Apple established an Entrepreneur Camp offering members of female-led app companies access to engineers and mentors, as it looks to tackle the challenges women face in the apps world.

“Research shows that women face unique challenges in technology, especially when starting and leading companies. That’s why we created Apple Entrepreneur Camp,” the company explained on a dedicated website.

“Our goal is to help these entrepreneurs as they create the next generation of cutting-edge apps and to form a global network that encourages the pipeline and longevity of women in technology,” it said, adding that “the heart of Apple Entrepreneur Camp is an intensive, hands-on technology lab working one-on-one with Apple experts and engineers to significantly accelerate your app”.

Up to three members of a company may attend, but at least one must be a woman developer and one the female founder, co-founder, or CEO.

They will also get free membership to the Apple Developer Program for one year: the programme covers access to App Store beta software, advanced app capabilities, extensive beta testing tools, and app analytics.

Women attending the camp will also receive tickets to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Attendees’ names are usually decided by a lottery, with winners then charged $1,599 for a ticket.

Apple senior director of worldwide developer marketing, Esther Hare, clarified to TechCrunch that “this isn’t an incubator where you come with a good idea and we help you think through it. It’s about already having a good idea, maybe they want to incorporate machine learning or augmented reality, or use some of Apple’s other technologies.”