Google Launches Canada, U.S. Accelerator Focused on Women Founders

Google recently announced the launch of its “Google for Startups Accelerator for Women Founders” program in Canada and the United States. The initiative marks Google’s first women-focused accelerator program open to Canadian and American start-ups. The program is open to Seed to Series A technology startups that are headquartered in Canada or the United States with women founders (or women who are members of the core founding team) as well as women in “key technical or strategic” decision-making positions.

The focus of the three-month program is to create opportunities for women-led startups by providing technical support, mentorship, and workshops focused on product design, customer acquisition, and leadership development. Google will use the best of its network and advanced technologies to help women founders build and scale successful businesses which will help bridge the gap between men and women in the startup ecosystem. The participating women founders will join the Google for Startups Women Global Community, an online group of over 400 women from around the world that offers access to experts, insights, and a support network to help scale companies.

Google plans to accept between ten to twelve startups for the accelerator. Applications opened on June 22 and will remain open until July 22. The program will run virtually from September 28 to December 4.

“We are really excited about this opportunity to really support this demographic of founders in particular, just given the need of the community at this time,” said Jason Scott, Google’s head of startup developer ecosystem in the U.S., adding that the accelerator is one of the first in a series of programs that Google plans to launch focused on underrepresented founders.

This critically important initiative will hopefully inspire others to focus on the importance of closing the divide between opportunities for men and women founded companies.

Author: Rebecca Ro, 2020 Summer Student-at-law