Program overview
Who is it for?
Women founded and led innovation driven enterprises planning to use the sale of shares through a new capital raise and who understand the responsibilities and legal requirements of equity funding.
If you are not ready to raise capital, check the Investment resources below to learn more about the startup capital raising process.
What are the grant/program objectives?
- support Queensland-based female founders to close early-stage investment rounds leveraging Government backing
- support Queensland female founders to grow innovative businesses across a wide range of industries
- increase the number of female founders participating in the Queensland innovation ecosystem
- help to grow an investment pipeline for female founded businesses.
What does it involve?
The Female Founders Co-Investment Fund provides grants that are pre-approved and are subject to an investment raise by women-founded and led innovation driven enterprises that are approaching new investors as part of their early-stage capital raise.
What are the grant/program goals?
Statistically, startup companies founded and led by women attract less investment capital than those led by men. The Female Founders Co-Investment Fund is designed to support women founders access that all-important early-stage capital they need to grow their business.
What will recipients get?
The Fund provides grants from $50,000 to $200,000 (excluding GST) matched at a 1:3 ratio for a funding round led by an eligible investment entity. To qualify for a minimum grant of $50,000, the organisation must secure at least $150,000 in external investment.
Provisionally approved applicants will have 180 calendar days to seek and secure any further investment as part of their nominated raise.
Note that the program is open until all funds have been allocated.
How do you apply?
The Program will remain open until all funds have been allocated.
Applicants who meet the eligibility criteria will be assessed competitively and notified of the outcome by email within approximately 6-10 weeks.
Provisionally approved applicants must secure their raise/investment within 180 calendar days from the provisional approval date in order to receive grant funding.
Apply
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible for funding, organisations must:
- be a business headquartered in Queensland (operating and having its head office located in Queensland)
- have an active ABN and be registered for GST
- be majority female owned: have at least 51% of shares held by a woman/women (at least six months before application)
- female led: have at least one primary executive decision-making position held by a woman (at least six months before application), e.g. Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technology Officer
- 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 in total
- not have received investment through previous capital raises totalling more than $500,000.
The organisation should also:
- have an investment plan to approach new eligible investment entities within the next six months OR have already secured an offer of investment from an eligible investment entity
- have a clear innovation focus
- have a product/service beyond proof of concept
- have an established business plan covering the next 12 months
- have a clear runway and growth plan for 12 months
- plan to use the funding to scale their business.
For more general help with finding grants, writing grant applications and checking out the startup ecosystem in Queensland:
Investment resources
There are also numerous events and courses to support founder investment education. Below are just some examples:
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Supporting resources
Additional support
Previous recipients
- Alana Kennedy, founder of Ochre Sun a skincare company that uses sustainably and ethically sources native ingredients.
- Ashley Hanger, Founder of Stripped Supply which has developed Australia’s first diabetes digital toolkit to empower patient self-management. See Insulin Delivered to Your Door by Stripped Supply.
- Miranda Gillespie founded Luxe.It.Fwd to support the growth of its sustainably driven circular fashion re-commerce platform.
- Kate O’Keeffe and Fiona Triaca, co-founders of Heatseeker, an AI-powered software-as-a-service tool transforming how companies grow with quick easy live market experiments.
