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What is the Boosting Female Founders Initiative?
The Boosting Female Founders Initiative is grant to help female founders of startup businesses to launch and scale their businesses into domestic and global markets.
Track Record – Ovira
Bulletpoint assisted Ovira to secure $400,000 from Round 1 of the Boosting Female Founders Initiative Round.
Ovira was founded by Alice Williams, a 27-year old endometriosis sufferer who was inspired to create the new device after years of searching for a pain-management option for her own endometriosis. When she couldn’t find a solution that was drug-free or didn’t involve invasive procedures, she looked for an alternative.
Her fledgling company Ovira has just raised $1.5 million from Blackbird Ventures, to help establish its small egg-shaped electrotherapy device in the market, after promising early sales.
Track Record – Airrobe
Bulletpoint assisted Airrobe to secure $396,050 from Round 2 of the Boosting Female Founders Initiative Round. AirRobe’s Circular Wardrobe is solving the problem of textile waste by allowing fashion brands to offer their customers a simple way to repurpose their items. The project is building a unique application which captures product data (images, sizing and descriptions) at the time that consumers make a brand new purchase. This enables consumers to return to the application at any time and re-sell, recycle or upcycle their used-fashion in one-click.
What is your chance of success?
Round 1 received over 2,200 Expressions of Interest and accepted 130 applications to stage 2. Only 51 applicants were successful at Round 2.
What is your chance of success?
- Stage 1 – 6%
- Stage 2 – 23%
So, your chance of success is only 1.38%. So, yeah, very competitive!
See how you can improve your chances here.
Background
The Boosting Female Founders Initiative – Round 3 helps women entrepreneurs overcome the disadvantages faced in getting access to finance and support to grow their startups. Targeted support will be on a co-contribution basis.
This program will provide targeted support on a co-contribution basis to female founders of startup businesses to scale into domestic and global markets. The Boosting Female Founders Initiative – Round 3 will also offer expert mentoring and advice to a select number of eligible applicants.
Objectives
The objectives of the Boosting Female Founders Initiative are to:
- stimulate private sector investments into innovative startups led by women
- help women entrepreneurs overcome barriers to accessing the finance and support necessary to scale their startups
- enable female founders to scale-up, expand into domestic and/or global markets, and become self-sufficient
- boost the economy through increasing the diversity of startup founders.
The intended outcomes are:
- increased number of startups founded by women
- new products and services are brought to market by startups founded by women
- increased financial investment in startups founded by women
- women improve their earning potential through entrepreneurship
- increased job creation and economic growth.
Funding
All eligible applicants can apply for a grant between $100,000 and $400,000. If you meet additional eligibility criteria as detailed in the grant opportunity guidelines, you can apply for a grant of between $100,000 and up to $480,000.
The grant opportunity will be delivered through a two-stage competitive selection process due to the expected high demand for this program. You will first apply via an Expression of Interest (EOI). If successful, you will be invited to submit a Stage Two grant application.
Eligible Projects
To be considered a startup which is scalable, at least two of the following indicators of innovation and high growth must apply to you:
- You are applying to register, or have registered intellectual property rights
- You have registered for, and are undertaking eligible research and development activities for the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) scheme
- You are applying for, or have been granted, required regulatory approval for your product, process or service
- You have attracted third party investment
- You have a minimum viable product that has been tested with customers, is ready for market, or for which you have had first sales
- You have completed or are undertaking an accelerator or incubator program that provides time-limited support for entrepreneurs with a startup
- You have a written agreement to co-develop and commercialise an innovation with an institution or body listed in Schedule 1 to the Higher Education Funding Act 1988, or an entity registered as a Research Service Provider under section 29A of the Industry Research and Development Act 1986
- You would meet the early-stage innovation company (ESIC) requirements under the Tax Incentives for Early Stage Investors scheme
- You have been incorporated or registered with the Australian Business Register within the last five years.
To be eligible your project must support your female founded (majority owned and led by women) startup to scale into domestic and/or global markets.
