Australia: Female Founders Co-Investment Fund

The Female Founders Co-Investment Fund is a pilot fund that aims to support eligible businesses to leverage funding and secure new investment to build business capacity, and will:

• help Queensland female founders access Government funding,
• support Queensland female founders across a wide range of industries to grow innovative businesses,
• increase the number of female founders participating in the Queensland innovation ecosystem, and
• help to grow an investment pipeline for female founded businesses.

The female founder should:

• have a letter of support from the lead investment entity,
• have an established business plan,
• have a clear runway and growth plan for 12 months,
• have a clear innovation focus,
• be undertaking a new pre-seed or seed raise/investment, and
• plan to use the funding to scale their business.

Funding Information

The Fund provides grants from $50,000 to $200,000 matched at a 3:1 ratio over a period of 12 months, for either a single investment or a raise round led by an eligible investment entity.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for funding, organisations must at the time of application:

• be a Queensland based business
• have an ABN and be registered for GST
• be a 100% female-founded business (as at the point of incorporation)
• have more than 50% female ownership (at the time of application)
• have no more than 50 full-time-equivalent employees
• not be a subsidiary of a group of companies that has more than 50 full-time-equivalent employees
• not have received investment through previous capital raises, grant funding or accelerators totalling more than $500,000
• not be a current or past recipient of the Ignite Ideas Fund
• be undertaking pre-seed or seed eligible investment from an approved eligible investor.

For more information, visit Queensland Government.