The IT Nerd

Women in tech face disproportionate adversity compared to their male counterparts on the road to success that’s why providing high-quality mentorship opportunities and support for women in the tech startup ecosystem is integral. Today, Google announced the 11 North American startups joining the Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders class of 2023. 

Google is thrilled to share that among the cohort are three Canadian women-led startups from Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary – NLPatent, BorderlessHRandMonark– have been selected to join the program this year. 

Recent studies highlight that women in tech across Canada and the US continue to face barriers to access and disproportionate adversity compared to their male counterparts;

• Women account for nearly 50% of the workforce, but representation in the tech sector continues to lag behind.
• In 2001, only 21% of Canadian tech workers were women, and now, over 20 years later, that number sits at 24%, a meager 3% increase.

Source: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TOTL.FE.ZS?end=2022&locations=CA&start=1990

Now in its fourth year, the 10-week intensive digital accelerator program leverages the best of Google’s people and technology to provide equity free technical support and mentorship opportunities to incredible women founders from across North America who are looking to scale their businesses. The Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders program is an extension of Google’s commitment to leveling the playing field for women founders in North America. In fact, since the program launched in 2020, it has supported 36 women-led startups across North America, who have collectively raised $73.46M USD since graduating from their cohorts. 

The full blog post can be found here along with additional details on the participating North American startups below.  

• Aravenda (Fairfax, VA) is a comprehensive consignment shop software that is leading innovation in the fastest growing segment of retail through resales.
• BorderlessHR (Ottawa, ON) offers global talent solutions for small businesses, providing instant matches to pre-vetted talent and AI-powered interviewers, saving SMBs the cost and time spent hiring the right talent on time and within budget. Borderless HR also offers a free suite of HR products to help manage talent.
• Cobble (New York City, NY) is a platform that helps people reach collaborative agreement with others on ideas. Cobble offers a combination of decision-making tools, curated content and AI-driven social connections.
• Craftmerce (Delaware City, DE) is a B2B technology platform that links African artisans to mainstream retail partners by providing tools for distributed production, enterprise management, and financing.
• Dreami (Redwood City, Calif.) powers data-driven career development programs for the 36 million people in the US who face barriers to employment.
• Medijobs (New York City, NY) offers virtual recruiting for the healthcare industry.
• Monark (Calgary, AB) is a digital leadership development platform, preparing the next generation of leaders through on-demand personalized learning.
• NLPatent (Toronto, ON) is an AI-patent search and analytics platform that uses a fine-tuned large language model, built from the ground up, to understand the language of innovation.
• Rejoy Health (Mountain View, Calif.) is an AI-powered mobile application that uses computer vision technology to deliver at-home physical therapy, enabling individuals to effectively manage and alleviate chronic musculoskeletal conditions like back and joint pain.
• Shimmer (San Francisco, Calif.) is an ADHD coaching platform that connects adults with ADHD and expert ADHD coaches for behavioral coaching.
• Total Life (Jupiter, FL) reimagines aging for older adults through an easy, one-click platform that connects users with a Medicare covered healthcare provider.

This entry was posted on August 17, 2023 at 9:32 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.