Eligible activities can include, but are not limited to:
- launching and scaling products and/or services
- developing and marketing software and apps
- development and marketing of products and/or services
- purchase of equipment specific to project to support growth
- expansion to other markets
- access to independent management (for example C-suite, advisory board)
- expanding management teams and/or establishing a board
- access to relevant professional development.
Eligible Applicants
You can apply if you meet the eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria are a set of rules that describe who we can consider for this grant. Eligibility is determined at the time of application to Stage One of the program.
To be eligible you must:
- be a startup that is scalable as defined in the Grant Opportunity Guidelines
- be a female founded startup that is at least 51 per cent owned and led by women, as defined in the grant opportunity guidelines
- have a combined annual turnover of less than $20 million for each of the three financial years prior to the lodgement of the application.
You must also have active Australian Business Number (ABN) and be one of the following entities:
- an entity incorporated in Australia
- a partnership
- a sole trader
- trust or trustee.
You must meet at least one of the following criteria to be eligible for additional funding available to priority groups:
- your head office is located in a regional area
- your business is Indigenous-owned (refer to Glossary in section 14 of the Grant Opportunity Guidelines for definition)
- at least one of your founding team members (owners and leaders) is a person living with a disability
- at least one of your founding team members (owners and leaders) has migrated to Australia as a refugee or humanitarian entrant.
Timing
Stage 2 of Round 3 close 20 July 2023
Need some expert advice on your application and strategy? Chat here
More Information
Latest News
The $52.2 million Boosting Female Founders (BFF) grant program has been cut short, leaving $17 million in funding unallocated. Launched in 2020, BFF offered up to $480,000 to help women-led startups grow. Despite delays and communication issues, three rounds of funding have distributed $35.2 million to successful startups. However, the Department of Industry, Science, and Resources (DISR) announced that future rounds will not proceed, ending the program early.
Amanda Rose, CEO of Entrepreneurial & Small Business Women Australia, mentored BFF recipients and says the program’s end is a significant loss. “I loved it. The women loved it. It being cut is going to put women behind massively,” Rose said.
An internal DISR review found the BFF initiative underdelivered on its goals, leading to the decision to wrap up early. The government plans to redirect the remaining funds to other startup initiatives, but private sector leaders are disappointed by the loss of the only grant focused solely on women founders.
Read more here: https://bit.ly/3uCRsYd
The Boosting Female Founders (BFF) grant program’s third round, initiated by the Morrison government in 2020, is currently facing notable delays, impacting approximately 700 applicants. Designed to support startups predominantly owned or led by women, the program provides grants ranging from $25,000 to $480,000 to facilitate business expansion.
A crucial aspect of this initiative is the inclusion of matched funding for successful startups, necessitating applicants to have committed funds in place. However, the extended decision-making process for round three has created challenges, with numerous women-led startups experiencing prolonged ties to their funds.
Although there has been a reduction in the number of startups in this situation after the second round opened in mid-2023, dissatisfaction persists among some applicants. An anonymous source described the entire program as “completely useless,” highlighting significant disruptions to their plans due to delays.
The situation has intensified with recent correspondence from the Department of Industry, Science, and Resources (DISR), indicating a further extension of the decision-making deadline. Final approval and contract negotiations are now expected between December 2023 and early January 2024, potentially prolonging the wait for applicants. The email suggests that delays in the process have prompted the extension, raising concerns among those eagerly awaiting the outcome.
As the uncertainty continues, the frustration among impacted startups grows, emphasizing the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in accessing timely financial support to grow their ventures. The government’s commitment to assisting female-led startups is under scrutiny as the BFF program grapples with persistent delays, leaving applicants in a state of uncertainty and financial constraint.
Largest grants from Boosting Female Founders program will be reexamined. Serious questions were raised about eligibility for the scheme. Industry department has outsourced the assessment of eligibility to a private consultancy. Some companies are not majority owned by women, aren’t run by women or haven’t updated their company structures.
