Startup accelerator Startmate has a new benefactor, with Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation committing $2 million per annum over four years to support women founders.
The $8 million investment is designed to get more capital into the hands of women founders earlier, Minderoo CEO John Hartman said.
“Research shows female founders are consistently underfunded and operating with fewer resources globally. That hasn’t changed, despite strong performance from women-led teams and clear evidence they deliver results, often outperforming their male peers,” he said.
“Minderoo Foundation’s strategic investment with Startmate is about getting more capital to founders earlier, strengthening the pipeline for women coming through and backing more women to build and scale high-growth companies.”
For Startmate, the partnership supports its ambition to become the world’s leading early-stage investor by backing more exceptional women founders and strengthening the pathway into startups, entrepreneurship and venture capital.
Backing more women
Startmate, which runs two accelerators a year, typically invests $120,000 for an 8% stake in startups that join the cohorts and over the last several years, its backing for companies with at least one woman cofounder has been nearly double the industry average – 43%, compared to 24%.
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Startmate CEO Phoebe Pincus said the partnership would help build on that legacy.
“Last year, 51% of the capital we invested from our accelerator funds went to women-led startups, defined as having at least one female co-founder with meaningful equity, and 33% was deployed into companies with only women founders,” she said.
“We’ve seen a much higher number and proportion of women-led startups apply for the accelerator, from 100, or 20% of applications, in 2019 to nearly 600, or 43% of applications, in 2025.”
Recent success stories include Julia Reisser, cofounder of WA plastics replacement manufacturer Uluu; engineer Grace Brown, founder of robotic companion maker Andromeda; and Remy Tucker, founder of the free period product dispenser On The House, which now has 55 dispensers in public locations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
In January, On the House raised in $1.7 million Seed funding and now has a team of five.
Startmate has now supported more than 880 women and backed more than 350 companies with a combined valuation topping $4.5 billion.
