Back in December of 2022, Mars-owned DOVE Chocolate continued its commitment to supporting female entrepreneurs and small businesses in the US by launching its second year of DOVE InstaGrants, a program designed to uplift, celebrate and empower women entrepreneurs with a chance to win one of three $10,000 grants.
This year’s program provided women across the country an opportunity to pitch a new business idea or established small business concept for a chance to win a $10,000 grant and additional support in 2023.
The brand has now selected three winners after receiving nearly four times the number of entries from last year. This year’s winners include:
- Feaena, Isabel Last: Faena takes an innovative approach to learning new languages, and is an immersive, story-filled video game that helps users become fluent in Spanish.
- HERide, Jillian Anderson: HERide is a rideshare app made for women by women, providing reliable peer-to-peer transportation using exclusively women drivers, while paying them 80% of each fare.
- Blend of Soul, Kiera Gardner & Margo NewKirk: Blend of Soul is a flavor-forward cold-pressed juice company, encouraging healthier lifestyles with locally sourced all-natural ingredients and sustainably made products.
DOVE worked with Indiegogo to set up crowdfunding pages for each winner and will be working with Indiegogo to promote their pages across social to encourage further support and funding from the public.
Additionally, DOVE has snuck winners’ pitches into venture capitalist firms through premium gift boxes filled with its chocolate. Leveraging cutting-edge AR/VR technology, DOVE worked with Volograms to develop hologram video pitches of each of the winners, which are hidden inside these boxes.
More information on the winners and their hologram pitches can be found at DOVE Chocolate’s website.
