem, and
- help to grow an investment pipeline for female founded businesses.
The female founder should:
- have a letter of support from the lead investment entity,
- have an established business plan,
- have a clear runway and growth plan for 12 months,
- have a clear innovation focus,
- be undertaking a new pre-seed or seed raise/investment, and
- plan to use the funding to scale their business.
Funding and support
The Fund provides grants from $50,000 to $200,000 matched at a 3:1 ratio over a period of 12 months, for either a single investment or a raise round led by an eligible investment entity.
Eligibility
To be eligible for funding, organisations must at the time of application:
- be a Queensland based business
- have an ABN and be registered for GST
- be a 100% female-founded business (as at the point of incorporation)
- have more than 50% female ownership (at the time of application)
- have no more than 50 full-time-equivalent employees
- not be a subsidiary of a group of companies that has more than 50 full-time-equivalent employees
- not have received investment through previous capital raises, grant funding or accelerators totalling more than $500,000
- not be a current or past recipient of the Ignite Ideas Fund
- be undertaking pre-seed or seed eligible investment from an approved eligible investor.
Application Process
- Applications may be submitted at anytime
- Applicants who meet eligibility criteria will be assessed competitively and notified by email of the outcome
- Successful applicants will be provisionally approved to receive funding for their nominated raise
- Applicants must secure their raise/investment within 120 calendar days from the provisional approval date in order to receive funding
- Applications will remain open until all funds have been allocated.
Key documents
- Female Founders Co-Investment Fund guidelines
- Application Help Guide - Frequently Asked Questions
- Financial Incentive Agreement
- Letter of support Template
Information session
Watch the information session to find out if you are eligible, learn how to apply, and learn more about the program.
Enquiries
Additional support
- Backing Female Founders Program
- Business support and grant writing information
- Queensland Government Grants Finder
- Advance Queensland Female Founders LinkedIn group
- Dealroom provides useful tools and information for investment in Queensland
- Business Queensland support for early businesses and women in business
Investment Resources
Queensland’s innovation ecosystem offers numerous events and courses to support founder investment education. A sample of these include:
- BDO for Startups
- Scale Investors – EmpowerEd and InvestEd programs
- Startup Onramp – Founders Course
- Cake Equity - Events
- Gold Coast Innovation Hub – Investment Readiness Program
- LegalVision – Event recordings and Webinars
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