The Hague-based FEM-START, a platform for education, mentoring, and networking to bridge the funding gap for female entrepreneurs, announced the five finalists of the FEM-START Awards 2023 edition!
FEM-START Awards 2023: Top 5 finalists
Powered by Antler, this year’s FEM-START Awards offer an investment prize of €100,000, and the runner-up will receive the opportunity of a trip to Silicon Valley. The top five finalists for this year are:
Anastasia Kuskova – Empowering sustainability in mining and metals
Anastasia Kuskova, with over 11 years of experience in the mining and metals sector, is the co-founder and CEO of Sirius. Her startup, backed by Techstars, is on a mission to empower mining and metal companies to drive sustainability impact.
Sirius provides a comprehensive tech stack for sustainability officers, simplifying and making sustainability transformation accessible to one of the most crucial sectors for the energy transition.
Dr. Rose (Rezvan) Sharifian – Tackling climate change with SeaO2
Dr. Rose (rezvan) Sharifian is an ex-petrochemical engineer who decided to pivot and run a CO2-capturing startup – using the ocean to catch atmospheric carbon. SeaO2 is committed to protecting our planet by reducing atmospheric carbon using the oceans.
SeaO2’s mission is to combat global warming, deacidify oceans, restore pH levels, and support biodiversity. They are actively working on making this technology a large-scale, must-have solution.
Laurie Lancee – Revolutionising infant nutrition with Vini Mini
Laurie Lancee, the founder of Vini Mini, is on a mission to simplify and improve infant nutrition. Her startup was born out of her exploration, which revealed several missing elements in the first 1000 days of a newborn’s life.
Lancee, alongside co-founder Jozien Boersma, aims to make the allergen introduction process easier, healthier, and safer for parents. Vini Mini provides a solution for parents looking to feed allergens to their little ones.
Claire Bénard – Using data to tackle food loss
Claire Bénard was keen to use data to solve problems that matter. Claire is one of the three founders of Merqato.
Claire spent 8 years building data products and leading data teams in charities and startups before founding her consultancy.
While supporting mission-driven organisations in their data maturity was exciting and rewarding, Claire’s passion for impactful products drove her to team up with Thomas and Jan-Willem to build Merqato, an AI platform tackling food loss in the early stages of the supply chain.
Kinga Matuła – Bridging the gap between innovation and patients with QurieGen
Kinga Matuła is an innovator, biotechnologist, and the CEO and co-founder of QurieGen. With over 13 years of experience in research at the intersection of chemistry, biology, and physics, Kinga is passionate about turning scientific discoveries into tangible impacts.
She is deeply committed to bridging the gap between innovation and patients by developing better ways to create more effective treatments and early detection of metastatic cancer.
FEM-START: What you need to know
Marian Spier celebrated female entrepreneurship through the Startup Awards for five years.
In 2020, amid the pandemic, she established FEM-START with Sandra van der Pal, Simone van Bijsterveldt, and Ellen Tacoma to bridge the funding gap for female entrepreneurs.
FEM-START is an e-educational platform offering courses on funding and entrepreneurship to help female entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.
The platform aims to fund 100,000 women by 2030.
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/5-finalists-of-fem-start-awards-2023/
