Driving more diversity in the investor and startup landscape together
Audi & encourageventures
The Female Founder Startup Challenge launched by Audi and encourageventures brings together female founded early-stage startups that have innovative tech solutions and a broad angel investor community.
Designed to showcase and recognize the innovation of female founded startups, the Challenge offers finalists the opportunity to present their solutions in front of angel investors from the encourageventures network as well as executives from Audi in Berlin late October 2022.
In addition, an experienced jury will select 3 winners on October 27th, 2022 who will go home with some prestigious prizes from Audi.
The timeline
September 5, 2022: Challenge opens for submissions
October 4, 2022: Deadline to submit applications
October 13, 2022: 6 finalists announced
October 27, 2022: 6 finalists pitch at Audi x encourageventures Summit & winners are announced
The Winners
The Prizes
1st Prize
A day with Audi at the Audi Headquarter, Ingolstadt. Including
Audi Driving Experience
“Meet & Eat Lunch”
Workshop with Audi Start-Up experts
Dinner
2nd & 3rd Prizes
Who can apply?
You are eligible to apply if you are an early-stage tech startup with:
A minimum viable product (MVP)
A technology solution in the B2B or B2C space
A woman in your founding team with equity, who is available to pitch in Berlin, Germany on Oct. 27th, 2022
No VC funding to-date
What do we need from you?
A pitch deck
A team philosophy / core statement of your company
One team photo / single shot
A demo video (up to 3 minutes) and a description of your solution
Please use this form to upload both
Please review the official rules for more details
The Judges
Dr. Bettina Volkens
Josef Brunner
Prof. Dr. Heike Hölzner
Dr. Michael Müller
Dr. Tanja Emmerling
Brigitte Zypries
Meike Wacker
Selection Criteria
Team profile
Profile of the founder(s) and co-founder(s), ability to lead the solution to success, hard and soft skills of the operational team
Business model
Demonstrated traction and product-market fit
Innovation
Relevance, originality and innovation level of the tech solution compared to existing alternatives
Scalability
Feasibility, realism and viability (technical, economic and environmental) of implementing the solution
About Audi
The AUDI AG stands for sporty vehicles, high build quality and progressive design – for “Vorsprung durch Technik.” Audi is among the world’s leading producers of premium cars.
To play an instrumental role in shaping the transformation as we head into a new era of mobility, the Company is implementing its strategy step by step.
Creating the world of tomorrow is an expression of Audi’s attitude. With progressive technology, passionate creativity and new societal considerations. Audi firmly believes that sustainable progress changes the world – to the benefit of us all.
About encourageventures
encourageventures is a large network of female investors. We offer diversity, expertise and capital. As investors, mentors and advisors, we support female-led start-ups in their founding and expansion plans. We encourage female founders to realise their own business ideas. We support, inspire and accompany. We exchange ideas and take the next step together.
With our encourageventures network, we want to increase the visibility of women in the startup world and bring more diversity to the startup and investor landscape.