To support women entrepreneurs across sub–Saharan Africa, IFC has launched She WINS Africa, a program designed to unlock the potential of hundreds of women-owned startups by offering them advice, training, mentorship, and improved access to finance.
African women have the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity in the world at an estimated 24% and are more likely to start businesses than their counterparts in other regions in the world. However, several factors persistently hinder the potential of female founders and entrepreneurs in Africa. These include lack of access to startup capital, lack of access to start-up support ecosystems and networks that deliver capacity building support and lack of knowledge and expertise to implement gender-lens investing strategies among venture capital firms and funds.
She Wins Africa aims to address these challenges and improve opportunities for women-led startups to access financing.
The program will:
- Provide investment readiness training and business skills capacity building, which will help women-led startups improve their chances of accessing finance.
- Provide capacity building for funds and Venture Capital on gender-lens investing to help accelerate investments in women-led startups and enterprises including ten startup support organizations.
- Capacity building for accelerators and ESOs to support the incubation of early-stage startups and support the development of a strong pipeline of investible startups.
- Facilitate matchmaking and pitching events between female founders and investors to facilitate the flow of funds to women-owned businesses.
Eligibility Criteria
- The She Wins Africa program is open to women-led startups operating in sub-Saharan Africa in all sectors and at any stage of the startup lifecycle. To be eligible for the program, startups must have at least one female founder or co-founder in a financial decision-making role.
- Prospective participants must meet the following criteria:
- Age: 21+
- Gender: Female
- Years in business: 1+
- Headquarters: sub-Saharan African country.
- Industry: Agnostic with technology as a central component.
- Previous participants of similar IFC programs are ineligible to apply.
- Language: Fluent in English.
- She Wins Africa participants must be available to attend online training sessions and travel to networking events during the next 12 months. Please note that IFC will only cover flight and hotel expenses for the duration of the program.
Deadline: 15th september 2023
For more information, visit IFC
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