UK companies win both international prizes in Microsoft’s Female Founders Competition
Summary
They join two winners from the US, Huue and Webee, who will all share $6 million in funding from M12, Mayfield and Melinda Gates’s Pivotal Ventures. The competition is designed to raise awareness of the systemic under-funding of female founders—particularly in the technology sector, and identify companies that are tackling critical business problems that wouldn’t typically surface in M12’s traditional sourcing pipelines. Tamara Steffens, Managing Director of M12, said: “We are committed to supporting entrepreneurs from all backgrounds, and wanted to build on the success of our inaugural Female Founders Competition. Mumatz said: “Despite increasing government-led and other external initiatives, female entrepreneurs looking to start or grow their businesses still face many barriers, one of the biggest being internal – the feeling that they don’t belong. There is a need to foster stronger and more cohesive entrepreneurial ecosystems, bringing together female entrepreneurs with each other, investors and mentors, with a view to providing training, support, investment and most importantly, reinforce belonging.” Deployed is a productivity platform for the $3 trillion of services transacted across the world via Statements of Work.