New York - July 23, 2019 - The Vinetta Project, a high-impact capital platform that accelerates female founders’ growth and facilitates access to capital, today announced a strategic partnership with P&G Ventures, an internal startup studio within The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG). Together, the companies will source and scale promising early-stage, female-led companies poised to solve consumer problems across key categories including sleep, menopause, pain, aging, male wellness, performance, skin and non-toxic home.
“We believe the focus and perspective that diverse, female-led endeavors offer will provide a unique perspective that will accelerate growth for our business and the industry as a whole,” said Betsy Bluestone, commercial discovery leader of P&G Ventures. “The Vinetta Project has a strong history of attracting and cultivating promising female entrepreneurs and ideas, making its platform and programming a natural fit to help us attract the best female entrepreneurs for potential partnership.”
To discover and vet the most promising candidates, Vinetta and P&G Ventures designed a year-long program featuring a series of prestigious mentorship opportunities, pitch events and networking events including:
Problem Hacking Sessions: Standout founders are paired with seasoned P&G Ventures executives to work one-on-one, over three months, to solve an issue critical to the success of the startup.
Pitch Events: Select applicants are invited to compete in exclusive P&G Ventures -sponsored pitch events for cash prizes and acceleration opportunities.
Curated Networking Dinners: Promising entrepreneurs can apply for a coveted seat to attend critical networking events featuring a curated guest list of leading investors, founders and operators.
Founded on a mission to close the gender-based funding gap for female entrepreneurs, Vinetta connects high-growth female entrepreneurs with the funding, mentorship and support resources needed to build and scale their businesses. Vinetta sees and supports thousands of companies per year and has facilitated the flow of more than $225M in early-stage venture funding to seed-stage technology startups who have participated in Vinetta programming. In 2018, only 2.2% of venture capital funds went to female-founded businesses, yet companies led by women performed 63% better than all-male teams.
“It’s an unfortunate reality that female entrepreneurs are too often overlooked and underfunded by the venture capital system, even though we consistently show higher returns for investors,” said Vanessa Dawson, founder and CEO of The Vinetta Project. “When women receive equal access to information, connections and capital, investors not only see higher returns, but society as a whole will benefit socially and economically. This partnership is a great step toward leveling the playing field for female entrepreneurs.”
Exceptional, female-founded, product-driven companies with recurring revenue models can apply for the program now at www.vinettaproject.com/procter-and-gamble.
About The Vinetta Project:
The Vinetta Project is a sophisticated global ecosystem designed to help high-growth female founders secure the mentorship, funding and support they need to scale their business successfully. Through its network of passionate entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, alumni, investors, community leaders and corporations, The Vinetta Project is creating the largest deal pipeline of seed stage and series A round companies in the world. By offering equal access to resources, Vinetta creates a diverse and inclusive environment that supports the advancement of women and other marginalized groups. To date, the community boasts more than 4,000 founders, 23 exits and $225M in funding to Vinetta Showcase finalists.
For more information, please visit www.vinettaproject.com/procter-and-gamble and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
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