$13.5k awarded to innovative women entrepreneurs at UNSW Founders New Wave 11 Showcase
Harriet Farlow, co-founder of Mileva Security Labs celebrates winning the New Wave Judges Award and the Doone Roisin Business Innovation Award winner at UNSW Founders New Wave 11 Showcase
Four female-founded startups were awarded $13,500 worth of prizes at the UNSW Founders New Wave 11 Showcase. The event, which took place on April 27 at the Michael Crouch Innovation Centre (MCIC) on the UNSW Kensington campus saw 10 teams take to the stage to pitch their ideas. The four-week New Wave Cohort 11 program saw 65 talented individuals work on 36 exciting ideas ranging from security AI to baby bottles.
The winners of the New Wave Cohort 11 Showcase:
First Place ($4,000) & The Doone Roisin Business Innovation Award ($2,500)
Mileva Security Labs Founded by Harriet Farlow & Julie Banfield - AI governance executive training.
UNSW Engineering Award ($2,500)
RosterHive, Founded by Aidana Zhumasheva, Zhami Mustafina - An AI-powered platform to simplify the recruitment and hiring process for companies.
UNSW Medicine & Health Award ($2500)
Atoma was founded by Stella Ding, Lisa Gong & Shavonne Mak -A science-focused gamified learning platform for students.
People's Choice Award ($1,500)
Milk Monster Project founded by Vanessa Stevens, Amrita Osahan & Natasha Shah - A product for feeding babies on the go.
Following four weeks of programming, the top 10 teams, pitched to a panel of judges who evaluated the presentations based on innovation, feasibility, market potential, and impact.
The Judges:
Doone Roisin, Founder of Female Startup Club.
Parisa Glass, Director of Innovation and Enterprise at The George Institute for Global Health.
Professor Cordelia Selomulya, Associate Dean (Research), UNSW Faculty of Engineering.
Kristen Phillips, Senior Manager (Idea stage) at UNSW Founders.
and a special guest, Sally Walkom, Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Invest NSW, who presented the First Place Award.
The total prize pool was $13,500, with $7,500 of that amount being sponsored awards generously provided by UNSW's Faculty of Medicine and Health, UNSW's Faculty of Engineering, and New Wave’s First Philanthropic Donor, Doone Roisin - more information on Doone’s contribution can be found here.
Since 2017, the New Wave program has supported 567 women and worked on 211 startups. New Wave addresses the gender gap in entrepreneurship by providing aspiring female founders with the right resources, networks, and funding. Based on Deloitte’s report Accelerating women founders: The untapped investment opportunity. The report indicated only 22% of Australian start-ups are founded by women. We are proud to say that more than 44% of the startups we have supported this year have a female founder, more than double the industry average.
The importance of initiatives like New Wave to empower women in entrepreneurship and to make them feel invited to engage with us cannot be overstated. Women-led businesses contribute significantly to the economy and play a vital role in shaping our future. However, we still see a significant gender gap, which is why New Wave is so important, as it provides women with the knowledge, resources, and community support they need to succeed in startups.
If you can provide support and expertise to these teams, you can reach out to Program Manager Victoria-Rose Tucker for more information.
Express your interest in joining New Wave Cohort 12 here which runs from August to September.
