SBE’s Evolve Program is designed to provide founders with the knowledge, skills, and networks needed to accelerate business growth and successfully scale their business. This program, sponsored by the City of Sydney, will be held in person over 3-days. These founders will gain the knowledge and networks needed to build a scalable business.
The Evolve Cohort of 2024 includes 10 outstanding businesses, run by women who are passionate about making a difference to their communities and sharing their innovation.
Danielle Johansen, Founder Threadicated
Danielle Johansen is the visionary entrepreneur behind Threadicated, a game-changing platform in the Australian fashion industry, with global plans. With a mission to empower individuals to look and feel their best, Danielle has harnessed the power of zero-party data and AI to deliver a personalised digital fashion styling experience. Threadicated helps customers effortlessly discover and refine their personal style, offering convenience and confidence like never before.
Recognised as a leader in retail and e-commerce, Danielle earned a spot on The Australian's prestigious 2024 List of Top 100 Innovators for her groundbreaking work in fashion technology.
Anna Nedbaylova, Co-founder FundBase Group and FB Ventures Anna Nedbaylova is a passionate financial professional with decades of experience in financial services, finance, operations, and M&A. Seeing the inefficiencies and complexities in the industry, she made it her mission to create more inclusive and accessible solutions that fuel industry growth. Driven by a commitment to excellence and efficiency, and backed by an amazing team that shares her passion, Anna has dedicated the last several years to breaking down barriers, reshaping how people engage and operate, and introducing efficiency within the investment management, venture capital, and startup ecosystems. She co-founded FundBase Group with a vision to build a holistic infrastructure that supports the seamless launch, scaling, and operation of investment vehicles. The recent launch of FB Ventures, a purpose-driven platform that leverages this infrastructure to extend these solutions to the startup ecosystem, marks another step in this journey.
FundBase Group provides a comprehensive infrastructure to launch, scale, and operate investment vehicles, streamlining processes for investment managers and investors. Through its FB Ventures platform, it equips founders with the tools to navigate capital raising, connect with investors, and offers a simple, cost-effective solution to structure capital raises—ensuring every dollar converts into capital while keeping cap tables clean and scalable.
Rachel Zhao, Co-founder Woofya
With a diverse background in digital marketing, global business strategy, and data-driven growth, Rachel is creating a platform that supports new dog parents through the early stages of dog ownership and beyond. At Woofya, the mission is clear: Creating a world where every new dog parent feels supported, confident, and inspired to build a joyful life with their pet dog—one milestone at a time, one new adventure at a time.
Woofya empowers new dog parents by offering interactive goal-setting, progress tracking, and access to dog-friendly locations and events. Through gamified achievements and location-based recommendations, Woofya helps dog owners track their pup's milestones, discover dog-friendly places, and attend events, making each outing a fun and rewarding experience. Our goal is to make the journey of dog ownership more engaging, rewarding, and stress-free, ensuring both dogs and their owners thrive.
Krish Waje, Co-founder and Director Lunaire
Krish Waje brings a strong passion for sustainability and mindful consumerism to Lunaire, a refillable candle brand she co-founded. Dedicated to transforming the candle industry, Krish prioritises environmental responsibility and product longevity. With a background in business analytics, Krish has combined business acumen with a commitment to reducing single-use waste, making Lunaire a unique player in the sustainable home fragrance market.
Lunaire offers refillable soy candles housed in elegant Forever Jars, designed to replace disposable
alternatives and encourage a more sustainable lifestyle. The jars can also be personalised with engravings, making them ideal for special occasions or meaningful gifts. By focusing on quality and conscious living, Lunaire is helping customers experience luxurious, environmentally friendly products while making a positive impact.
Lucy Kough, Founder Tap the Gap
Sometimes a cup of tea can solve the problems of the world. Sometimes you need a little more.
Lucy has spent the past 20 years in the advertising industry helping clients solve problems big and small through the power of creativity. Her work has helped bring sight to the third world, convinced middle-aged country men to stay safe on the roads, freed up women to make their own beauty choices and started a global shift in the weight loss category by calling it for what it really is - frickin hard. Lucy loves making the complex stuff simple and stacking it full of emotion so you’ll never forget it.
She is passionate about ideas that support women to fulfill their potential. Including herself. So when she learnt about the 28% superannuation gap for women whilst working on a super fund client, she got mad.Then she started to think about ways to get things even. And she can’t stop talking about it to anyone who’ll listen. Which turns out, is a lot. Tap The Gap is her start up business that aims to help women build wealth while they shop. It supports women to put more money in their super through a combination of automated retail cash back contributions and gamified education.
