"We can't have a brilliant future, country or world, if we don't have diversity in leadership" said Nicola Hazel, Head of Diversity at incubator Blue Chilli and director of She Starts.
On December at UTS, the finalists of the inaugural She Starts seed funding and accelerator rounds were announced with ten women receiving one $100 thousand dollars each, as well as a place in the Australian chapter of the She Starts accelerator program; a competitive startup program for ambitious female entrepreneurs with big ideas for high-impact businesses. The ten start ups chosen from a field of 17 were:
- FarmPay
- Vetchat
- AudiBle
- Brontech
- Longevity
- Refini
- Habot
- MediText
- Honey
- Shark Share Global
UTS ICI is especially delighted to see Emma Poposka of Brontech and Anna Wright of AudiBle both selected as finalists who will receive $100k pre-seed funding and a place in the SheStart Aus accelerator.
Anna Wright is a Chartered Accountant who specialises in Business Development and Business Analysis and is also a senior lecturer at UTS within the Business School. teaching in Business Analysis and Valuation from undergraduate level through to executive MBA. and is also acting Deputy Head of Accounting. Anna's research interests lie in models for the valuation of unique assets which has seen her delve into the UTS Deep Green Algae project which is exploring roles for algae in our lives.
A lover of technology and the role it can play in enhancing everyday lives has seen Anna develop her startup AudiBle which aims to assist the visually impaired locate themselves within the built environment indoors and out. Anna poses the question, "Ask yourself, the next time you go past an emergency exit or toilet 'how does someone blind know that this is here?'."
AudiBle was also the People's Chosice Award winner.
She starts finalist Emma Poposka also has a connection to UTS as she was one of the regular presenters in the 8-week Creative Cluster program devised and delivered by UTS ICI this year.
Desinged to foster an experimental network of thinkers from diverse fields united by a shared interest in an emerging field, ICI ran two Creative Cluster streams in 2016. One in Blockchain and the other in VR with the goal of seeing how new and innovative applications can develop from the knowledge sharing and practical prototyping that took place throughout the program.
Emma was a regular presenter at the Blockchain Clusters sharing her expertise in digital identity, identity complexities such as the legal/social/psychological, privacy and security, and smart contracts/transactions.
Congratulations to Anna, Emma and all of the She Starts inaugural finalists - an initiative UTS is proudly a supporter and partner of.
Image sourced from: Twitter.com/SheStartsAU
Last updated December 8, 2016