North entrepreneur Heather McDonald has won an all expenses trip to meet US investors in California next month.
The WooHa Brewing boss was one of a trio of leading businesswomen celebrating success in the growth category of the AccelerateHER Awards, presented during a conference in Edinburgh yesterday.
Nairn-based WooHa, founded by Ms McDonald in 2014, produces a range of award-winning bottled conditioned ales and lagers focused on the rapidly expanding export market.
The two other AccelerateHER winners were Rebecca Pick of Glasgow firm Pick Protection, which specialises in personal protection devices for the student and lone worker market, and Polly Van Alstyne of Midlothian-based life sciences company Scottish Biotechnology.
The winning trio, unveiled at the Investing Women Ambition and Growth conference, now have a chance to network with potential financiers at a high profile investors’ gathering in San Francisco in April.
Jackie Waring, chief executive of Investing Women, which runs the AccelerateHER Awards, said: “Congratulations to our three growth category winners, all of which are highly investable businesses which are run by a female.
“I look forward to accompanying them to meet an audience of global investors at the Angel Capital Association conference in California next month.
“This is only our second year of staging the AccelerateHER Awards, where the quality of those taking part was exceptional.
“We were blown away by the standard of award submissions this year so I would like to acknowledge all those who took part.
“We will be looking to build on last year’s competition, where four of the six finalists secured over £2million-worth of growth financing between them since their involvement in the programme.”
The AccelerateHER Awards is a business pitch competition open to entrepreneurial women-led businesses throughout Scotland.
