Four female entepreneurs have been named winners at the AccelerateHER Awards 2023.
The awards honour inspiring and ambitious women in business in four categories - technology, environment, culture and health.
The winner in the Technology category, supported by CodeBase, was Stella Smith, She is founder of pirkx, an online platform which increases accessibility to vital wellbeing benefits.
The Environment category was won by Beena Sharma, founder of Carbon Capture Utilisation International. Her business's technology captures CO2 from industrial emissions before purifying it and transforming it into other revenue generating resources.
The Culture category winner was Katherine Gunderson of Grand Bequest, a BCorp certified business which aims to get empty buildings back into use.
Meanwhile the Health category was won by Caroline Laurenson of smart home technology specialist TL Tech, which aims to help people of all ages to embrace technology in the home.
The AccelerateHER Awards, supported by the Scottish Government, Barclays Eagle Labs and Scottish Enterprise, are open to women who are founders or co-founders of companies that are Scottish-based or actively trading in Scotland.
Winners get a prize package including a six-month mentoring programme from Investing Women Angels, Scotland’s first all-female business angel group.
Elizabeth Pirrie, CEO of AccelerateHER said: “Huge congratulations to this year’s winners as well as the dozens of other inspirational women-led businesses who entered the AccelerateHER Awards 2023. We’re delighted to support these businesses and provide them with a much-valued platform for recognition and potential investment opportunities to help them flourish.
“Over these last eight years, we are proud to have supported hundreds of female-led companies across Scotland and beyond connecting them to our global network of angel investors, commercial advisers, and other successful business people. During that period, the AccelerateHER programme has helped secure more than £50 million in external investment for female-founded companies.”
The winners were honoured at the finals event at the new Barclays campus in Glasgow.
Katherine Morgan, head of high growth and entrepreneurs at Barclays said: “A huge congratulations to the winners of the AccelerateHER Awards 2023. Once again, this programme has provided an ideal platform to recognise and promote aspirational female-founded businesses.
"We are passionate in our support of these companies and through our close partnership with AccelerateHER, we are delighted to provide mentoring and support to the exceptional women behind these innovative companies.”
Leah Pape, head of high growth services at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Congratulations to all the winners in what was a highly competitive field. It has been great to work with the shortlisted finalists in the run-up to the awards, and we look forward to following all of their success stories as well as potentially working with them again in future.
“We know many of the fastest-growing and most successful Scottish businesses are those delivering solutions to major global challenges, so it’s especially pleasing that this year’s AccelerateHER awards focused on women entrepreneurs whose innovative companies are ‘forces for good’. The winners are fantastic ambassadors for Scotland.”
Last month, Penelope Carruthers, of waterwheel developers Carruthers Renewables was announced as this year’s Rising Star. That category recognises a female founder with a great early-stage business idea.