Kate Osaze, Founder Reswitch
Kate is the founder of Reswitch and brings a unique blend of expertise as both a Power System Engineer and a Lawyer with a strong background in renewable energy. She has led numerous high-value projects, specialising in electrical engineering, grid connections, and project management, as well as navigating complex contractual negotiations for utility-scale solar and wind developments. Her experience spans the full project lifecycle, from feasibility and planning through to design, construction, and operations.
At Reswitch, Kate helps renewable energy developers strengthen community support and earn social license through an innovative digital platform that reduces nearby residents' power bills without requiring a change in energy providers. Under her leadership, Reswitch is committed to sharing the benefits of renewable energy projects equitably, providing tangible value to communities affected by the energy transition while supporting developers in meeting their community benefit-sharing obligations.
Greta Menzies, Co-founder My Data Boss
Greta is the co-founder of My Databoss, a cutting-edge platform designed to revolutionise data privacy and security in the AI-driven digital era. With an extensive background in big data analytics, business development, and machine learning operations, Greta has made her mark as a Senior Executive Director and Head of Data Science, advising C-suite and senior executives across private and ASX-listed companies.
At My Databoss, Greta is focused on empowering businesses to securely collect, validate, and manage sensitive information, while giving consumers control and transparency over their data. By setting new standards in ethical data exchange, My Databoss simplifies compliance and reduces operational risk, helping businesses grow with confidence. Greta’s visionary leadership and passion for data-driven innovation have made her a key figure in driving the next generation of secure digital solutions.
Olivia Mangan, Co-founder Goodbyes
Co-founder and Director of Goodbyes, Olivia Mangan started the business in 2015 at the age of 25, with a clear vision to make second-hand shopping more desirable and accessible through retail spaces across Australia. Today, Goodbyes is a leading consignment store chain, renowned for its carefully curated, high-quality pieces that emphasise longevity and individuality. Olivia’s hands-on leadership, alongside her business partner Monique, has shaped the business from the ground up, streamlining processes and overseeing operations to ensure that both shoppers and sellers in local communities enjoy a seamless and joyful experience.
Zoe Taylor and Carly Nowell, Co-founders Audrie & Alfie
Audrey & Alfie was founded in late 2023 by childhood friends Carly Nowell and Zoe Taylor, driven by a shared passion to help families manage the mental and physical load of parenthood without compromising nutrition. Zoe, is a mother of three and a practicing dietitian with experience in clinical and community nutrition, and Carly, a mother of one has a background in psychology and driving systemic change in child education and wellbeing. Together, they combined over 30 years of expertise in public health, complex project management, strategy, and strategic communications to create a healthy alternative to traditional supermarket offerings.
The brand offers premium dietitian-designed meals, snacks, and lunchbox items for babies, toddlers, and children, featuring wholefood-based products that are snap frozen to retain nutrients without artificial preservatives. Audrey & Alfie challenges the traditional baby and toddler food model by providing handmade food made from locally sourced and organic ingredients, with no added salt or refined sugar. In just 12 months, the company has established a strong customer base in Victoria, expanded to New South Wales, and built a growing retail presence. Audrey & Alfie was recently recognised as the Most Wholesome Children’s Nutrition Company in the esteemed Australian Enterprise Awards 2024, which highlights key players driving innovation in Australia.
Philippa Abbott - Founder and CEO of Pelagic
Pelagic tackles ocean plastics and diverting mixed plastics from waterways and landfills at scale.
Decentralised and modular manufacturing making beautiful eco product that lasts. Pelagic drives localised economy, builds resilience, and protects ecology at every step. Under Philippa’s leadership, Pelagic employs a networked and decentralised approach to scaled manufacturing, and market development. By empowering locally-led partners, refined product design and leveraging tried-and-tested technology, Pelagic creates dynamic markets that close the loop on hard to recycle plastics.
Founder, Philippa Abbott is a distinguished leader in design and strategy. With a strong background in system design, participatory design, entrepreneurship, social innovation, climate adaptation, organisational scale transformation, and building innovation approaches. As an experienced founder and consultant, Philippa is known for transforming large-scale systems and delivering high impact outcomes through applying human centred design transformation and innovation methodologies. This provides robust and extensive foundations to deliver on the Pelagic vision.