Soda's RISE UP Promotes Female Entrepreneurship from Aotearoa New Zealand

For RISE UP, Soda is looking for driven female business owners from Aotearoa New Zealand who want to win $10,000. Pre-acceleration programme and seed funding applications are now accepting submissions. According to CEO Erin Wansbrough, Soda is dedicated about promoting women in business.

You need a great concept, business sense, determination, and devotion to launch your own company. But you also need money and outside help to succeed. That support and financial backing are sometimes more difficult to come by for female founders.

To solve the gender gap in entrepreneurship in New Zealand, which stands at only 21.6% for female-led firms, we founded RISE UP in 2021.

"While $10,000 in prize money is undoubtedly an attraction, RISE UP offers more than just a financial boost. Our training has been designed to test and improve the business acumen and abilities of our finalists. A community of like-minded female founders who can support one another as they work to build prosperous enterprises is equally vital.

RISE UP is now accepting applications, which will conclude on June 23, 2023. A female founder or a female-led firm with no more than three years' worth of sales must qualify in order to participate. The company must have distinctive intellectual property or be scalable.

Five female-led firms will be chosen by Soda to take part in a pre-acceleration course that entails online founder-focused training on subjects including branding, marketing, pitch coaching, and raising finance as a woman.

The five finalists will present their company ideas to a general audience in The Atrium at Wintec House, Hamilton, on August 29, 2023, to conclude the competition. A winner will be chosen by a distinguished panel of judges and will earn $10,000 to advance their company. Visitors are asked to vote for a People's Choice winner at the public event.

The creator of Finery, Jane Allan, who took first place in RISE UP 2022, said: "Winning RISE UP was confirmation that we were on the correct course. We were able to thoroughly examine our company thanks to the RISE UP course, and we quickly achieved significant strides. It has seemed like an inclusive, professional, and caring process since the day we were named finalists.

Callaghan Innovation, a platinum sponsor, and Craigs Investment Partners, a gold sponsor, are the driving forces behind RISE UP 2023.