The SoGal Foundation, a platform for the empowerment and education of diverse entrepreneurs and investors, brought a round of its Global Pitch Competition to Dallas. Dubbed the “largest worldwide startup competition for women and diverse entrepreneurs,” the event provided founders with the chance to pitch to an all-star panel of investors.

The three winners of the Dallas round are locals Lyndsey Harper, who pitched Rosy Wellness, and Farhaj Mayan, who pitched Kanna, and Houston’s Smriti Agrawal Zaneveld, who pitched Lazarus 3D.

These three winners will go on to be finalists in the Global Pitch Competition. This year’s competition will have a greater impact, with more than double the number of regional pitch rounds, according to Rachel West, the SoGal Dallas Lead. She expects $600,000-plus investment dollars to be allocated to the winning teams at the global level.

Startups with at least one woman or diverse founder in pre-Series A were invited to apply to the competition. SoGal expanded the scope of the startup competition this year to include not only women, but other minorities and underrepresented founders to further bridge the diversity gap.

SoGal Ventures, a first-of-its-kind female-led millennial VC firm, and Draper U have allocated over half a million investment dollars to the final competition, according to West. It targets diverse founders to close the gap in capital investment. 

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