Communitech recognizes female entrepreneurs through Fierce Founders Bootcamp
Posted Aug 25, 2017 04:18:37 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was a good day for two female entrepreneurs, as they split the $100,000 award from Communitech’s Fierce Founders Bootcamp Pitch Competition.
The competition wrapped up Thursday, and over 20 businesses from around North America took part.
This year’s winners were SomaDetect Inc. from New Brunswick, and Furnishr from New York.
SomaDetect provides farmers with the information they need to produce quality milk by monitoring herds with data, and Furnishr is a turn-key home furnishing platform which supplies a fully-furnished room in a day.
Bethany Deshpande is CEO of SomaDetect and says this funding is a dream come true.
“When you’re building a startup, you believe in your business, but it’s a challenge to get other people to believe in your business too. So this award from Fierce Founders is like a big validation that not only do I believe in my business, but that I have their support as well.”
Karen Lau with Funishr is also praising the award, saying the money will help them building a brand presence for their startup.
“The key for any business is building trust in your brand. So this money will help us create a marketing strategy, build more brand presence, work on our branding, and let people know about our services.”
20 startups participated in the two-week bootcamp, including Tricolops of Kitchener, healthypets.io of Waterloo, and QuantWave Technologies Inc. of Kitchener.
Communitech has hosted the competition since 2014, as they say they noticed an increase in women engaging in startup services. They say 25.9% of active startups now have at least one female founder.
