British banking giant Barclays and Techstars have partnered to launch a program that will support 30 female-led companies in industries such as finance, fintech, payments, and proptech, among others.
Female Founders First is a six-week virtual program that aims to give selected founders access to mentorship and networking opportunities, workshops and roundtables and various initiatives aimed at helping with funding or scaling efforts. The virtual component of the program also enables global participants to access the program from anywhere.
Jennifer Jordan, managing director for Female Founders First, said in a statement that there are female founders across the world who have started up “high-growth businesses that are on the verge of scale.”
“These are high-value, investment-worthy companies, but research shows that breaking through has as much to do with access as acumen,” Jordan said in a statement. “We are bringing together 30 exceptional, trailblazing founders—some of whom are first-time entrepreneurs, and some who have walked the path before—to learn from and support each other.”
The companies below are a part of the inaugural class and span industries from fintech to payments and proptech:
- EnrichHER: Dr. Roshawnna Novellus was selected for her financial services company that is a network of women-led business owners. EnrichHER, based in Georgia, provides tactical support, helps provide access to business financing and has engaged with over 23,000 people through its network.
- FilmChain: Maria Tanjala was selected for her United Kingdom-based company that aims to lower friction and increase transparency by collecting revenues and automatically allocating them to participants investing in a film.
- Nuggets: Seema Khinda Johnson was selected for her decentralized, self-sovereign ID and payments platform that stores users’ personal and payment data with blockchain. The company is based in London according to its LinkedIn.
- RentCheck: Lydia Winkler was selected for her property management solution company that helps property managers with self-guided inspections they can do through their smartphone. The company is based in Louisiana.
- Sustainably: Loral Quinn was selected for her United Kingdom-based information technology & services company that helps users connect their bank to securely round up spare change to the nearest euro to help users support causes with less effort.
- Tequity: Sydney Davis was selected for her Michigan-based company that helps non-technical founders solve complicated problems with simple mobile solutions.
- Zingeroo: Zoe Barry was selected for her company that is creating a real time platform that aims to allow users to take positions on popular stocks, make trading teams with friends and more.
To learn more about Female Founders First, head here.
Be sure to also check out FinLedger’s newly-launched Women in Fintech series. Today, we feature Deborah Kovacs, co-founder and chief product officer of banking software company Finxact.