A brand new fund for girls creating AI startups in Asia Pacific
To assist degree the taking part in area for girls startup founders — who will go on to construct extra equitable AI merchandise for the world — Google for Startups is launching a brand new fund for women-founded AI startups in Asia Pacific.
The Google for Startups Ladies Founders Fund will present an equity-free money award of $100,000 every to 6 startups from India, Japan and Korea. These are nations the place we’ve seen a rising variety of women-founded AI companies by our applications in Google for Startups Campuses in Japan and Korea, and thru Startup School in India — a program that mentored over 14,000 aspiring entrepreneurs in 2022.
The Google for Startups Women Founders Fund is the newest providing in our rising portfolio of Google for Startups Founders Funds, which have since 2020 supplied greater than $30 million to assist underrepresented and at-risk founders in Africa, Europe, Brazil and the U.S. To this point, more than 400 recipient startups have gone on to raise over $400 million in follow-on venture capital — so we all know investing in underrepresented founders is the suitable manner to assist them develop their companies.
Hyemin Lee, founding father of Korea-based fintech startup Finda, was in a position to safe seed and pre-Collection A funding to develop her AI-powered digital loans platform after taking part in numerous Google for Startups applications, together with Google for Startups Residency in 2016.
“Whereas the funding atmosphere has stabilized for startups, ladies founders nonetheless face biases and restricted entry to capital,” Hyemin says. “We are sometimes handled with harsher requirements and seen as much less succesful than male counterparts. Ladies founders proceed to want assist to construct credibility for his or her concepts and a group of like-minded individuals to champion each other.”
Mariko Magnan, founding father of Japan-based private concierge startup TPO, grew to become extra assured in pitching her enterprise to worldwide companions after attending final yr’s Google for Startups Founders Academy. “This system supplied distinctive and priceless learnings not like something I had acquired in Japan,” says Mariko. “Amid a male-centric startup ecosystem, the incorporation of extra ladies leaders will act as a strong catalyst for different ladies to observe swimsuit.”
On high of equity-free capital, recipients of the Google for Startups Ladies Founders Fund will obtain devoted mentorship and technical assist from Google specialists. founders in India, Japan and Korea can apply for the Women Founders Fund from at this time till August 15, 2023.
