The Accelerator for Enterprising Women has crowned Rosie Dumbrell the winner of the Kickstarter Challenge, awarding her $30,000 in equity-free funding for her innovative activewear line, Everform Therapywear.
Designed to provide support for women suffering from incontinence, prolapse, and pelvic pain, Dumbrell’s products have garnered significant attention and praise.
The Kickstarter Challenge is an initiative of the Accelerator for Enterprising Women, an Australian Government-funded program designed to support and empower women aged 18 and over to pursue entrepreneurship.
The mother-of-four, physiotherapist and yoga teacher developed the line of supportive shorts and leggings, after discovering a gap in the market for effective shapewear products designed for women with pelvic floor complaints at every age, not just pre and postpartum.
Ms Dumbrell is changing the activewear game with the range, which provides an “uplift” through an in-built invisible support sling for women suffering incontinence, prolapse and pelvic pain, as well as common ailments of pregnancy and early postpartum.
She says the team has spent years testing the products on women across all stages of pregnancy, postpartum and motherhood, including conducting a pilot study through Swinburne University.
“Winning the Kickstarter Challenge provides critical funding for our business to gain further market traction. It comes at an absolutely pivotal time for us to further the business journey and our plight to help more women,” she says.
“We are capital raising at the moment, after years of bootstrapping into our technology, IP and product development.
“The $30,000 will help us launch our direct to consumer marketing campaigns with a goal of doubling our monthly recurring revenue and giving us the boost we need to show investors the power of what we are doing. Raising capital as an all female-founded startup in Australia right now is like running into a headwind, and this show of faith and capital injection will significantly change our opportunity profile.
“Women supporting women is what my business is about and it’s been so delightful to be part of this program.”
The four runners-up each take home $7,500 to put toward their following startups:
● Ebony Kriedemann and Morgan Becker’s InPsync: A mental health match-making app to connect consumers with the right therapists ● Catherine McDougall’s Support Plus: An online tool for carers to store vital information on the support needs and future plans for people living with disability
● Catherine Said’s Gooday Corporation: A centralised booking system and app that uses AI personal assistants to book events, appointments and restaurants, and minimise cancellations
● Kylie Wallace’s Upcycle: A website that collects and sells unwanted goods on behalf of householders, reducing landfill
The Kickstarter Challenge is an initiative of the Accelerator for Enterprising Women – a program designed to support and empower Australian women aged 18+ to pursue entrepreneurship.
The Accelerator for Enterprising Women’s spokesperson Fleur Anderson said entrepreneurs were the lifeblood of innovation, and the competition was important in helping empower women who continued to face challenges in getting their ideas off the ground.
“Australia must reach a point where women, who make up half the population, feel just as confident and supported in starting their own business as men,” she said.
”When you consider that 85% of private funding for startups is directed to male-founded companies, it is critical that initiatives such as the Kickstarter Challenge exist to propel women into self-made careers.
“We received a record 300 entries this year, with Australian women proving yet again that they are full of innovative ideas that have the potential to transform the economy. “It was a particularly hard task for the judging panel to narrow down the entries to the five outstanding finalists we celebrated today.”
The program is delivered in partnership with the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA).
CEO Luke Achterstraat said it was inspiring to see the strong ideas across the categories of climate change and sustainability, community impact, fintech or e-commerce and health, wellbeing and the care economy.
“By harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit of women, we can make the Australian economy more inclusive, innovative and prosperous,” he said.
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