WFN Announces New Female Founder Mentoring Award, Exclusively for Black & Latina Entrepreneurs
- Women Founders Network
- Aug 18, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 8, 2021
August 17, 2020 – Women Founders Network (WFN) announces its “Woman Founder of Distinction Award,” the first-ever WFN female founder mentoring award exclusively created for and awarded to Black and Latina entrepreneurs.
As a result of the record number of Black and Latina female-founded businesses that applied for the annual WFN Fast Pitch this year, Women Founders Network decided to highlight and celebrate this diversity by creating a new category of achievement, with the goal of supporting and advancing underrepresented business owners, particularly Black and Latina founders. According to Project Diane, Black and Latinx women-led startups raised only 0.06% and 0.32%, respectively, of the $425 billion in total tech venture capital raised from 2009 to 2017, and in 2017 only 34 Black women and 58 Latinx women had raised more than $1 million in venture capital funding.
The WFN Board and Judges selected the following five up-and-coming businesses for the inaugural “WFN Woman Founder of Distinction Award 2020” based on the strength of their founder and their potential for growth and business scalability.
● Budget Better Inc., Carmen Perez, Founder and CEO
● Emblematic Group, Nonny de la Peña, PhD, Founder and CEO
● Kushae by BK Naturals, Kimba Williams, Co-Founder and CEO
● My Dental Wig, Lydie Livolsi, Founder and CEO
● Oya Femtech Apparel, Mitchella Gilbert, CEO
Going forward, this new award will be given annually to selected female Black and Latina founders of early stage startups. The WFN Woman Founder of Distinction Award includes a mentorship and financial advisement package (in-kind services valued at $15,000). In addition, the award finalists will receive scholarship to the Founders First CDC accelerator program, founded by Kim Folsom, whose mission to grow and fund diverse founder led small businesses. The award recipients will also have the opportunity to participate in a Fast Pitch event on November 11th, 2020, which will be hosted by Women Founders Network, in partnership with All Raise and Springboard enterprises.
“Women Founders Network was started to provide female founders access to capital, visibility, and mentorship,” says WFN Co-Founder and CEO Darya Allen-Attar. “The gender and racial disparities in business seriously concern us and we want to help change that. This year, 139 start-ups applied to the WFN Fast Pitch competition and we were pleased that 27 of them were from Black and Latina founders, nearly four times the number in 2019. We see this as the beginning of a positive trend and we will continue to do our part to mentor and raise visibility for these female founders. We are excited to create this award to recognize the movement for social equity by helping advance ambitious female founders who need it most.”
Allen-Attar adds, “Our judges selected the five companies for the inaugural WFN Woman Founder of Distinction Award based on the strength of the founder, and the high growth and scalability potential of their businesses. Our goal is to leverage the power of the WFN network and our resources to help these women grow and scale their businesses, and ultimately to increase the number of companies led by Black and Latina founders who achieve venture capital funding.”
WFN wishes to thank all of our Fast Pitch 2020 applicants, with special thanks to our Black and Latina founder companies listed below:
Fech
Film Connx
Kilo
Peoples Talent Show LLC (The People's Talent Show or TPTS)
SheMade Inc.
SingleParentPower
If you are interested in joining our roster of sponsors, please contact Patti Buhler, Administration, Women Founders Network, at patti.buhler@gmail.com.
About Women Founders Network
Women Founders Network (WFN) connects women building high-growth businesses with the tools and resources they need to achieve business success. WFN has awarded and directly invested over $1.5 million in women-founded companies in the past six years, and alumni have gone on to raise over $100 million in funding. Visit us at www.womenfoundersnetwork.com.
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This initiative is such a meaningful step toward addressing the funding gap for Black and Latina entrepreneurs. I’ve seen similar conversations about supporting underrepresented founders on Wheelie Life, and it’s inspiring to see programs like this in action. Here’s hoping this award continues to grow and empower more women in the years to come!
This is such a powerful initiative! It’s shocking to see the disparities in funding for Black and Latina women founders, and efforts like this are a step in the right direction. I remember reading about similar challenges on Cobb Can Move, and it’s clear there’s still so much work to do. Excited to see how these businesses grow with the support they deserve!
The award aims to provide not only financial support, but also mentorship, networking opportunities, and strategic guidance to help emerging Space Waves founders scale their businesses and strengthen long-term sustainability
It's amazing to see initiatives like this that directly support underrepresented entrepreneurs. The stats on funding disparities are shocking, and programs like WFN's award seem like a great step forward. I’ve actually discussed similar issues on Crazy Cattle 3D, and it’s clear that visibility and mentorship can make a real difference for founders navigating these challenges.This is such an inspiring initiative! It’s great to see organizations like WFN addressing underrepresentation in entrepreneurship. I’ve been exploring similar topics on Crazy Cattle 3D, and it’s clear there’s still so much work to be done to close these gaps. Looking forward to seeing how these founders grow their businesses!