10 startups to compete in Girls in Tech Amplify contest

The nonprofit Girls in Tech has named 10 female-led startups that will compete for cash and other prizes for the “next great female-founded startup.”

The sixth annual competition will take place in San Francisco on Wednesday, October 18 in an event dubbed the Amplify Women’s Pitch Night Competition. Girls in Tech says the female founder-only pitch competition is the largest of its kind in the world, bringing together top tech leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors.

The half-day competition will take place at Zendesk. The finalist companies are:

• Next Play
  Democratizing access to advancement opportunities in the workplace.
• Adistry
  Redefining how media publishers monetize their work.
• Scollar
  Smart pet collar: One collar, every function.
• Botco.ai
  AI-powered conversational marketing platform for demand generation.
• Blooms Privé
  Detachable and packable underwear for every woman.
• DoWhop
  P2P marketplace for in person activities.
• Storeo.io
  On-demand social videos.
• Tueo Health
  Modern asthma management solution for children.
• Stratis IoT 
  Software as a Service (SaaS) Platform for access, energy, and automation management and control.
• Cirrus Identity
  Online access made easy.

The event’s judges come from companies like Walmart Labs, Autodesk, Gap, Silicon Valley Bank, RocketSpace, and more. Since 2012, the percentage of women-led venture-backed companies has hit a plateau at 17 percent, with no growth in the past five years. The Amplify event seeks to address this problem by improving access to VC funding and empowering female founders in tech. The event will include speeches by Dheeraj Pandey, CEO of Nutanix, and Kim Milosevich, partner at Andreessen Horowitz.

“Creating opportunities for women entrepreneurs is mission critical for us right now,” said Adriana Gascoigne, CEO and founder of Girls in Tech, in an email. “In order for women to have hope for equality and equity, our industry must ensure women have the same funding and pitch opportunities as men.”

The event’s sponsors include Cisco, Nutanix, Filter Digital, GoDaddy, Zuora, Vodafone Americas, Comcast, Zendesk, DLA Piper, Silicon Valley Bank, and LoopUp.