Three women founders were awarded a collective $100,000 in funding at the Communitech Fierce Founders Bootcamp Pitch Competition on Thursday.
The Fierce Founders bootcamp helps women founders from early-stage startups develop business skills, collaborate with mentors, and learn to pitch. The bootcamp prepares founders for a Pitch Day, where they compete to win up to $100,000 for their companies.
Alwar Pillai was awarded $75,000 pitching Toronto-based Fable Tech Labs, which helps businesses test whether or not their technology is accessible to people with disabilities. Lauren Smith was awarded $25,000 in second place for Waterloo-based PolyGone Technologies, which has developed a filter to catch microfibers leaking into water and food supplies during washing. Suzana Vuković was award third place for Ottawa-based IntelliMEDSolutions, which is developing a solution to reduce time for healthcare intervention. IntelliMEDSolutions has a guaranteed spot in the fifth cohort of the Communitech Fierce Founders Accelerator beginning October 2018.
“This was my first pitch competition. When I started, my goal was just to learn to pitch, and Fierce Founders definitely delivered,” said Pillai. “This is going to be huge for us. It’s so hard to find other female founders and get a support network. This experience was really valuable.”
The companies were vetted based on customer validation, lean canvas model, and pitch practice performance.
Photo via Twitter.
