Female founders to gain access to new financial backing
When Remy Tucker started working as a student midwife, she immediately realized the extent of menstrual inequality in Australia.
“Women were leaving the hospital asking if they could take (hygiene) products with them, and this was an issue I started to notice over and over again everywhere,” she told AAP.
“Access to hygiene products should be as common as toilet paper wherever you go.”
Ms. Tucker soon founded On The House, which installed free feminine hygiene product dispensers in workplaces, universities and public venues.
Products are paid for through advertising on packaging and displayed in dispensers.
“It’s actually a billboard in the bathroom,” he said.
“I started with five machines in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and we had such incredible interest that amazing brands came on board that I realized it could be much bigger than I thought.”
Ms. Tucker, who had just stepped into the startup world, was advised to apply for the Startmate program, which supports women to participate in the startup ecosystem as founders, employees and angel investors.
Since the completion of the program, On The House has raised a $1.7 million seed round, built a five-person team and is rolling out 55 machines in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
Despite research showing that companies founded by women have higher returns on investment, women-founded start-ups in Australia receive only two per cent of venture capital funding.
“Research shows that female founding teams are consistently underfunded and under-resourced around the world,” said John Hartman, CEO of Minderoo Foundation.
“This has not changed despite the strong performance of female-led teams and clear evidence that they deliver results, often outperforming their male counterparts.”
To help tackle this gender gap, the foundation has partnered with Startmate and committed $8 million over the next four years to increase the capital available to women business owners.
Since 2019, 43 percent of companies supported by Startmate have at least one female co-founder; This rate is well above the industry average of only 24 percent.
“The gender gap in fundraising doesn’t start at the point of investment, it starts much earlier in the pipeline,” said chief executive Phoebe Pincus.
“Fewer women are entering the startup ecosystem in the first place, they are making less progress towards becoming founders, and those who do are less likely to have access to the same networks, warm introductions, investor trust and early institutional support as their male counterparts.
“Female founders often have to work harder to build credibility, get access to the right rooms, and be taken seriously in the early stages.”
Ms. Pincus added that brilliant female founders often wait until they feel “ready,” while male founders are more likely to back themselves sooner.
“We know the talent is there, there is an opportunity now to ensure more women have access to the networks, capital and belief needed to build generational companies,” she said.
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