Victorian start-up agency LaunchVic’s ongoing support of female founders continues with a new grant program for organizations to run pre-accelerator programs for female entrepreneurs.

Grants of up to $300,000 are available to support women’s programs founders with the advice, support, and networks needed to build a minimum viable product and find their first customer.

LaunchVic already financially supports female founders through the $10 million Alice Anderson Fund. Launched in mid-2021, the Angel Sidecar Fund co-invests between $50,000 and $300,000 in early-stage startups.

Dr. Kate Cornick, CEO of LaunchVic, said her agency is on its way Ecosystem Mapping Report will show that a third of Victorian startups now have at least one female founder, up from 20% in 2020, but that The figure continues to be surpassed by the growth of all-male companies.

“The latest funding reflects LaunchVic’s continued commitment to building the pipeline of women-founded companies and ensuring a diverse startup ecosystem,” she said.

“We are pumping up the Victorian startup industry for the next generation of female entrepreneurs and ensuring that, through initiatives such as The Alice Anderson Fund, they are supported through every stage of growth.”

Since 2017, LaunchVic programs have upskilled more than 11,600 budding entrepreneurs.

Ivy Nguyen, co-founder of ReciMe, a recipe discovery app billed as the “Spotify for home cooks,” is one of them. She recently completed LaunchVic’s CivVic Labs pre-accelerator and subsequently raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding.

“The CivVic Labs program has helped us solve the problems of access to culturally healthy food,” she said.

We were able to apply our learnings to develop a product that inspires young people to cook healthy meals at home and embrace cultural foods.”

ReciMe is also a portfolio company of the Alice Anderson Fund, which has now supported 21 female-led startups in 18 months.

Applications for the scholarships are open for local and international programs seeking to support women in Victoria.

More about the pre-accelerator scholarship program at launchvic.org/grants/