A high-profile launchpad for startups is teaming up with big business to increase the paltry numbers of women working in the technology industry. With a big assist from Google, tech incubator 1871, is launching a new initiative, 1871FEMtech, to foster female-led startups, John Pletz writes at-Crain’s Chicago Business. Based in Chicago's Merchandise Mart — the biggest building in the world when it opened in 1930 —-FEMtech, which starts in the fall, will help 10 to 15 women-owned tech start-ups a year and will launch with $500,000 to $1 million in support.-Google's involvement in the project is part of a #40Forward, a $1 million effort to boost the number of women in tech by 25 percent and launch 40 incubators.- About 28 percent of the teams or companies at 1871 have a woman among their founders, and Howard Tullman, CEO of 1871, says the success rate of tech startups with women is about 30 percent higher than startups overall.-



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