iAccelerate, University of Wollongong

iAccelerate is leading the way in diversity and inclusion to build an ecosystem underpinned by equity. 

With a proud commitment to supporting underrepresented groups in entrepreneurship, iAccelerate, through active recruitment and tailored programs, have maintained a gender balance of 48% since 2018, with 52% of startups founded by teams including at least one woman in 2024.

Over the last three years, three additional programs have been developed by iAccelerate to continue to build the pipeline of success and empower female entrepreneurs.

• LIFT, a holistic program to support women in STEM and Entrepreneurship, funded by the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources,

•  A Social Enterprise Pre-Accelerator Program, funded by Investment NSW

• RISE, a regional entrepreneurship program supported by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.

The LIFT Project consists of pillars, Learn, Ignite, Flourish and Transform, designed to empower peer support for women to ‘lift’ each other as they climb. The Ignite and Flourish pillars are leading the way to empower female entrepreneurs whilst building a pipeline of STEM innovators for the future:

• Ignite reduces the financial barrier for women wanting to build their business idea through our entrepreneurial pre-accelerator program.

•   Flourish delivers a portfolio of career skills for women in STEM PhD candidates, including upskilling through an industry internship, leading with their values, considering research commercialisation through entrepreneurial training and communicating to different audiences through community outreach.

iAccelerate’s Social Enterprise program was developed to support startups looking to make a positive social or environmental impact through business, with scholarships, expert guidance from Australia’s leading social entrepreneurs, site visits to Illawarra social enterprises, coaching workshops and an eight-month residency program. In this program 82% of businesses were led by female founders.

There can be significantly more challenges for regional and rural entrepreneurs in access supports to launch and grow their businesses. The RISE program was developed to support startups in regional NSW, with facilitated workshops, mentoring and self-paced online learning. Although not initially the target, we identified that regional and rural women were seeking this support, as 62.5% of participants were female founders living in regional NSW, Australia.