Sunsuper is doing its bit to bridge the gender gap in Australian business through the SheStarts program.

SheStarts will support entrepreneurial women found tech startups and Sunsuper hopes, reignite a national conversation on diversity in the tech industry.

The program involves a national competition that aims to attract up to 1,000 applications from women with new business ideas. The top twenty finalists will take part in a two week validation bootcamp.

From there, a pitch event will be used to select the most promising 10   who will receive a $100,000 investment and placement in the six month accelerator program run by startup fund and mentor group BlueChilli.

Sunsuper manager of brand marketing and communications, Catherine Hughes, said that Sunsuper was sponsoring SheStarts in a bid to help close the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurial space.

“We are excited to partner with SheStarts to raise the profile of entrepreneurial women and help drive greater female participation and leadership in the field of innovation and the digital economy,” Ms Hughes said.

“Our aim at Sunsuper is to arm women with all the information they need to help them make informed choices about their superannuation for a financially comfortable and secure retirement.”

“By supporting SheStarts, Sunsuper is proud to be playing a role in helping raise the profile of female entrepreneurs and innovators in this country and help them launch the careers of their dreams.” Business success was one way women can close that gap, she said.

Sunsuper is one of four major partners sponsoring SheStarts, which was  originally launched by BlueChilli to close the gender gap in the tech industry.

Startups are powerful

SheStarts Director and BlueChilli Head of Diversity and Impact, Nicola Hazell, said the program aims to change the face of the startup economy.

“The women of Australia have the talent, passion and ideas to create incredible tech companies. But they need the runway to get started,” Ms Hazell said.

“SheStarts is a program to fill this gap; to light the path for women to take the leap, get started and participate in the startup economy.”

The project is backed by Sunsuper, ANZ, MYOB and UTS (University of Technology Sydney) and aims to close the gender gap in the startup ecosystem – where the most innovative, high potential businesses of the future are being created.

Sunsuper is a Queensland-based industry super fund.