Women-led companies have faced disproportionate challenges despite the significant positive effects they have on the economy. Google reports that in 2017 alone, more than 1.1 million women-led businesses generated nearly $1.5 billion in revenue and more than 10 million jobs across the United States.

Google, a long-time CES® exhibitor and Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® member, has now launched the first Google for Startups Accelerator for Women Founders, a three-month virtual program for seed to Series A technology startups in the U.S. and Canada.

The program is designed to bring Google’s products, people and technology to women-led startups, focusing on two areas highlighted in Google’s report with Endeavor Insight:

• Closing wage and wealth gaps. Women founders growing their companies to 50 or more employees could help decrease professional inequities.

• Mentorship. Networking with other successful entrepreneurs can help women scale their businesses.

The companies in the program will also have access to successful entrepreneurs to help them build professional networks, including CES 2020 keynote speaker Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi.
Here are the 12 companies in the accelerator's first cohort:

• Coconut Software provides customer engagement solutions that modernize how banks and credit unions engage

• COI Energy brings together utilities and businesses to detect and eliminate energy waste in buildings to optimize the electric grid

• CultivatePeople offers a compensation software that helps companies make data-driven pay decisions, helping eliminate pay gaps

• CurieAI transforms care for respiratory illnesses through artificial intelligence (AI)-based models

• Fairygodboss provides free resources such as career connections, job listings, virtual recruiting events and more for women

• Heirlume makes trademark registration easier by providing the first self-serve, professional-quality trademark search and application platform

• Kapwing enables digital storytelling for creative teams and professionals via an online image, video and GIF editing platform

• Livestock Water Recycling leverages a machine learning-enabled dashboard to digitize food producers’ waste outputs, allowing reduced environmental effect

• My Intelligent Machines helps life science companies use big data and AI to maximize food and drug production

• Possip empowers schools and districts to quickly communicate with families and staff via text message-based pulse checks in more than 100 languages

• Wisy develops technology to bring digital efficiency into the physical retail world, offering solutions including image intelligence shelving data and more

• Zennea Technologies aims to be the first clinically-proven medical device for chronic snoring and mild sleep apnea