Meet the women-led web3 startups from Thousand Faces Demo Day

Thousand facesa web3 community-based investment group, hosted its demo day with the top 10 startups from its Female Founder Accelerator program on Wednesday.

Demo Day coincided with International Women’s Day and showcased women-led companies focused on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The first cohort of the accelerator program has been accepted 30 startups from a pool of more than 220 applicants in 76 countries.

The 10 startups will compete for a spot in the top five to qualify for one-on-one mentorship and up to $50,000 in cash rewards and prizes to be awarded next month, the group said.

Here’s a rundown of the top 10 startups from Thousand Faces, the Female Founder Accelerator:

Company Name: Kleiderly

• What it does: recycle textile waste
• Founder: Alina Bassi
• Country: Germany
• The pitch: Kleiderly recycles unwanted textile waste and turns it into its patented plastic alternative in hopes of replacing the need for plastic. The material is intended to replace oil-based plastics and produce items ranging from eyewear to suitcases, Bassi said during the demo day. To date, it has saved 20,000 shirts from landfill, Bassi added. The startup estimates that each business customer could save about 12,500 kilograms of CO2e, equivalent to 1.5 million charged smartphones or 13,800 kilograms of coal burned.

Company Name: SALUBATA

• What it does: Shoes made from recycled plastic
• Founder: Yewande Akinse
• Country: Nigeria
• The pitch: SALUBATA makes patented modular shoes from recycled plastic waste in an effort to reduce the global carbon footprint. The shoes are customizable and are also available as NFTs. The startup has strategic partnerships with companies like Amazon and Faire and has sold more than 6,000 shoes to date. It is currently registered in Nigeria, France and the US and aims to raise $3 million to scale globally, Akinse shared.

Company Name: SOUL (legal name MAMATECH Inc.)

• What it does: app before and after pregnancy
• Founder: Natallia Miranchuk
• Country: Cyprus
• The pitch: The SOULA app is an AI-powered guide to 24/7 informational and mental health support during pregnancy, birth and postpartum care. The application provides personalized educational content and emotional support with a virtual assistant or “pocket” version of a doula. It is currently in a seed round to invest in business development and grow product development.

Company Name: AkwaaPay

• What it does: payment solution
• Founder: Christine Dikonguè
• Country: Canada and Nigeria
• The pitch: AkwaaPay leverages the web3 infrastructure to help African businesses and individuals make and receive payments internationally. The platform allows users to receive funds in their wallets in cryptocurrencies or convert them to local currencies. The startup launched its beta product in the fourth quarter of 2022 and has 384 registered users in three countries. It hopes to expand into 15 different currencies in 44 countries by the end of the year, Dikonguè said during her pitch.

Company Name: Jonah Health

• What it does: Health network with patient-centric app
• Founder: Suhina Singh
• Country: Singapore
• The pitch: Jonda Health wants to improve the health data available to patients. It is building out a “Lego-like tech stack” to provide customers with a host of capabilities to improve care coordination, reduce costs and improve health outcomes for patients, among other things, Singh said during her pitch. The platform adheres to data privacy laws and uses zero-knowledge encryption to store data in a secure manner, Singh added.

Company Name: Radava Mercantile

• What it does: Links agriculture to financial markets
• Founder: Josephine Adeti Otieno
• Country: Kenya
• The pitch: Radava wants to link small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to financial markets. It provides farmers with a barter market for agricultural commodities, alternative financing and post-harvest technologies. The startup also allows farmers to use their produce as collateral to access loans and real-time market information. In the past six months, it has traded more than 540 tons on its platform with more than 650 clients and users for about $26,000 in revenue, Otieno said.

Company Name: Biah

• What it does: singing wellness platform
• Founder: Xann Schwinn, Suzi Digby Obe
• Country: United Kingdom
• The pitch: Biiah is an employee wellness platform that aims to make singing accessible in person, virtually or through an application to establish a daily singing routine and help users improve their health. Aimed at large companies in the UK and US, the platform has 12 repeat customers and has had a total of 24 customers to date, Schwinn said. ExxonMobil is a customer and 92% of employees who used it said “it had a positive impact on their work week,” she added.

Company Name: Start Qerat

• What it does: Food product
• Founder: Salma Essa
• Country: Syria
• The pitch: Qerat Startup aims to provide “food for good” or food security by using an often wasted resource, carob, as food. The prototype consists of coffee, sweetened bread and chocolate and is suitable for diabetes, heart and hypertension patients. To date, it has six partners, including UNICEF, and works with 22 farmers and 20 schools.

Company Name: CONCAT Tech

• What it does: Web development company
• Founder: Laura Jardine
• Country: UK/Lebanon
• The pitch: CONCAT creates websites for international clients while providing long-term, sustainable employment for marginalized communities such as refugees. It has more than 50 customers in 12 different countries and has generated $90,000 in revenue to date. It has also provided employment for about 15 marginalized refugees and/or female developers, Jardine said.

Company Name: Maya Water

• What it does: Clean water technology
• Founder: Beth Wanjiku Koigi
• Country: Kenya
• The pitch: Majik Water is a Kenyan social enterprise that aims to provide access to clean drinking water in arid and semi-arid regions through air-to-water technology and devices. Even if you’re in a desert, you can get drinking water, Koigi said. The startup has more than 20 large-scale devices and 10 small-scale devices that produce more than 300,000 liters of water per month for more than 2,500 beneficiaries in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia. It is raising a $200,000 preferred stock round to help with production and has secured $190,000 in grant funding, Koigi said.