Female Entrepreneurs Wanted For RISE UP Competition

Soda is searching for globally ambitious female entrepreneurs from Aotearoa to apply for RISE UP and be in to win $10,000.

“At Soda we are passionate about supporting women in business, particularly those tenacious enough to start their own business. We created RISE UP in 2021 to encourage more women to consider entrepreneurship as a viable career, to lift the capability of female founders and champion female entrepreneurship in Aotearoa,” says Soda CEO, Erin Wansbrough.

“Only 20 per cent of high growth startups in Aotearoa have a female founder and we hope that initiatives like RISE UP will help to address and rectify that gender imbalance.”

Applications for RISE UP are open now and close on 10 June 2021. To be eligible you need to be a female founder (or have one female founder) and have a New Zealand registered pre or early revenue business that is less than three years old and has less than five employees. The business must be scaleable or have some unique intellectual property.

Soda will select five female entrepreneurs to go through a founder-focused workshop series on topics such as storytelling, owning your brand, pitch coaching and raising capital as a female.

The competition will culminate in a pitch night on 17 August 2022 where the five finalists will pitch their business idea to a panel of high-profile judges in The Atrium, Wintec House, Hamilton. Runners-up will receive one-on-one mentoring with Soda’s industry experts and the winner will receive $10,000 cash to help propel their business to the next level. The event will be open to the public with guests encouraged to vote for a People's Choice winner.

“RISE UP enabled me to capitalise on the early potential of my business by connecting me with the right people in the industry and assisting me in identifying my strengths and weaknesses,” says Wendy Quach, &Again founder and winner of RISE UP 2021.

To find out more and apply, go to www.sodainc.com/start-ups/rise-up

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