SheGenerate - 56 is the new 35!

After an incredibly busy couple of months AwakenHub has officially launched it’s cohort of SheGenerate women founders/co-founders this week. We were completely taken aback by the number of Expressions of Interest recieved - c150 (with several co-founding teams) from all over the Island of Ireland and want to acknowledge the women who had the courage and conviction to apply - as we know the first step is always the hardest.

The AwakenHub founders spoke with over 120 of the applicants over the last month and we simply couldn’t stick to our original cohort of 35. Thanks to the support of a number of brilliant people and organsations (rooftop shoutouts to follow) we are now in the wonderful position to confirm 56 women in total will be starting their SheGenerate journey in earnest with us on Tuesday 16 November 2021.

Over the coming weeks and months we will be showcasing these fantastic women founders and welcome your support in lifting them up as they start out and take those very early steps into founder life.

We have women founders from Cork to Antrim, Wexford to Mayo with very early stage businesses in STEM, eco-tourism, health & wellness, food, innovation and lots more.

At a time when just over 2% of investment globally is made in women founded companies and a drop from 11% to 6% in the Irish Tech eco-system from 2019 to 2020, never was there a more important time to change the landscape, remove barriers and create equity for women founders for generations to come. And that is AwakenHub’s reason for existing.

SheGenerate would not be possible without the support of Rethink Ireland SED Fund and Ulster Bank NI. So a massive thank you to them and everyone else who has been (are) an ally and friend to us over the last 17 months.

Onwards and upwards.

Photo: Mary Ann Pierce, MAP, aka #FIercePierce, sharing some insights with SheGenerate cohort in Derry on her recent whistlestop tour of Ireland.