Team Lady Mavericks (SSUP 2023)

Western Australia is headquarters to 650+ fast-growing companies (created after 2000). But few are female-founded and less than 10% of the funding gets channeled to them. We were curious to find out why the stats were so skewed – even in a place like Australia, which ranks very high on the gender equality metrics. We believed in the massive potential there is to unlock here – especially because we know that targeted support to female founders increases their success rate (e.g., improve capital raising by 4x) and that female-founded companies also show a higher return on investment.

In this context, our team from the INSEAD Business School partnered with the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DJTSI) to understand the innovation ecosystem for female founders in Western Australia (WA). Over the course of 4 weeks, we interviewed 30 people including 12 founders and 10 funders and other ecosystem representatives, academics. This was complemented with limited secondary research where relevant.

We have summarized some of our findings in the below blogposts:

1. Part 1 – Female founders – under-supported overperformers
2. Part 2 – Navigating female founder challenges

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