What is it like to raise money as a female founder in Australia?

“Yeah, that was a difficult time when in 2013 to 2014 when we started to raise money, there was only $20 million of venture capital in the whole country, in all of Australia. It was $20 million. So this was, whereas now there'll be billions of dollars, there was $20 million. So Australia was very slow and certainly to women-led companies, it was less than 1% of any venture capital went to women-led companies. So that being said, I did a reasonable job because I was an experienced business person with some credibility in raising capital for the company. And then when we listed on the stock exchange, we obviously raised money through the public markets. But it was very difficult. I had many comments made to me such as, oh, you've got 5 children, how can you be a mother and be a CEO of a tech company? That's impossible. You need to choose one or the other. I had investors tell me that they would give me the company $1 million if I would take my nose ring out. Oh my God. Investors ring and complain to my board that they saw me talk and my, my hair was not brushed and that I should brush my hair. Like, it was just crazy times of just, oh my God, are we still dealing with this?”

“Yeah, absolutely. I think that's right. And speaking of funding and optimism, female founder funding has reached an all-time high. We female founders have received 23% of all funding for 2023 so far, and all-women teams have now gotten a whole 5% of the total share of capital in Australia.”