Lionesses of Africa Event
Finding solutions to closing the continuing gender finance gap for high-growth women entrepreneurs in Africa and the Netherlands was the key focus of discussion at the 3rd Start-Up Night Africa event on 17 September 2025, in The Hague, The Netherlands. The event was once again hosted by Lionesses of Africa, a fast-growing social impact organisation with 1.8 million women entrepreneurs across the African continent, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Netherlands. Opening remarks were delivered by Lionesses of Africa founder & ceo, Melanie Hawken; Peter Derrek Hof, Ambassador Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Director Social Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and a special address was given by African Guarantee Fund Group CEO, Mr Jules Ngankam.
The 3rd Start-Up Night Africa event in The Hague showcased 5 leading, inspirational women entrepreneurs from the Lionesses of Africa community from across the African continent who are in growth mode, and looking for growth funding, market opportunities, and strategic partnerships. It also showcased 5 women entrepreneurs from The Netherlands who are looking to access high-growth African markets and partnerships. The programme provided a powerful platform for these women entrepreneurs to present their businesses and pitch decks to an audience of potential investors, buyers, banks, VIP guests, and key government officials in The Netherlands.
Melanie Hawken, founder & CEO, Lionesses of Africa
Start-Up Night Africa 2025 also provided the opportunity for Lionesses of Africa and its partner, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Netherlands, to present a shared belief in sustainable, inclusive economic growth through gender empowerment, entrepreneurship, and the power of partnerships. Giving the opening welcome remarks, Melanie Hawken, founder and CEO of Lionesses of Africa, said:
“An event like tonight's is a key output of Lionesses of Africa's 'Access to Markets and Investment Programme,' which aims to connect high-growth women entrepreneurs on the continent and here in the Netherlands to each other and to new market and investment opportunities. A central pillar of our work is to create a strong and vibrant pipeline of investment ready women entrepreneurs from our almost 2 million strong network who can take advantage of initiatives such as Start-Up Night Africa to get the growth funding they need. Start-Up Night Africa is just the output - Lionesses of Africa is laser focused on capacity building, to build more and more women entrepreneurs who are investment ready. Our capacity development and mentoring programmes, our knowledge hub, our publications and information resources, our training and networking events, are all aimed at supporting this goal.”
Peter Derrek Hof, Ambassador Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Director Social Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Peter Derrek Hof, Ambassador Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, Director Social Development, said: “The challenges faced by women entrepreneurs transcend borders. Female entrepreneurs everywhere continue to face many challenges when it comes financing, owning and growing a business. They include legal barriers, limited access to capital and technology, attitudes and prejudices. The Netherlands are a proud supporter of women entrepreneurship, because we believe that women entrepreneurs are a catalyst for positive change. In all stages of their business.”
Providing insights on large-scale initiatives to practically address the gender funding gap, special guest, Mr Jules Ngankam, Group Chief Executive of African Guarantee Fund, gave an invaluable update on the tangible results now being seen through such initiatives as its Capacity Development programme for women entrepreneurs. Lionesses of Africa is one of its partners assisting AGF in rolling out this programme across the continent, training and mentoring women entrepreneurs to be funding ready and better positioned to access growth funding for their businesses. He said:
Jules Ngankam, Group Chief Executive, African Guarantee Fund
“Women in Africa have the highest participation in economic activity in the world, yet their contribution to GDP is the lowest. What if they were able to achieve their full potential?….“In agriculture, women represent two thirds of the workforce but own only 3% of the land. What if they had access to more land?”….Only 5% of loan applications from women-owned or led businesses are accepted, compared to 40% for men. The link between banks and entrepreneurs is broken—and our goal is to fix it. As AGF, we have unlocked $1 billion of financing for women over the last three years, supporting 15,000 SMEs through 191 financial institutions in 39 countries.”
The inspirational line-up of women entrepreneurs showcased and pitching their businesses to potential investors at Start-Up Night Africa included:
5 Women Entrepreneurs from Africa looking for investment, market opportunities and partnerships in Europe pitched their businesses to the audience.
Morongwe Mokone and Michelle Mokone, co-founders, Mo’s Crib (South Africa)
Diana Mbogo, founder, Millennium Engineers (Tanzania)
Anne Rweyora, founder, Smart Havens Africa (Uganda )
Claudia Castellanos, co-founder, Black Mamba Foods (Eswatini)
Nkem Okocha, founder, Mama Moni (Nigeria)
5 Women Entrepreneurs from the Netherlands looking to expand operations into African markets and partnerships pitched their businesses to the audience.
Inez van Oord, co-founder, Fiber Foods Group
Marthe Paauwe, founder, MoneyPhone BV
Rahel Boon-Dejene, founder, R & D Group
Linda Klunder, co-founder, Kumasi Drinks BV
Anita de Werd, founder, Finwerd Flavours and Fragrances
In addition to the 10 women entrepreneur pitches, another highlight of the event was a panel discussion, chaired by Melanie Hawken, to explore ways of improving access to investment for women entrepreneurs in growth mode. Two successful women agribusiness founders shared their experiences of raising funding to accelerate their own growth journeys, including: Hadija Jabiri, founder, GBRI (Eat Fresh), Tanzania, and Yvette Tetteh, co-founder, Pure & Just Co., Ghana. Both entrepreneurs had previously pitched for business funding at the 2023 edition of Start-Up Night Africa, and have successfully raised growth funding over the past two years.
Lionesses of Africa also updated guests on some of its current initiatives to support women entrepreneurs through access to funding, research and capacity development. Firstly, news of the completion of the training component for a Capacity Development Programme to Improve Funding Readiness for 300 women entrepreneurs in South Africa. This important project was backed by the African Guarantee Fund and their preferred financial institution in South Africa, Absa, and is part of the AFAWA initiative. The programme has built a pipeline of credit ready women SMEs who have now improved their ability to access bank finance to fund their business growth.
Secondly, the launch of The Tech FoundHER Africa Challenge. It offers Africa’s women tech founders the opportunity to win up to $100,000 in equity free grants, mentorship and visibility to accelerate their business growth in areas such as agritech, health tech, ed-tech, fintech, to name but a few. This high impact project is powered by Naspers and Prosus and delivered in partnership with Lionesses of Africa.
Finally, there was a progress update on the ongoing research project to address the gendered gap in data for Africa's high-growth women entrepreneurs, which is currently underway with the support of AFAWA. The aim of this research is support better policy-making and investment decisions, and to address the need to understand women entrepreneurs' specific needs and challenges in creating high-growth, funding ready businesses in Africa.
The event was brought to an official close by Peter-Derrek Hof who launched the 2025 Pledge to Act, encouraging all attendees to practically support women entrepreneurs on their growth and investment journeys.
For more information on Start-Up Night Africa 2025, visit the website https://www.lionessesofafrica.com/startup-night-africa or send an email to: events@lionessesofafrica.com