Queensland government backs 11 programs supporting women founders with $1 million fund

Advance Robotics for Manufacturing Hub (ARM Hub) founder and CEO Dr Cori Stewart. Source: Supplied

Eleven Queensland organisations will share in almost $1 million through round one of the state’s Accelerating Female Founders (AFF) Program, which will see the recipients provide a host of practical business development and technical skills programs to almost 500 female founders and leaders of innovation-driven enterprises.

The pilot initiative is focused on supporting Queensland women founders with innovative businesses, providing opportunities for women entrepreneurs to take their innovative businesses to the next level.

In order to help female innovators to nurture, develop, grow and expand their businesses, the program aims to support female founders at every stage of their business and innovation journey, as well as encourage participation in key industries and technologies.

Among the recipients is the Advance Robotics for Manufacturing Hub (ARM Hub), led by founder and CEO Dr Cori Stewart, who has built an Australian-first not-for-profit technology commercialisation company.

Stewart told SmartCompany that her team is thrilled to be named among the first recipients of the program. 

“As a female founder myself, I am very happy that I can help other women in business,” she said. 

“These programs are important for the Australian economy. While female entrepreneurship is increasing rapidly (one-third of high-growth businesses worldwide are now run by women), women are underrepresented in the technology and manufacturing sectors. 

Dr Stewart said the ARM Hub aims to partner with founders on their business journeys and has opened expressions of interest in a technology accelerator roadmap program.

“Our participants will create a technology roadmap using an intensive design process,” she explains.

“The design process will identify the advanced manufacturing technology they need to grow or scale up their business and the roadmap will be a step-by-step guide to its implementation. 

“This is a valuable opportunity for small-to-medium enterprises and microbusinesses to tap into a wealth of knowledge and expertise that is often hard to access.

Filling critical gaps

The AFF Program is part of Advance Queensland’s Backing Female Founders Program, which first launched in 2019 and has supported more than 1500 women to date. 

Brisbane-based Startup Onramp, which provides training and mentoring programs for startup founders, is also one of the funding recipients. 

When founder and CEO Colin Kinner spoke with SmartCompany, he was just about to jump on his first one-on-one mentoring session with a female entrepreneur under the AFF program.

“It’s really critical, funding in programs like this because fundamentally what we’re doing is economic development,” he says. 

“Particularly given that our program has a target of 75% regional participation. We’re really working at improving the economic diversification in regional Queensland and so helping startup founders to access programs like this is really critical”

Kinner believes there are a lot of women who would be fantastic entrepreneurs who have never founded a startup because they don’t have access to a network of other successful founders that they can draw on for advice and guidance. 

“I think that’s one of the really critical gaps that we’re trying to fill, not just with our program, but with others,” he says. 

In a statement, Queensland Chief Entrepreneur Julia Spicer said the AFF program is essential for female founders across Queensland, “helping them grow their confidence and capacity to really deliver on what their business opportunities are”.

“We know only 22% of founders across Queensland are female and we want to see that increase, so more women share in the economic wealth and opportunity of really viable businesses across all of Queensland,” she added. 

The 11 Accelerating Female Founders (AFF) Program recipients are:

• Advance Robotics for Manufacturing Hub
• Startup Onramp Pty Ltd
• Impact Boom Pty Ltd
• Central Queensland University
• Launch Y(E)P
• University of Southern Queensland
• Spacecubed Ventures
• Australian Sport Technology Network
• River City Labs
• Food and Agribusiness Network
• Circulanation Ltd

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