JPMorgan Chase recently announced a strategic partnership with Tampa Bay Wave and Embarc Collective to invest in women-owned tech startups. The partnership, called TechWomenFL, will receive $500,000 of investment from JPMorgan Chase over the course of two years to focus exclusively on women-owned tech startups in the Tampa Bay region.

Linda Olson (Tampa Bay Wave) and Lakshmi Shenoy (Embarc Collective) accepting a check for $500,000 from JPMorgan Chase

Selected businesses will go through a 90-day accelerator program. Embarc Collective’s role will include putting together a “glaring gap summit,” for this upcoming November. Lakshmi Shenoy, CEO of Embarc Collective describes her vision for the summit as, “a solution oriented summit that’s convening national thought leaders here in Tampa Bay to really think about the best practices that we can pull from other regions on growing the number entrepreneurs in a community and ensuring that we are delivering on the specific needs that women entrepreneurs have to grow their ventures.”

Tampa Bay Wave is a 501c3 nonprofit with a nationally recognized accelerator program that offers mentorship, connections and networking opportunities to founders. Unlike many other accelerator programs, they take no equity in the companies in exchange for their assistance.

Embarc Collective, which recently had its ribbon cutting at its new facility in downtown Tampa, provides individualized support to startups through strategy sessions and a facility to work alongside other founders, to secure a higher likelihood of success for their business.

The significance of the JPMorgan Chase partnership comes from the lack of investment in female-owned tech startups. Forbes recently reported that, “The next Steve Jobs will be a woman,” but that she will have an especially hard time because, “VCs have invested 98% of their capital in startups led by men.”

To read the full article about the TechWomenFL partnership from Grit Daily, click here.