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

1st Place

SURAG Medical GmbH

2nd Place

YOONA Ventures GmbH

3rd Place

The smart period blood GmbH

The Finalists

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

Digital Workshop with the Audi A4nXT Team
Finanzierung und Beratung für den Start von Startups

Who can apply?

You are eligible to apply if you are an early-stage tech startup with:

N

A minimum viable product (MVP)

N

A technology solution in the B2B or B2C space

N

A woman in your founding team with equity, who is available to pitch in Berlin, Germany on Oct. 27th, 2022

N

No VC funding to-date

What do we need from you?

N

A pitch deck

N

A team philosophy / core statement of your company

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One team photo / single shot

N

A demo video (up to 3 minutes) and a description of your solution

N

Please use this form to upload both

N

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.

© 2024 - encourageventures