IFC has unveiled the names of the 100 women-led startup owners who have been selected to participate in the She Wins Africa program. This initiative, led by IFC, aims to expedite access to capital for women-led startups across sub-Saharan Africa. The chosen participants will engage in comprehensive interventions to enhance their companies’ investment readiness, receiving advice, mentorship, and opportunities to connect with potential investors, industry leaders, and peers through matchmaking and pitching events across Africa.
As part of IFC’s broader commitment to promoting gender equality and empowering women entrepreneurs in emerging markets, the She Wins Africa initiative has selected 100 participants from nearly 3,000 applicants, representing women entrepreneurs across Africa in sectors such as ag-tech, climate-tech, e-commerce, ed-tech, health-tech, fintech, and more.
In addition to the investment-readiness program for the 100 selected participants, She Wins Africa will introduce other initiatives. This includes a bootcamp designed to guide 200 pre-seed women-led startups into the acceleration phase, an initiative to provide acceleration support for an additional 200 women-led startups in areas where such support is not readily available, and a program to establish a coalition of funds, venture capital firms, and gender-lens investors. This coalition aims to enhance access to finance for women and their businesses across Africa.
Nathalie Akon Gabala, Director of Gender and Economic Inclusion at IFC, emphasized the importance of empowering women entrepreneurs through coaching, training, and financing. She urged investors to play a crucial role in funding women, emphasizing that a robust entrepreneurship ecosystem benefits everyone.
The announcement follows the launch of the She Wins Africa program at the Africa CEO Forum in Côte D’Ivoire in 2023. This initiative is the second of its kind, following IFC’s She Wins Arabia program, which has supported 170 women entrepreneurs and over 35 Entrepreneur Support Organizations (ESOs) in North Africa and the Middle East since 2021.
