Microsoft’s venture capital fund, M12, announced yesterday that it has plans to join forces with SVB Financial Group and EQT Ventures to fund a startup contest for women. Dubbed the Female Founders Competition, the contest will be open to startups from North America, Europe and Israel that have at least one founder who is a woman.
Ten finalists will compete for a share in $4 million of venture funding. There will be two winners, both of which will receive $2 million along with mentoring, technology resources and legal counsel. To be considered, companies must have raised less than $4 million so far.
Microsoft Executive Vice President of Business Development Peggy Johnson revealed the competition in a blog post yesterday.
[We] have a responsibility — and an opportunity — to support entrepreneurs with new thinking, fresh voices and diverse points of view.”
Gender inequality stubbornly remains in tech, with just 2.2 percent of global venture funding going to female founders. Only 17 percent of all startups have a woman on the founding team, and only 10 percent of all tech industry C-level positions are held by women.
“I’ve experienced this painful data up close,” Johnson wrote. “Over the course of my career, I’ve spent thousands of hours in pitch meetings, often as the only woman in the room. I still can’t hold back a smile when a woman founder walks through the door, because I know the obstacles she’s overcome just to get there.”
Before joining Microsoft in 2014, Johnson worked at San Diego’s Qualcomm for 25 years.
Applicants for the Female Founders Competition will vie for the chance to take part in a live pitch-off in the fall, where preference will be given to businesses that can demonstrate solutions to a “critical business problem.”
“The future of the tech industry is still being written,” Johnson wrote, “and we know that many of its most important authors won’t be those of us in the Fortune 500 … If we’re truly committed to becoming the inclusive industry we aspire to, then those of us at the top have a responsibility — and an opportunity — to support entrepreneurs with new thinking, fresh voices and diverse points of view.”
Applications are open through September 30 and are available here.
