Majik Water, CONCAT Tech, and Kleiderly Take $10,000 Prizes in Awards Ceremony Recognizing Top Women-Led Sustainable Startups from Around the World
PARIS and NEW YORK, April 21, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Today, Thousand Faces, a community-based investment club helping female entrepreneurs build sustainable businesses, announced the three award winners in their first Female Founders Accelerator Program. These three winners, culled to six finalists from an initial group of more than 220 applicants from 76 countries, were selected by Thousand Faces' Founding Member Board and its community of more than 4000 members and investors.
The winners are:
- Majik Water (Kenya)- Founded by Kenyan entrepreneur Beth Koigi, Magik Water is a social enterprise that offers clean water technology to provide access to clean drinking water in arid and semi-arid regions through air-to-water technology and devices.
- CONCAT Tech (UK and Lebanon) - A web development company founded by Laura Jardine Paterson, CONCAT provides long-term, sustainable employment opportunities for marginalized communities.
- Kleiderly (Germany) - Founded by inventor Alina Bassi, Kleiderly recycles unwanted textile waste and turns it into a patented plastic alternative.
Other finalists receiving non-cash awards are:
- Jonda Health (Singapore)- Founded by Suhina Singh, Jonda Health is a health tech company with an AI tech stack that enables the ingestion, standardization and flow of health data from various sources, within the ecosystem while preserving data sovereignty to improve care.
- Salubata (Nigeria)- Founded by Yewande Adebowale Akinse, Salubata makes customizable, modular shoes made from recycled plastic waste.
- Biiah (UK) - An employee wellness program (virtual and in-person), founded by Xann Schwinn, Biiah helps people improve their health by establishing a daily singing routine.
"Less than 2% of total VC funding in the world goes to female founders and only 30% of climate-related decisions are made by women, but it's proven that female-led organizations are more than twice as profitable, they generate more innovation and build more sustainable businesses, respecting people and the planet," said Moojan Ashgari, CEO and co-founder of Thousand Faces. "We're here to fund more female founders and help them build their impact projects and we are thankful to all of our partners and all of the amazing people at these companies who are here to support us on our mission."
"Today is a very important day for us as we celebrate the outstanding work and achievements of the admirable founders who are graduating from our Female Founders program. They each have a unique personal story that has inspired me, our team and our community," Ashgari continued.
Criteria for selection include SDG impact, product innovation and potential for product success, strength of the team (leadership and potential). The awards are sponsored by Web3-based gaming platform The SandBox, Web3 artist community World of Women's WoW Foundation, Web3 domain registrar Unstoppable Domains, and French public investment bank BPI France.
The winners were determined over the course of the three-month program based on their performance through several rounds of pitches, workshops, demos and one-on-one mentoring. In addition to the top three winners each receiving $10,000 grants, tall finalists will receive a $250 credit from Unstoppable Women of Web3, promotion via social media and the Thousand Faces' Thousand Voices podcast and website, a Thousand Faces NFT and continuous support in fundraising throughout the year.
The awards ceremony was held virtually today and can be watched on-demand at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwpN5_fimlg. In addition to Thousand Faces CEO and founder Moojan Ashgari, speakers included Sébastien Borget, Co-founder and COO of the Sandbox, Cynthia Hass, Director of the WoW Foundation, and Dr. Animo Emuwa from 100 Woman Davos.
"This is all part of a journey. All this knowledge that we've pushed together, to present, to pitch and to ready a product for launch in market, at the end of the day it's not really the awards that matter, it's about the results we deliver and the impact we drive," said Sébastien Borget. "In web3, we always win when we walk together. It's important as entrepreneurs to find synergies in what you're doing to cross-promote and help each other and leverage an event like today to support everyone. Each woman has a responsibility to inspire even more women in the space to lead the change."
The Female Founder Accelerator Program is a three-month program that brings together experts in different fields to deliver a startup curriculum designed exclusively to support and foster female founders building early-stage businesses supporting Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). The curriculum covers business classes crucial to startup success, including business plan creation, team building, leadership, marketing and sales, branding, product development, finance, legal support and fundraising, as well as classes that support wellness and emotional well-being.
About Thousand Faces
Headquartered in Paris, Thousand Faces exclusive Web3 community-based Investment Club and DAO is committed to helping women entrepreneurs build SDG-focused companies. Founded by Iranian sisters, entrepreneur Moojan Asghari and artist Niousha Asghari, its mission is to democratize funding for the underfunded and excluded. Thousand Faces aims to be a first source of funding for entrepreneurs around the globe to launch companies that make the world a better place. Lifelong membership is open to holders of Thousand Faces original NFTs and founding membership is reserved for members cleared for the membership AllowList. Minting is now open at https://mint.thousandfaces.art/.
Media Contact
Deana Graffeo Weeks, Thousand Faces, 1 64-389-7519, [email protected]
SOURCE Thousand Faces
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