Australian crowdfunding platform Lift Women has raised $1.3 million to accelerate its mission to grow and reach more women entrepreneurs across Australia and Asia, with its founder Irene Tsang calling the capital raise a positive sign “the market is ready to back women”.
The round was led by Singapore-based venture capital firm Braxton Capital Ventures and supported by individual investors, including the former managing director of Alibaba ANZ, Maggie Zhou, and the former chair of AXA Asia, Gordon Watson.
LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund, a sidecar fund that offers between $50,000 and $300,000 to early-stage women-led startups in Victoria, also backed the round.
According to Braxton Capital Venture’s website, the firm is focused on early-stage development and growth equity opportunities in Southeast Asia.
Closing the gender finance gap poses a huge and untapped opportunity for Lift Women, which plans to use the $1.3 million raise to fund its expansion into Asia, in particular Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and China, as well as increase program capacity by equipping women founders with the tools, investment access and mentorship needed to scale their business.
The raise will also broaden Lift Women’s technology capability, with plans underway to embed AI into its platform and hire employees to join the team to build it together.
Speaking with SmartCompany, Tsang confirmed it’s time for Lift Women to strengthen its market reach and platform capabilities to serve more markets and more women founders.
“A lot of founders ask us, ‘how do we become fundable and investable?’ I say, ‘look, you need to be backable first and be liftable, and then you can be fundable’,” she says.
“What Lift Women does is create that crucial platform to empower women entrepreneurs from zero to one.”
Lift Women helps 363 women-led ventures rise up
Since its founding by Tsang in 2021, Lift Women has facilitated 363 crowdfunding projects for women-led startups, including Ovum, Xylo Systems and Understanding Zoe, and helped founders raise millions in follow-on funding.
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As well as facilitating countless introductions between founders, investors and partners, Lift Women has also delivered over 10,000 mentorship hours.
Lift Women exists to close the gender capital gap, says Tsang.
“We have a vision that every woman and girl can have equitable access to capital and opportunity to turn the ideas into something meaningful and make a difference,” she says.
I’m confident that Lift Women can become a global platform and support women and girls all around the world, no matter where they were born.
Tsang wants to change the narrative of fundraising for women.
“Instead of challenging and difficult, in the future I want the narrative to be positive, to be something meaningful, easy and fun as well.
“Because building a business, yes, it’s daunting, it’s tough, but it’s also rewarding and life-changing. I want to make this zero-to-one process easy for women.”
According to the 2024 State of Australian Startup Funding report, women founders received just 2% of venture capital in Australia, down from 3% in 2023.
Braxton Capital Ventures founding member and managing partner Douglas Hudson said the VC was thrilled to back Tsang’s mission and help accelerate Lift Women’s expansion, particularly in Southeast Asia, where the venture capital firm’s network is strongest.
“The team has already done an impressive job in funding and coaching thousands of women, and this is just the beginning. Together, we are opening pathways for more women-led ventures to start and scale,” he said.
