A BUDDING local entrepreneur has moved one step closer to taking out the top prize at a national contest for $100,000.
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Wagga’s Naomi Stuart has risen above hundreds of business leaders in SheStarts – a competitive startup program for businesswomen with big ideas – to claim a place in the top 10.
Coming from a farming family, Ms Stuart knows better than most the importance of innovation in agriculture and sees the significant role technology will play in the sector’s evolution.
Ms Stuart was selected from over more than 800 applicants and is in the running for $100,000 in pre-seed funding and a place in the SheStarts accelerator for her business FarmPay.
FarmPay is a secure online platform that enables real time payment.
Through FarmPay, farmers will be able to receive real-time payment for on-farm grain sales, reducing the risk while also improving cashflow.
She said she thrives in empowering women to achieve success, and believes that regional women are limited only by their networks and the power of their imaginations.
“Delayed payments mean that farmers are unable to pay their own bills and workers,” Ms Stuart said.
“It has a real impact on the business.”
The people’s choice vote will account for 10 per cent of the judging criteria to select the final 10.
It comes as a crop of local women have continually made national headlines for putting Wagga on the map as a “hub of innovation”.
Delayed payments mean that farmers are unable to pay their own bills and their workers – that has a real impact on the business.
- Naomi Stuart
Though country cities are not generally associated with harboring business pioneers, Wagga’s female entrepreneurs are proving big ideas can be born from small cities.
Founder of coffee-ordering app 365 cups, Simone Eyles and start-up business owner and student Sarah Agboola are among other budding business figures to receive that recognition.
They are just a few of more than 80 female entrepreneurs and business leaders who are currently making Wagga known.