Funding shortfalls: A significant barrier to advancing female-led sportstech startups

Maria Baker the Founder of Nobody’s Princess – an innovative brand specialising in women’s snow outerwear designed for all body types – shares the challenges she faces as a small sportstech business in navigating funding, and what she believes needs to change to better support women-led startups.

As a small business founder that has been bootstrapping from day one (four years and counting!), I’ve been working hard to find a small business grant that I’m eligible for, to help me in my very important growth stage of business. But as a female business owner in sportstech, I have discovered that there is very limited government funding, especially for a product-based business that is in a transitional phase between ‘startup stage’, where there is no or minimal revenue, and the ‘scale-up' stage, where the businesses is starting to export and generating revenues.

I have been exporting my products from the very first year of being in market (which has been a significant factor in its growth), so was already aware of the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) which provides a ‘dollar-match’ style of financial incentive, provided by the Australian government to support businesses in further developing their export markets. My business was financially restricted and strategically immature as a startup to take advantage of this grant offering in previous years, so being able to finally apply for the 2024 round was an exciting time. When I recently started the process to prepare for application, I was devastated to find I was unable to do so due to their eligibility tiers. Although I have data to support my significant growth, and thorough marketing and strategic plans in place, I now need to either generate even more revenue to apply or have had ensured that I never made a single overseas sale.

The criteria doesn’t support startups that have already shown proven export growth, and data-backed potential expansion. Instead, it favours larger companies that are already exporting and generating significant revenue. This leaves me in no (wo)man’s land where I fall through the federal funding grid. If I didn't export, then I wouldn't have grown. But now I've grown too much, but still not enough? It’s incredibly frustrating to prepare for years to apply for a grant like EMDG, only to get to the starting line and be ‘disqualified’ so to speak.

As a physical product-based business, most such ventures risk failure at the point of growth due to a lack of funding needed to expand teams and markets, and increase inventory to support demand. Without access to additional funding, this can be the breaking point for many founders.

The Boosting Female Founders grant program was also discontinued this year in the recent federal budget, which means that I’m currently out of options for government funding. As a woman, I believe there is so much value in separate programs and funding focused on female founders and their businesses, with data showing that female-led businesses tend to generate 10 per cent more revenue than male-led companies². This is a missed opportunity as these initiatives can also provide tailored mentorship programs and supportive networks, to ensure we are actively backing women founders and encouraging a more inclusive and equitable sportstech sector.

After feeling like I was falling through the grid with a lack of network or government support for my niche business, I was connected to the team at Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) where I recently joined the 2024 ASTN Growth-Stage Accelerator program along with six other sportstech startups across Australia. In such a short time, the program has already provided resources and mentorship that has translated into tangible solutions and strategies for my business, alongside providing expertise in areas which would have otherwise been costly to seek out on my own.

This is an opportunity that I otherwise would have missed out on had I not been forced to expand my search for help after being let down by the government, but there would be many other small businesses that must also feel like their hands are tied and are without support, especially if they are operating in a niche field like I am.

With startup program support now mostly relying on state funding following the federal government's discontinuation of the Female Founder Support, ASTN plays a critical role in supporting entrepreneurs like me. While ASTN has made progress in securing Venture Capital support as well as funding from several states, there is still an opportunity to foster stronger partnerships at both the state and federal levels.

Sportstech is a crucial sector that has documented growth and enables capabilities across multiple sectors, yet there are no specific grants for small emerging sportstech startups, let alone female sportstech startups. If we don’t provide more support for these businesses, particularly those in between the startup and scale-up stages where growth is the hardest, we risk missing out on significant opportunities that can ultimately continue to put Australia on the map within the sector.

There is still a lot of work to do to remove these barriers and support these sportstech startups to thrive, and not just survive. I strongly believe this begins with increasing access to funding and ensuring that governments recognise the many small businesses (like mine) that are potentially falling through the funding cracks despite their potential. We all benefit from a thriving sportstech ecosystem, so it’s time to level the slopes!

By Maria Baker, Founder, Nobody’s Princess

From ASTN: Why we can’t keep saying no to female founders

Since its inception in 2012, ASTN has continued to build the sportstech sector in Australia now worth A$4.69 billion, employing 14,906 people³. Due to the ongoing funding of ASTN programs through the State Governments of Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia, ASTN has successfully supported hundreds of founders independent of any investment thesis. In fact, over half of ASTN’s alumni from the Growth-Stage Accelerator raised more than A$75 million over the last five years.

This backing has also enabled ASTN to embed important Government policy initiatives, for example attracting women into STEM through its ‘Change the Ratio’ women in sportstech program. Venture Capital is also sponsoring founders to participate in ASTN programs. As part of this initiative, Venture Capital partners gain full visibility of the sportstech pipeline of companies for their deal flow.

“ASTN has been able to truly build the capability of the sportstech sector over the past decade due to the support of Government, which allows ASTN to admit founders based on their capacity to develop and scale their business. However, despite ongoing progress of the sportstech sector, some State Governments are not yet on board and ASTN is urging the Federal Government to expand this unique program nationwide,” said Dr Martin Schlegel, Chair, ASTN.

“Despite the Australian sportstech sector punching well above its weight globally, corporate Australia is also lagging in terms of engaging with the sportstech startup sector through ASTN. As outlined in the latest 2024 Sportstech Innovation Report, “corporate engagement isn’t just a booster – it’s a fundamental to the growth of the sector.”

“By fostering a more inclusive environment for woman founders, we can uplift innovation capability of the entire sector based on increased diversity and unlock even greater innovation for this thriving industry,” Concluded Dr Schlegel.