APPLICATIONS CLOSE FRIDAY 12TH JUNE, 2026
A specialised 6-month pathway for WA women building tech enabled businesses — SaaS, apps, platforms, AI-applied, tech enabled services. Equity-free. Delivered by We Are Emersyn x ACS Labs.
POWERED BY
SUPPORTED BY
Innovation Pathways Program via the New Industries and Innovation Fund
POWERED BY
SUPPORTED BY
Innovation Pathways Program via the New Industries and Innovation Fund
DURATION
6 months · Jun – Nov 2026
FORMAT
Virtual-first + founder salons
INVESTMENT
Equity-free
APPLY BY
Friday 12 June 2026
DURATION
6 months · Jun – Nov 2026
FORMAT
Virtual-first + Perth workshops
INVESTMENT
Equity-free
APPLY BY
Friday June 5
THE OPPORTUNITY
Six months to grow your tech business - with a mentor matched to your stage, a national network behind you and the milestones to take you from where you are to the next level...whether you're building a SaaS product, an app, a platform or a tech-enabled service business.
Connections that grow the business — through the cohort, the ACS Labs ecosystem, Demo Day and the national community.
Your mentor or entrepreneur in residence helps you see what actually moves the business forward, not just what feels urgent.
Goal setting frameworks, prioritisation systems and the habits that move you from firefighting to strategic growth.
Whether you raise in 6 months or 2 years (or never) you'll know how to pitch, what capital to access and who to talk to.
Mentors, advisors and connections across Australia and beyond — built to support future growth.
Six months of measurable growth — moving the business from where it is now to the next stage.
WHAT YOU GET
A mentor matched to your sector, your stage and your next challenge — paired with you for the full 6 months. When you hit a wall, we bring in challenge-specific advisors for marketing, product or sales. Plus 1-1 investor readiness coaching, calibrated to where you are right now.
Plug into Australia's national tech founder ecosystem from day one. ACS Labs brings 14 years of accelerator experience, 50,000 ACS members, national workshops, a partner marketplace and an online founder community — beyond WA, beyond your industry, behind your business.
Three intimate dinners across the program, each anchored by a successful female founder or industry leader. Curated company, honest conversation and the kind of perspective that sharpens what's next.
Investor readiness coaching tailored to your stage. Two pitch clinics — one virtual, one in-person in Perth. Demo Day in November in front of customers, partners and investors. Capital readiness on your timeline, not someone else's.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
Most accelerators have a curriculum and expect you to fit it. We have a curriculum and a mentor whose job is to make it fit you.
The workshops, the ACS Labs ecosystem, the Demo Day — those are the same for everyone. What changes is the mentor sitting beside you for six months.
THE SAME FOR EVERYONE — YOUR SIX MONTHS
WHAT CHANGES — YOUR MENTOR, CALIBRATED TO YOUR STAGE
Where you are
You've landed on the problem you want to solve. You haven't tested it with customers and you haven't built the product yet.
Your mentor's focus
Validating the problem with real customers, scoping the product, choosing how to build (no-code, AI tooling, technical partner), getting v1 in front of users.
By month six
A validated problem, a working MVP and the first round of users testing it.
Where you are
You've built something. You haven't sold it yet.
Your mentor's focus
Customer discovery, first paying users, validating product-market fit.
By month six
Paying customers and a repeatable way to find more.
Where you are
Paying customers. Each one took a personal effort.
Your mentor's focus
Your first scalable acquisition channel, retention, pricing.
By month six
Traction that doesn't depend on you closing every deal.
Where you are
Revenue is growing. Operationally, the wheels are coming off.
Your mentor's focus
Systems, hiring, delegation, capital readiness.
By month six
An operating system that runs without you in every decision.
Virtual-first with 3 founder salons in Perth. Designed to fit around kids, day jobs, regional postcodes and the rest of what you're carrying.
You don't have to make the business your only thing for six months. You have to make it your serious thing.
Technology is how your business creates or delivers value. Not just a tool you use to run it.
SaaS, a web app, a mobile app, a developer tool.
Connected devices, IoT, smart products.
Solving a specific industry problem with applied AI.
Where proprietary software, data or AI is core to what customers actually buy.
Connecting people, products or services through technology you own.
Sector doesn't matter.
WHO THIS IS FOR
OUR TEAM OF EXPERTS
Founders are matched with one of our Mentors-in-Residence or Entrepreneurs-in-Residence based on the stage of their business and the challenges they're working on.
HEAD OF GROWTH, ACS LABS
Community builder and connector, partnerships, people and sales expert
MENTOR IN RESIDENCE
Exited founder, investor, operational expansion expert, international venture builder
MENTOR IN RESIDENCE
Innovation, venture management, investment-readiness, fundraising and pitching,
DIRECTOR, ACS LABS
Startup founder, emerging tech expert, corporate enterprise, social justice advocate
MENTOR IN RESIDENCE
Award-winning fintech founder, early-stage investor, Web3 and Crypto expert
MENTOR IN RESIDENCE
Startup founder, tech advocate, ambassador for ecosystems globally, partnerships expert
MENTOR IN RESIDENCE
Exited founder, AI adjunct professor (USA), GTM, product and zero to one expert
FOUNDER, WE ARE EMERSYN
SaaS founder, marketing expert
INVESTMENT
Some accelerators cost nothing. Some take 5–8% equity. We do neither. $160/month is deliberately low — but it's there for a reason. Founders who pay show up. Founders who pay finish. And the cohort is better for everyone when every founder in the room chose to be there.
