UNSW & Westpac Join Forces to Grow Women-led Startups
“We are lifting up the next generation of women and non-binary entrepreneurs”
This collaboration between UNSW Founders and Westpac aims to break down financial barriers that disproportionately affect underrepresented founders, making the journey into entrepreneurship more accessible and equitable.
The partnership provides concrete financial support for promising founders through dedicated pitch prizes and scholarships.
Westpac Accelerator Scholarships: Need financial support to go all-in to your startup?
Westpac is proud to fund Westpac Accelerator Scholarships, three equity scholarships valued at $20,000 each to offer financial support to women and non-binary founders who are successful in joining UNSW Founders 10x Accelerator programs with their high-potential startup.
10x Accelerators help founders of tech startups and research ventures grow and become investment and impact-ready. Accelerators offer vertical-specific support across Health, Biotech, Defence, Climate, and All Industries selected startups receive seed funding and 10 weeks of accelerated learning from experts and mentors. Their support comes from founders with direct industry experience, weekly workshops and connections to support go-to-market, growth, capital raising, and going global.
The Westpac Accelerator Scholarships are designed to address barriers that women founders may experience when pursuing their startup full time, including those struggling to balance the dual demands of family and work responsibilities and accessing capital for business growth. It can also help cover their travel or lost salary costs when undertaking the 10 week program.
Who is eligible for the Westpac Accelerator Scholarships?
The Westpac Accelerator Scholarships is open to women and non-binary founders of startups selected for the 10x Accelerators.
The all industries program is open to companies with at least one UNSW alumni, staff or student founder.
Health 10x, Bio 10x, Defence 10x and Climate 10x are open nationally with no affiliation required.
Applications open on April 12. You can find out more about the accelerators and their eligibility criteria, and express your interest here:
Westpac’s Commitment
In March 2023, Westpac Business Lending announced new measures to help small businesses to get started or to grow with dedicated start-up and scale-up loans.
These measures also help support Westpac's $500 million commitment to back more women in business and comes as research from the bank reveals accessing finance is one of many challenges faced by female business owners*.
Westpac research shows 51 per cent of women plan to apply for finance to support short to medium business growth, yet more women find it harder to access finance compared with men (29% women to 21% men)*.
A 2022 report by Deloitte Access Economics found that 22 per cent of Australian start-ups are founded by women, however only 0.7 per cent of private sector funding was received by solely women founders. 82 per cent of women founders believed gender impacted their ability to raise venture capital funding^.
This pool of funding available is a tangible initiative supporting Westpac’s 2030 Sustainability Strategy focused on enhancing financial inclusion and equality.
Stay tuned for some of the ways that Westpac is advocating for financial inclusion and demonstrating our support to removing barriers, including for women.
You can find out more about Westpac’s commitment here.
*Research conducted by Lonergan Research in October 2023. It was an online survey conducted among a representative sample of over 500 Australian SME Business Leaders.
^Deloitte Access Economics, Accelerating women founders: The untapped investment opportunity
Interested in the 10x Accelerator? Hear from Successful 10x Alumni
Dr Heba Khamis from Contactile (10x)
Contactile is giving robots a human sense of touch and enabling dexterous robotic gripping. Developed and spun out new tactile sensor technology from UNSW research, Contactile recently raised a $2.5M seed round led by Silicon Valley’s True Ventures.
“The UNSW Founders 10x Program and the ongoing support of the program and alumni network have, and continue to, accelerate Contactile towards bigger and bigger commercial milestones and success."
Holly Richards from Ample Folk (10x)
Ample Folk is on a mission to create activewear that’s inclusive AF. With 67% of Australian women plus-sized, but only 6.7% of retailers catering to this market, founder Holly Richards is building a brand for a critically underserved segment.
Dr Helen Lawson Williams from TANK (10x)
TANK is a mobile app that helps busy people fight burnout. It provides a single interface for users to integrate and manage across their burnout factors: the work they do (paid and unpaid), the effectiveness of their recovery (sleep, active recovery), and the skills they apply to manage across both (e.g., prioritisation, cognitive reframing).
Westpac is also a proud sponsor of New Wave: Our women’s entrepreneurship Program
Westpac is also proud to sponsor the first prizes at the biannual New Wave program pitch event, totalling $15,000.
New Wave is the UNSW Founders program for women with a startup idea or seeking to improve their entrepreneurial skills.
Pitch prizes are a key mode of encouraging further women’s participation in entrepreneurship programs. Sponsored prizes can elevate an early-stage business and provide much-needed credibility and early funding to pursue an idea.
The program is open to UNSW students, alumni & staff.
Applications for Cohort A open 4 March. Click the button below to apply or learn more.
How to take the next steps?
For UNSW Women with ideas for a startup, apply to the New Wave program here.
For women-led startups, you can apply to the 10x Accelerator here.
And to learn more about the partnership, and Westpac’s additional support for Women Entrepreneurs, click here.