Boosting Female Founders was announced in 2018 by the Coalition government. More than $23.5 million has been distributed to 38 companies across two rounds. There are claims that of the 10 largest grant recipients in this round, five are potentially questionable in meeting the scheme’s eligibility criteria.
Application Walk Through
Round 3 Recipients
| Achieving global expansion of Credit Risk Management Software Platforms | Access Intell’s project is developing a credit risk software to protect businesses from bad debts. Businesses struggle to manage debtors ledgers across disjointed systems with limited access to cost effective credit intelligence. Access Intell aggregates data from multiple sources and integrates with business systems to deliver a continuous risk assessment on every customer. The grant funding will allow the business to scale-up, expand into global markets, become self-sufficient and create jobs and wealth for Australia. |
| Scale Pet Supplement & Sustainable Food Range | Bestie Kitchen has commercialised intellectual property developed with CSIRO, to make a unique form of nutraceutical gummy chews for pets. This tapped into a growing market for pet supplements. The key project activities will grow awareness and customer acquisition in Australia, secure distribution with key distributors and retail chains and penetrate key export markets in Asia. |
| Farming tools driven by data | Black Box Trading is providing analytics to the agricultural supply chain. The project funding from this grant is key to the product vertical, as Black Box have ambitions to build livestock dashboards to help farmers, feed-lots and processors with decisions derived from their database of 3.5 million animals. Black Box’s service is aimed at working across the beef supply chain, from the paddock to grocery shelves to aggregate data, apply machine learning, and give each stakeholder insights into their livestock. |
| Scaling Butter Insurance – Revolutionising Contents Insurance | Butter Insurance is revolutionising the way young Australian’s access, purchase and manage insurance. The project will focus on commercialising technology enabling data-lead instant quote and bind processes, flexible single-item policies and cost-effective pricing without lock-in contracts across key distribution channels. Butter’s goal is to bridge the insurance gap for the critically underinsured Australian renters’ market and under 35’s. |
| Retail Ready Launch of Compassion Creamery’s Award-Winning Oat Creme Cheese | Compassion Creamery is looking to scale their Oat Creme Cheese operations by increasing in-house manufacturing capability in Australia, as well as build commercial capacity including increasing shelf life through formulation alterations. Compassion Creamery will allow hundreds of foodservice outlets to contribute to the expansion and acceptance of plant-based alternatives in the market; ultimately driven by the urgent need of creating a more sustainable and ethical food system. |
| myDRIVESCHOOL® – social & global | myDRIVESCHOOL® is an award winning road safety program to teach people how to drive online, using simulation, gaming and artificial intelligence (AI). With BFF funding we will develop additional learning modules to address behavioural change and combine all for global markets. |
| Flohh Assessment Platform Scaling and Integration | The project for Education Ontrack will focus on integrating Flohh’s online essay marking platform into School Management Systems (SMS) and Learning Management Systems (LMS) to facilitate student data transfer and eliminate double-handling for teachers. This will also enable the business to scale internationally and enhance product performance. |
| Accelerating Allyship & Reconciliation supporting Statement of the Heart | Evolve Communities is a majority Indigenous owned, female-founded organisation that teaches Practical Reconciliation and Allyship. The project will expand their unique frameworks, educational resources, multi modal delivery, accreditation and licensing programs to make their training and accreditation the gold standard for professionals and organisations in Australia. |
| Fonz Moto – Australian designed & made EV motorcycles market expansion | Fonz Moto designs, builds, sells and rides electrifying two-wheel motorcycles & road-scooters for the future of mobility. The project boasts a highly innovative Australian designed and manufactured product that has disrupted the Sydney market, and will continue its rapid growth both locally and overseas. |
| Future Anything Enterprising Education Applied Learning Platform | Future Anything’s project will transform teacher-led enterprise education programs into a new student facing applied learning EdTech experience. The project will create an innovative new standalone product that will enable Future Anything to scale rapidly and sustainably into the domestic and international market. |
