Communitech is looking for applications for its second Women Entrepreneurs Bootcamp, or WEB, and has quadrupled the prize pot to entice applicants.

The tech startup hub space in Kitchener-Waterloo will hold the event in the autumn with the aim of helping women entrepreneurs improve their skills at forming, launching and scaling tech products. The winner of a pitch competition to be held on Oct. 1 will receive $100,000, up from $25,000 last year.

“We’re really trying to work with female founders and accelerate them into this phase and kickstart their ideas,” Communitech Talent Program Manager Alayne Hynes said in an interview.

Last year, Communitech received 96 applications for WEB from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. With a $75,000 increase in this year’s prize money, Hynes is hoping that WEB will receive more than 100 applications. The deadline to apply for WEB is June 15.

The WEB accepts 25 female founders to a six-day bootcamp where they learn how to accelerate their businesses.

WEB requires that the companies have a female founder who is able to attend the bootcamp. The company must be tech-based and in its early stages of development.

The 25 companies from last year’s WEB are all still functioning and growing. For instance, second prize winner DraftingSPACE, an online tool that can show you several ways to renovate your own home, was just acquired by a B.C. company.

In a recent interview, Emily Richardson, CEO of Halifax-based startup GoFullSteam, said her company instantly got a boost in its early days when she was accepted into the Women Entrepreneurs Bootcamp last year. GoFullSteam has developed a series of tools that can help small businesses plan and execute the early stages of their growth. Richardson said the WEB allowed her not only to learn but also to get feedback on her own platform from other entrepreneurs.

The six days of the bootcamp are split into two three-day periods. The first period is devoted to developing ideas and helping the founders to create their lean canvases, a skeleton model for startups. The founders are also introduced to pitching, how to build customer survey and how to attain the market data they need.

Then the founders leave for a month. When they return for the second period, they are expected to have completed homework, which consists of a completed lean canvas, a pitch deck and a customer survey. The WEB organizers mark this homework, and enter the eight to 10 teams with the best overall marks in to the final pitch competition, where one of them will win $100,000.

The second period teaches the founders about foundational business concepts. The founders also participate in a few practice pitch rounds, which also factor in to the overall mark that determines which companies enter the final pitch competition.

“We want more women to enter the tech space, and this is one way that Communitech is helping them to do this,” Hynes said.

Due to the diverse companies and women who participate in WEB, many of last year’s participants said that building a network with other female tech founders was invaluable to them.

“That was something we weren’t intentionally trying to build,” she said, “so it was awesome that we were able to achieve that. We hope to build on that as we move forward.”

Eye on KW is a regular feature in Entrevestor that highlights startups and the innovation ecosystem in Kitchener-Waterloo.