Two Dallas women have been granted $144,000 in funding for their entrepreneurial pitches as part of the inaugural WeWork Creator Awards.
Alongside 34 other southern contestants, Keisha Whaley and Jennifer Ding delivered their business pitches in front of a live audience at the Creator Awards South Regional Finals Tuesday. The contest is hosted by New York-based coworking company, WeWork, which has locations in the Dallas area.
Entrepreneurs were split into three grant level categories based on their development stages — The Incubate, The Launch, and The Scale.
Ding’s ParkIT, a system providing parking stall information to lot operators and Whaley’s Brass Tacks Collective, a teaching agency, received $72,000 each in the “Launch” category for their early stage businesses.
All 18 category winners accumulated $1.5 million in funding for their projects ranging from nonprofits to startups.
Three other Dallas finalists — Telecalm, The Human Impact, and The Marcus Graham Project — didn’t advance in the competition.
Ding and Whaley will move on to compete for additional funding at the Creator Awards Global Finals Nov. 30 in New York City.
Austin was the Creator Awards’ latest stop on its global tour. Following the regional final, WeWork will be traveling to South America, Europe, and the Middle East for additional events.
Read more about WeWork Creator Awards here.
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