Did you know that on average Black women entrepreneurs receive less than 1% of venture capital? Equilibria and Black Girl Ventures are joining forces to change that.

We’re excited to announce our partnership with Black Girl Ventures, an organization that provides Black and Brown women-identifying founders with the tools to sustain their businesses, to host a first-of-its-kind National Pitch Competition for founders in the Consumer Packaged Goods + E-Comm industries on Thursday, May 13th at 5 pm CST.

“At Equilibria, we firmly believe in supporting women,” said Coco Meers, EQ’s co-founder, and CEO. “We’re thrilled to be launching this partnership with Black Girl Ventures not only because of their mission to empower women but also because we firmly believe in doing our part to support to close the racial wealth gap. Through this pitch competition and ongoing support, we aim to create economic empowerment for women of color in their entrepreneurial endeavors.”

Through this special event, BGV and EQ aim to increase awareness and support of Black and Brown woman-identifying founders by creating heightened visibility, entrepreneurial education, and low barrier access to capital through a BGV style pitch competition that merges a traditional pitch competition with a crowdfunding approach. Like Shark Tank with an audience, the entire audience votes with their dollars for the pitches that they favor to create access to capital for. There will also be an expert panel of judges who will ask clarifying questions and give intentional feedback to give the audience insight that will help them determine which pitch to vote for.

So, how does this pitch competition work?

• RSVP to receive the link to watch the show.
• Join us on Thursday, May 13th date and listen to 8 dynamic women pitch their businesses.
• You decide the winner by voting with your dollars for the pitch you favor on SheRaise.com
• Each transaction of $5 or more donated to a pitch on SheRaise.com counts as one vote for that pitch.
• The winner is determined by the number of votes. You can ONLY vote once for each pitch.
• You CAN vote for more than one pitch. The voting will be open for 7 days.
• After the voting closes we will tally the number of votes per person.
• All 8 women receive pre-seed funding for their business based on your donations.

Donations will open on May 13th at 6 pm and close on May 20th at 11:59 pm EST

Winners will receive cash and prizes including:

• Cash prizes and cash from the audience donations
• Google credits
• The 1st place winner gets a consultation with a lawyer
• A consultation with an accountant
• Salesforce for Startups package
• 90% off HubSpot + access to training discounts
• 1-year membership to the BGV Connect Incubator