NORMAL VALUE
$7,000 +
per founder
YOUR INVESTMENT
$960
$160/month × 6
EQUITY TAKEN
0%
you keep all of it
NORMAL VALUE
$7,000 +
per founder
YOUR INVESTMENT
$960
$160/month × 6
EQUITY TAKEN
0%
you keep all of it
WHAT'S IN YOUR $960
Heavily subsidised through the support of the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification via the Innovation Pathways Program from the New Industries and Innovation Fund.
TRUSTED BY FOUNDERS
This program has been a game changer for my business! Before joining, I struggled with building a cohesive and effective team, but this program provided me with the skills to make it happen. The guidance was clear, actionable, and tailored to my unique needs, and I felt supported every step of the way. Thanks to their expertise, I now have an amazing team in place and my business is up 40% this year.
Lisa • Happy Tummies
Scale Advisory Program Alumni
The 1:1 mentorship has been a game changer. It’s helped me stay focused, make better decisions, and push further than I thought possible. The traction I’ve achieved over the past year simply wouldn’t have happened without access to the ACS Labs network. I met investors, built genuine connections and finally connected properly with those peers I was looking for.
Claire • Kidmaps
Elevating Female Founders Alumni
DELIVERED BY
PROGRAM LEAD
Closing the growth gap for female founders by providing the knowledge, resources and networks they need to navigate the unique challenges of scaling past $1M. WAE delivers the in-person Perth workshops, the cohort experience and the program lead, founder Megan Del Borrello — former CMO, ScaleUP WA mentor, Ubuntu Ventures advisory partner.
DELIVERY PARTNER
Australia's longest-standing tech founder ecosystem, supporting emerging tech entrepreneurs and their communities who are solving global problems with Technology. ACS Labs brings the national mentor pool, virtual ecosystem, pitch clinics, investor coaching and the wider ACS national member network.
SUPPORTED BY
Heavily subsidised through the WA Government via the Innovation Pathways Program from the New Industries and Innovation Fund. The funding makes this an accessible program for female founders.
Since 2021
WAE has delivered female founder programs to over 80 participants
Since 2012
ACS Labs have been delivering founder programs at River City Labs
50,000+
ACS members nationally
INCLUSIONS
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA & APPLICATIONS
- You must be a female founder or co-founder.
- Must be a resident or have a Business registered in Western Australia, Australia.
- Must be a Tech Startup or Scale up company, therefore delivering new technology to the market; or disrupt and transform existing products of services with Technology, or creating new markets. Tech Startups or Scale ups have a high growth potential and sits across multiple Markets.
- Your company is for-profit or has a for-profit component.
- Founder must own a majority share of the business or have majority voting rights in the business.
- Ability to start the program in June 2026 and commit the time and effort to succeed and excel and go the distance of the program.
- Ability to submit a 3 min recorded video of yourself and your business and the support you need, only used for the application review.
- Not currently partaking in a startup program or plan to in the immediate term whilst doing this program.
- All applications will be reviewed and select applicants will go through a selection process.
- Successful applicants will be invited to the Program.
- Unsuccessful applicants will be notified prior to the program starting.
- 20 successful companies will be part of Female Founders in Tech Accelerator for this intake.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WA based female founders building a tech-enabled business with a solid idea, an MVP, something built or in market. Pre-revenue is fine, pre-idea is not. The WA Government funding ties eligibility to WA-based ventures.
Plan for around 3 hours a week: 1-1 mentoring, workshops, peer cohort touchpoints. Mentoring is at a suitable time for you and founder salons are spaced roughly every 2 months, so you can plan around them.
Virtual first, with three in-person founder salons in Perth and a Demo Day in November. The rest is virtual — group mentoring, advisor calls, ACS Labs ecosystem access.
Applications close 5 June. Selection happens the week of 12 June, and all applicants, successful or not, are notified by 15 June.
Pre-revenue is fine. Pre-idea is not. If you have a solid idea, an MVP, product or service in market — even with no paying customers yet — you're eligible.
The WA Government funding ties eligibility to WA-based ventures, so this program is for WA founders. ACS Labs runs national accelerators if you're outside WA.
The accelerator is for female founders building a tech enabled business - technology is core to how your business delivers value. If you're not sure you'd be a fit, then reach out to us.
APPLY NOW
A specialised pathway for WA Female Founders in Tech. Six months. Mentors matched to your business. A national network behind you. A Demo Day in front of customers, partners and investors.
Applications close Friday 12 June 2026, 6pm AWST.
We Are Emersyn × ACS Labs.
A specialised pathway for WA Female Founders building tech enabled businesses. Supported by Department of Energy and Economic Diversification via the Innovation Pathways Program from the New Industries and Innovation Fund. Equity-free.
