‘Deep-rooted gender imbalance’ leaving cash on the table…

February 11, 2024 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

The VC numbers for Africa in 2023 were released a few weeks ago and, as usual, the dial for women just doesn’t seem to be moving. As the brilliant data crunchers at ‘Africa: The Big Deal’ show (here), male and all male funding teams in 2023 as with other years, continued to raise around 85% of the entire funding, that’s not only equity but also debt and grants. Women and all women founding teams raised a rounding error, 2.3% to be exact, with only 13% going to gender diverse ones. Their article is headed: “2023 Deep-rooted gender imbalance” and deep-rooted it is. We just can’t seem to shake off these 2% levels.

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results

November 6, 2022 Melanie Hawken

by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department

How can one truly compare the funding of male founded companies with those female led? To simply state that there is an iniquitous relationship between funding for male dominated companies and those female - which at first (second and third) glance does appear to be the case, opens one up to the answer that perhaps one is comparing apples with pears. That it just so happens that of the particular set of companies funded, the male dominated companies are ‘better’, more ‘fundable’ than female ones, more ‘noticeable’, or ‘better educated’ (obviously, ‘better’ in all these contexts is very, very subjective - just ask Richard Branson who left school at 16), but there is no doubt (here from ‘Africa: the Big Deal’), that at least a top western university on the cv makes a huge difference to funding success.

Access to funding for Africa's women entrepreneurs requires a more innovative digital approach

April 10, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Radio / The Business of Funding Podcast Ep.4

For Africa’s women entrepreneurs in both startup and growth mode, getting access to funding can be a tricky and often frustrating experience. That’s why a more innovative approach is required, and fintech has a definite role to play in creating more accessible funding platforms for women business owners. In Episode 4 of The Business of Funding, Sarah Dusek, co-founder of Enygma Ventures, shares her insights on how funding and investment support for growth oriented women owned businesses in Africa can be a game-changer. Also on the programme are two successful women business founders who are in the business of fintech, and both based in Zambia. So two fascinating conversations on the business of funding from a number of perspectives.

Adbot launches campaign to offer 1000 Lionesses of Africa members 1000 FREE Google Ads campaigns

January 28, 2022 Melanie Hawken

Lioness Radio / The Business of Funding Podcast Ep.3

There are 3.5 million searches a day on Google. If your business is not advertising on Google you don't exist to online customers. That is why Lionesses of Africa is collaborating with Adbot to change this. Adbot is giving away 1000 Free Google ads campaigns to 1000 women business owners, each to the value of R1000. The campaign runs until 31 January 2022.

Lionesses of Africa launches The Business of Funding Podcast in partnership with Enygma Ventures

May 13, 2021 Melanie Hawken

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Lioness Radio / The Business of Funding Podcast

In response to the challenges facing Africa’s women entrepreneurs in getting access to essential growth funding for their businesses, Lionesses of Africa has launched The Business of Funding Podcast series through its Lioness Radio division. This new quarterly podcast show aims to inform and inspire, and is powered by Enygma Ventures, a private investment fund focused on investing in women-led businesses in Southern Africa, and co-founded by entrepreneurs Sarah and Jacob Dusek.

Quote of the Day

February 17, 2015 Melanie Hawken

Andrea Bohmert, partner at Knife Capital — **Andrea Bohmert**, partner at Knife Capital

“Incubators and accelerators are an important element in providing support. Incubator programmes such as the Bandwidth Barn, 88mph, BizSpark or the iHub in Kenya as well as our own Grindstone accelerator can all tell of great success stories where value was clearly added, .... When there is a match between what the incubator or accelerator can offer and the need of the entrepreneur, magic can happen."

- Andrea Bohmert is partner at Knife Capital, a Southern African growth equity fund manager and advisor focusing on innovation-driven ventures. Andrea has a successful track record in the corporate sector, as entrepreneur as well as investor. She headed up Corporate Strategy for Siemens Southern Africa followed by managing a software sales team for Dimension Data. Starting her own businesses led her into the investment space where she raised the R350m Hass Plattner Ventures Africa Fund. She is passionate about developing the startup ecosystem and is involved in numerous business incubation initiatives.

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