RISE UP

Seed grant and accelerator programme for ambitious female founders

At Soda we are passionate about supporting women in business, particularly those tenacious enough to start their own business.

We created RISE UP in 2021 to encourage more women to consider entrepreneurship as a viable career, to lift the capability of female founders and champion female entrepreneurship in Aotearoa.

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RISE UP 2022

RISE UP is a seed grant for globally ambitious female founders. We will select 5-10 ambitious female founders to go through a series of founder-focussed workshops, culminating in a pitch night where the winner will take away $10,000 cash! 

Who should apply

We're looking for globally ambitious female founders who meet the following criteria. To be eligible you need to be a female founder (or have one female founder) and have:

  • a business that is pre or early revenue
  • a business that is scaleable or has some unique IP
  • a registered New Zealand business
  • a business that is less than three years old
  • less than five employees

N.B. You must submit a 90 second video as well as filling in the application form below.

Important Dates

16 May 2022         Applications open

10 June 2022         Applications close

17 June 2022         Finalists confirmed

27 June 2022         Accelerator programme starts

17 August 2022     Pitch night

Our Sponsors

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Apply for RISE UP

RISE UP

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What our clients say

What our finalists say

RISE UP enabled me to capitalise on the early potential of my business by connecting me with the right people in the industry and assisting me to identify strengths and weaknesses. Plus the cash has allowed me to cross some of the many expensive business hygiene tasks off my list.

- &Again founder and 2021 RISE UP winner, Wendy Quach

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