Last April, six passionate women came together and pitched to business leaders, venture capitalists, angel investors and potential clients on innovative ideas, companies and products. It was a night of networking, innovation and inspiration.

This Wednesday November 11, from 4:30-7pm, five more women-led companies from the Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (PWE) Startup Accelerator will get the chance to present at Fall 2015 Demo Day.

Through the accelerator program, each startup received a $50,000 capital investment, office space in Downtown’s T-REX, and access to notable mentors and investors. To date, Prosper Women Entrepreneurs has raised $3 million for the Prosper Startup Accelerator fund, surpassing their original goal of $2 million.

Over the past three months the cohort attended biweekly meet-ups in St. Louis where each woman focused on her business, working to grow and refine their companies.

Previous Startup Accelerator participants have seen recent success since their time working with Prosper Women Entrepreneurs. Anoo Nathan, Founder and CEO of Smart Monitor announced a partnership with Apple Inc. last month.

“I want to highlight the role the Prosper Startup Accelerator played in our latest initiative. Through their network of connections, I was put in contact with Apple Healthcare. The Prosper Women Entrepreneurs connection is truly enduring.”

So why attend Demo Day? Not only is it a great event to support St. Louis entrepreneurs in general (women-led companies currently make up 35% of all startups) but hearing from and being inspired by these driven women will be a great way to kickoff Global Entrepreneur Week festivities. Here are a few other reasons you should find yourself there:

Because you can meet colleagues in a great space

The women will present their companies at Emerson Auditorium at Wash U’s Knight Hall, with a happy hour following the demos. With business leaders, funders, founders and other influential people in the ecosystem on hand, it’s a night of networking you can’t afford to miss.

Because you’re interested in health-focused companies.

Three of the five companies in the fall 2015 cohort have ties with healthcare: EDIS Solutions LLC, a pharmaceutical analyst firm based in Chesterfield and led by Nannette Musgrave; SkyMedicus, a company that provides safe and affordable healthcare solutions around the world led by Amy Holcomb and Janus Choice, a company focused on improving the hospital discharge system led by Sasha Goodwin that recently completed multiple pilots at leading U.S. hospitals and health systems. St. Louis is a burgeoning space for healthcare innovation and these companies are adding to that pie. 

Because you’re interested in tech companies.

The remaining two companies focuses on tech, specifically cutting edge cyber security and unique displays. Suzanne Magee will present on Bandura Systems LLC and their patented cyber defense technology that detects and combats cyber attacks and data leakage by utilizing real-time threat aggregation filtersand Mary Wolff, (seen on the cover of EQ’s first print issue this month!) will demo Taptl, the world’s only stand-alone, lighting agnostic transparent LCD.