Women-Led Startups Selected Into W Venture

September 9, 2020
South Vancouver Island | Thompson Okanagan

W Venture, created by Accelerate Okanagan, UVIC and VIATEC alongside the Digital Technology Supercluster starts it’s three-month program today to advance entrepreneurial women in BC

VICTORIA & KELOWNA – With its inception only a few months ago, W Venture has elicited an immense response, attracting women entrepreneurs from across the province who are ready to accelerate their businesses. Thirty-one startups have been selected from varied industries, including wellness, cleantech, e-commerce, biotech, and enterprise software.

Among the participating ventures, there is a diverse selection of founder ages, backgrounds, business experience and company size, creating fertile soil for connections and opportunities to flourish. Each will gain the necessary skills to confidently address their unique business challenges through personalized, hands-on support from curated mentors and subject-matter experts.

Shelley Voyer

“We’re really impressed with the caliber of applicants we received here in BC,” says Program Manager Shelley Voyer. “The quality of these ventures demonstrates the massive potential there is for women in the tech sector and we’re proud to support the BC tech community by working with these companies.”

In collaboration, Accelerate Okanagan, University of Victoria, VIATEC and their partners are leveraging their combined expertise to provide training while helping participants connect with a community of peers from across the province.

“With the launch of W Venture, we are clearly building leadership capacity throughout the province which is one of our core mandates for the Supercluster. The response from women founders has been fantastic,” says Sue Paish, CEO, Digital Technology Supercluster. “After surpassing our target of twenty-four qualified applicants we increased program capacity to thirty-one, which could still not meet the demand. There’s clearly an appetite in innovative industries for business training expertise.”

Currently women founders in the Victoria tech industry are the small minority at only 10% and less than 39% of the tech workforce in the Okanagan are women. Programs like W Venture are committed to expanding opportunities in this ever-changing landscape of industries, in which women continue to remain underrepresented.

Selected ventures include:

For more information about W Venture, please visit www.wventure.ca.

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