Republic Announces Winners of the SheWorx Equity Crowdfunding Challenge

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Republic, the leading private investing platform, today announced the winners of its first SheWorx Equity Crowdfunding Challenge. Acquired by Republic in June, SheWorx is the prominent global platform and event series empowering 20,000+ female entrepreneurs to build and scale successful companies.

While female founders receive less than 2.2% of venture capital funding, they actually outperform men by 30% in crowdfunding, largely due to its community-oriented nature. Republic held the SheWorx Equity Crowdfunding Challenge to provide selected female founders from the SheWorx community with comprehensive hands-on training and resources to launch their investment campaign.

As part of the challenge, four New York-based founders were selected as winners for their promising startups. Winners will also receive access to Republic's network of investors, partners, and VIP events. The winners include:

• Caroll Lee, Provenance Meals ? organic prepared meal delivery for busy people
• Rebecca Lima, The Lieu ? feminine care subscription service for workplaces
• Roxane Mollicchi, Wandering Barman ? bottled cocktails handcrafted in Brooklyn
• Rechelle Balanzat, Juliette* ? premium laundry and dry cleaning

The judging panel included prominent industry leaders who reviewed nearly 100 entries. Esteemed judges included SheWorx Founder and Former CEO Lisa Wang; IfWeRanTheWorld and MakeLoveNotPorn Founder Cindy Gallup; Crunchbase News Head of Strategic Research and Content Gené Teare; and Inc. Editor-At-Large Kimberly Weisul.

"We were overwhelmed by the amount of interest in the first SheWorx Equity Crowdfunding Challenge," said Bianca Caban, SheWorx CEO and Republic's Head of Partnerships. "These four female founders have built impressive businesses and we're honored to reward and support them on their Republic investment campaigns. This marks the first batch of winners for what will become a biannual challenge."

The winners will have the opportunity to pitch this week at Founders + Funders NYC, a one-day conference in New York on November 8 that dives into the world of startups, fundraising, and investing for female and other underrepresented founders. The event gathers, educates, and builds community for women and underrepresented founders, investors, and allies.

To participate in these crowdfunding campaigns, visit www.republic.co. The next SheWorx Equity Crowdfunding Challenge and selection of the second SheWorx Fundraising Batch will commence in early 2020.

* Juliette does not have a campaign live at this time. If they choose to conduct a campaign in the next calendar year, they will receive the same benefits as the other winners.

About Republic
Founded in 2016, Republic operates a family of businesses, including an investment platform that provides retail investors around the world with compliant access to curated startups and blockchain projects. Republic operates under U.S. equity crowdfunding regulations and is under the supervision of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.  Entrepreneurs accepted onto Republic's platform receive access to its crowdfunding investor base that has funneled over $28M into 100+ startups. Its institutional/accredited investor base has deployed $150M+ since 2018. With the SheWorx acquisition, Republic is creating an even more robust system by increasing the accessibility of equity crowdfunding to an already existing female entrepreneurial community. To date, 40% of all investments on Republic have gone towards female founded startups.

For additional information, please visit: www.republic.co, @joinrepublic and www.facebook.com/joinrepublic.

Media Contact:
Brooks Wallace
[email protected] 

SOURCE Republic