Toronto Metropolitan University’s DMZ held its second annual Women Innovation Summit, where 10 women-led tech startups had the opportunity to pitch their businesses to angel investors from The Firehood to secure cash investments.
DMZ hosted the Summit at its Toronto headquarters in honour of International Women’s Day. The day-long event featured curated activities to empower and celebrate women in entrepreneurship and business. These included intimate roundtables that encouraged candid discussions around women’s empowerment, the unveiling of DMZ’s 2024 Women of the Year recipients, and a pitch competition in partnership with The Firehood, an angel group committed to fueling women-led tech innovations.
The pitch competition, which received over 160 applications to participate from coast to coast, heard from 10 women-led startups and awarded a total of $100,000 CAD to:
- LyfeMD, a Calgary-based startup that offers an evidence-based platform transforming the management of inflammatory diseases, received $60,000 CAD.
- Roga, a Toronto-based startup that provides a mental healthcare platform and wearable non-invasive brain stimulation device designed to reduce employee anxiety, received $40,000 CAD.
Following the pitch results reveal, The Firehood also announced an additional $130,000 CAD investment in DMZ alum Granularity, an AI-powered platform empowering retailers and brands to stay ahead of viral social media and search trends.
The Summit also unveiled DMZ’s 2024 Women of the Year recipients. Created to honour women in Canada’s tech and business community, the annual award recognizes an esteemed list of individuals for their outstanding accomplishments and impact.
DMZ’s 2024 Women of the Year award recipients include:
- Amber Mac, President of AmberMac Media Inc.
- Ashley Wright, Founder and CEO of The Wright Success
- Fatima Zaidi, Founder and CEO of Quill
- Helen Ahrens, Chair of OUT at Shopify and Senior Merchant Success Manager of Key Accounts
- Helen Huang, Co-Founder of Co.Lab
- Shriya Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder of Daily Blends
- Stephanie Curcio, CEO and Co-Founder of NLPatent
- Sylvia Ng, CEO of ReturnBear
- Rhiannon Davies, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Sandpiper Ventures
For more information on DMZ Women of the Year award recipients, head over to dmz.to/woty2024.
Beyond the Women Innovation Summit, DMZ’s Women Innovation Programs provide women entrepreneurs with additional opportunities and specialized support to accelerate their growth, like exclusive community events, mentorship opportunities, a peer network and connections to investors – on top of DMZ’s standard programming all members receive.
Formally announced at the Women Innovation Summit, DMZ will now provide a $5,000 grant for women founders accepted into their Pre-Incubator program and a $10,000 grant for women founders accepted into their Incubator program. Additionally, women founders in their Incubator program can tap into a pool of $5,000 each to cover approved business expenses.
Following the Summit, DMZ is gearing up to launch an impact report showcasing the breadth and significance of the Women Innovation Summit. Crafted to encapsulate and distribute valuable insights from the event, the report will be widely shared with the ecosystem and organizations committed to empowering women innovators.
To learn more about how DMZ supports women-identifying founders to build and grow their startups, head to dmz.to/WIP.
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Women-led tech startups LyfeMD, Roga and Granularity received $230,000 CAD at DMZ’s Women Innovation Summit
Toronto Metropolitan University’s DMZ held its second annual Women Innovation Summit, where 10 women-led tech startups had the opportunity to pitch their businesses to angel investors from The Firehood to secure cash investments.
DMZ hosted the Summit at its Toronto headquarters in honour of International Women’s Day. The day-long event featured curated activities to empower and celebrate women in entrepreneurship and business. These included intimate roundtables that encouraged candid discussions around women’s empowerment, the unveiling of DMZ’s 2024 Women of the Year recipients, and a pitch competition in partnership with The Firehood, an angel group committed to fueling women-led tech innovations.
The pitch competition, which received over 160 applications to participate from coast to coast, heard from 10 women-led startups and awarded a total of $100,000 CAD to:
Following the pitch results reveal, The Firehood also announced an additional $130,000 CAD investment in DMZ alum Granularity, an AI-powered platform empowering retailers and brands to stay ahead of viral social media and search trends.
The Summit also unveiled DMZ’s 2024 Women of the Year recipients. Created to honour women in Canada’s tech and business community, the annual award recognizes an esteemed list of individuals for their outstanding accomplishments and impact.
DMZ’s 2024 Women of the Year award recipients include:
For more information on DMZ Women of the Year award recipients, head over to dmz.to/woty2024.
Beyond the Women Innovation Summit, DMZ’s Women Innovation Programs provide women entrepreneurs with additional opportunities and specialized support to accelerate their growth, like exclusive community events, mentorship opportunities, a peer network and connections to investors – on top of DMZ’s standard programming all members receive.
Formally announced at the Women Innovation Summit, DMZ will now provide a $5,000 grant for women founders accepted into their Pre-Incubator program and a $10,000 grant for women founders accepted into their Incubator program. Additionally, women founders in their Incubator program can tap into a pool of $5,000 each to cover approved business expenses.
Following the Summit, DMZ is gearing up to launch an impact report showcasing the breadth and significance of the Women Innovation Summit. Crafted to encapsulate and distribute valuable insights from the event, the report will be widely shared with the ecosystem and organizations committed to empowering women innovators.
To learn more about how DMZ supports women-identifying founders to build and grow their startups, head to dmz.to/WIP.
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This entry was posted on March 8, 2024 at 10:37 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Toronto Metropolitan University. 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.