Promoting women in tech is no longer just an equalizing effort; being inclusive in tech has shown to be good for business as well as the right thing to do. Fortunately, Women Who Tech, a national nonprofit working to break down barriers to women in the tech and startup industry, in partnership with Craig Newmark, are holding a pitch competition to fund women-led virtual reality and artificial intelligence ventures. And they just selected their top ten candidates.
“We received close to 200 entries from women-led startups who are at the forefront of VR and AI,” said Allyson Kapin, founder of Women Who Tech, in a press release. “These ventures are building virtual limbs, self-driving non-automotive vehicles, 3-D immersive cameras, drone technologies and wearable tech for gaming. It’s vitally important that women and their companies get properly supported so that their perspective on these life changing products is brought to market.”
The pitch competition will take place at Google’s New York campus in Chelsea on February 15th. The panel of judges who will be selecting the winners of the Fourth Women Startup Challenge consist of investors Kate Shillo, director of Galvanize Ventures, Kai Bond, principal at Comcast Ventures, and Lisa Stone, cofounder of BlogHer.
If you want to meet these women-led startups before the competition kicks off, check them out below and visit their websites to see why they’re amazing:
Addicaid (Brooklyn, NY)
A digital addiction wellness platform for individuals with substance and process disorders, as well as for friends and family coping with loved ones in care. Addicaid is a dashboard for treatment centers and insurance companies to facilitate care delivery in an organized, intelligent, cost-effective manner. Cofounder Pitching, Sam Frons (Brooklyn, NY)
Breinify (Cupertino, CA)
The first time-driven, predictive AI engine for uncovering unique and actionable user behavior insights. Their technology blends traditional machine learning and AI techniques with a complex temporal foundation so their engine learns, reacts, and makes extremely granular intelligent decisions that vary for each individual at any time enabling ROI at scale. Cofounder Pitching, Diane Keng (Cupertino, CA)
Didimo (Clayton, CA)
Automatically creates 3D virtual characters from a single photo; in about 2 minutes you have a lifelike avatar that can speak, move, and represent you in a 3D world. Platform agnostic and compatible with all 3D environments, their technology can be used in games, social media, film, AR, and VR. Cofounder Pitching, Veronica Orvalho (Clayton, CA)
Droice Labs (New York City, NY)
Artificial intelligence startup in the healthcare space using cutting-edge machine learning to help hospitals achieve better patient outcomes. Cofounder Pitching, Tasha Nagamine (NY, NY)
Hauoli LLC (Austin, TX)
Revolutionizing how users interact with the world, Hauoli is developing patent-pending high-precision acoustic-based motion tracking technology. The technology will enable VR/AR users to easily interact with objects in the scene. Cofounder Pitching, Lili Qiu (Austin, TX)
Hitlist (New York City, NY)
An intelligent assistant that monitors flight and accommodation prices for trips you want to take, then alerts you when prices drop. Using a combination of machine learning, social and expert recommendations, Hitlist recreates the old school travel agent experience while saving you 50%+ on your bookings. Cofounder Pitching, Gillian Morris (NY, NY)
Intelligent Space (Moffett Field, CA)
Developing artificial intelligence for space applications by leveraging autonomous robotics to restructure space for satellite safety from orbital debris starting with a space towing system moving dead satellites to a graveyard zone. Cofounder Pitching, Christianna Taylor, PhD (Moffett Field, CA)
Opaque Studios (Los Angeles, CA)
Building VR-based tools for Hollywood studios; combining Virtual Reality and Virtual Production; allowing content creators to produce feature films, TV shows, games and VR applications more efficiently than ever before. Cofounder Pitching, Mariana Acuña (Los Angeles, CA)
Spirit AI (New York City, NY)
Developing tools to craft more expressive characters, stories, and worlds in games and VR; players can communicate naturally with characters, be deeply understood, and have unique conversations. With this technology, they’re also combating online harassment in multiplayer video games. Cofounder Pitching, Mitu Khandaker-Kokoris (NY, NY)
Venti Technologies (Weston, MA)
Building non-automotive autonomous vehicles such as wheelchairs, golf carts, tractors, scooters and shuttles to give freedom and mobility to tens of millions of seniors and mobility-impaired people, and provide life-enhancing cost-effective, transportation for everyone. Cofounder Pitching, Heidi Wyle (Weston, MA)