The China Final of the She Loves Tech 2024 Global Startup Competition was held by Beijing Women's International Center (BWIC) and other relevant agencies under the guidance of Beijing Women's Federation (BWF) in Beijing on September 8. With the theme "Supernova: Journey Beyond Boundaries," the event was convened to mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the thematic global startup competition for women and gather stronger public support to help women make breakthroughs in sci-tech innovation. A total of 12 teams gave their roadshows and engaged in discussions over opportunities and challenges faced with women in their business startup in science and technology. The competition also received support from Beijing Science Center, Beijing Academy of Youth Innovation, Beijing Women's Association for Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Compatriots and Overseas Chinese, Capital Female Professor Association, and Beijing Women's Association for Science and Technology.

Underscore Women's Roles

Focusing on three areas, the 12 entrepreneurial teams have been either dominated by women or oriented toward women.

Green, environmental conservation and sustainable development. Clean Carbon Technology (Wuxi) Co., Ltd, the first-prize winner, is committed to providing industrial and energy firms with solutions to assisting industrial enterprises in further cutting their carbon emissions. Kangfen Biotechnology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd, the runner-up, has adopted bio-degradation technologies to process food waste and by-products into new agricultural goods in a drive to promote the sustainable and regenerative agricultural development and achieve the goal of zero carbon emissions in the closed-loop industrial chains.

Healthcare. The entrepreneurial team Plus or Minus has independently developed post-operation bra products and services to help women better manage their breast health with AI technologies. The team ExeBrain has leveraged brain-computer interface technology to provide human brains with rehabilitation training services. The team Rootique is dedicated to the medical research of hair loss.

Specific needs of people with physical disabilities. The entrepreneurial team Weige Technology has committed itself to helping hearing-impaired people better communicate with others through AI technology. The entrepreneurial team Zhixinji has developed wearable assistive devices for visually-impaired people, an example of shouldering corporate social responsibility.

Zhong Jin, Executive Vice-President of Beijing Women's Association for Hong Kong, Macao & Taiwan Compatriots and Overseas Chinese, Wang Jingjing, Acting Director of Global Healthcare Innovation Center under Beijing Tsinghua Industrial R&D Institute, Lan Dan, Chief Director of Mingyue Lake International Smart Industry Innovation Park, and Sun Jingge, manager of the 1.5DO Climate Innovation Laboratory acted as judges and gave their proposals to contestants from the perspectives of project creativity, team building, market opportunities and response, project replication feasibility. Clean Carbon will represent the Chinese region to compete with contestants from other Asian countries.

Robust Development of Women's Innovative Strength

During the event, two high school students associated with BWF's Sci-tech Empowering Girls program were invited to share with attendees about their research results. Huang Sijia from the Second High School Attached to Beijing Normal University gave an introduction to her research about birds' genetic biodiversity and Cao Xu, from Beijing Jingyuan School, shared her experiences in the application of Luminol in trace identification, demonstrating the willingness and vitality of youths in discovering problems, embracing sciences and exploring the unknown world.

Former champion Mars STEAM Education Club attended the final event. Its members disclosed that the participation in relevant competition activities had brought to them lots of attention and resources as well as financial support. Representatives of Clean Carbon, said nearly 40 percent of its employees together with its major partners and chief scientists are women, adding that women have shown great potentials and strengths in discovering new market demands. Sasha, a Russian student at Peking University, said it is surprising for her to find that there are so many women entrepreneurs in sci-tech sectors and that they have fostered mature and in-depth thinking and practices. Zhong said she felt deeply impressed and inspired by the professionalism, unique perspectives and tremendous social contributions of the competitors. She believed women have always played an irreplaceable role in the field of science and technology and there is a bright future for them in the journey ahead.

The competition was livestreamed to global netizens via the Facebook account of Guangming Daily to help them learn about inspiring stories and remarkable achievements made by Chinese women in sci-tech innovation and entrepreneurship, winning high acclaims from online followers at home and abroad.

Forge a Bright Future for Women

Shi Jiayi, a founder of the She Loves Tech initiative, reviewed its decade-long development journey. So far, the program, which originated from one country and one competition event, has grown into a supportive platform with comprehensive functions in relation to fund-raising, accelerating development and databases reachable worldwide, closely followed the development needs of women entrepreneurs, shifted its focus from merely providing them with opportunities to guiding them to assimilate themselves into local entrepreneurial ecology, and endeavored to offer them high-quality services and narrow the disparities between two genders in winning investment.

According to a representative of BWIC, the She Loves Tech program is a successful cooperation approach jointly undertaken by women's federations and professional institutions to promote women's development and gender equality through sci-tech empowerment. Women's federations have made full use of their unique roles, followed new development trends, pooled social resources available, and incorporated the initiative into the Women's Action for Sci-tech Innovation and the overall blueprint of building Beijing into an international sci-tech innovation hub. Meanwhile, professional institutions are responsible for providing high-quality entrepreneurial services in science and technology, and expanding their international networks for exchanges in innovation and entrepreneurship. The two sides have fully leveraged their own strength and taken consistent efforts to translate their common objectives into reality.

The "She Loves Tech" program has accumulated rich resources and fostered endless potentials during its decade-long development. As the host city of the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, Beijing has firmly adhered to the guiding principles of the Beijing Declaration and its action plan, committed itself to the pledges of gender equality and women's empowerment, and taken concrete actions to push for the high-quality development of women's cause. In the years ahead, the She Loves Tech program will continue with its development approach featuring opening-up, cooperation, joint contributions and shared benefits, redouble its efforts to assist women in their sci-tech entrepreneurship, and help women play a larger role in the development of new productive forces.

(Source: bjwomen.gov.cn / Translated by Women of China)

Editor: Lei Yang