CyberTech Women Entrepreneur Program to Host Women-led Start-Ups from Australia and India

By: WE Staff | Friday, 9 September 2022

This month marks the deadline for applications to a programme that will connect international women tech entrepreneurs and provide participants the possibility to expand their enterprises internationally.

The CyberTech Women Entrepreneur programme will host six women-led start-ups, each from Australia and India, that are concentrated on critical technologies and cyber security. Program co-launcher and start-up accelerator inQ Innovation has dubbed the programme "the largest start-up pitch contest in the Indo-Pacific region in 2022."

Participants will receive mentoring and financial grants, according to Deepthi Ravula, CEO of the Indian government initiative WE Hub, which also jointly launched the programme.

“For over a decade, start-ups, especially female entrepreneurs in tech, have expressed the lack of opportunities and financial support to optimally scale-up their businesses globally," she said.

Additionally, additional soft-landing assistance will be given for an additional three months after the programme ends. Applications are accepted through the end of September for the programme.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and inQ Innovation Global have been collaborating since March to develop a programme that "offers an all-inclusive scale-up ecosystem crucial for women-led tech start-ups, to accelerate and maximise Australia-India partnerships," according to Irfan Malik, CEO of inQ Innovation Global.

In order to assist and enhance the start-up ecosystem for female entrepreneurs in cyberspace and critical technologies across the two nations, he continued, "This exchange programme will be integral to developing an ongoing bilateral start-up-scale-up exchange initiative."

Artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, next-generation telecommunications, the internet of things, synthetic biology, genomics, genetic engineering, low emission alternative fuels, autonomous vehicles, drones, swarming and collaborative robotics, and big data are a few examples of target areas from submissions so far.

The programme is a component of the DFAT Cyber Affairs team-supported Australia-India Bilateral Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership (AICCTP) programme providing market access and commercial paths for women-led technology enterprises in Australia and India.