the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
L-R Melanie Hawken, Amanda Khoza, Eleanor Sansovini
Leading South African financial services group, Liberty, knows the importance of developing an entrepreneurial mindset in today’s economic climate in order to maintain a competitive edge. As a result, it is taking a proactive approach to encouraging its employees to think more entrepreneurially in their day to day work.
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Every year in the month of August, South Africa celebrates National Women’s Month, and to support this commemorative initiative, Lionesses of Africa, powered by Standard Bank, made plans to host three of its hugely popular Lioness Lean In Breakfast Events. The first two events have now taken place, the first in Durban on 16th August, and the second in Johannesburg on 18th August. At each event, women entrepreneurs representing all sectors of business and industry, gathered for a morning of inspirational startup story sharing and great networking.
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Each year, over 1,000 Global Women’s Summits are being presented by The Women Information Network (WIN) in major cities worldwide. The mission is to strengthen women and families through Education, Empowerment, and Entrepreneurship in order to eradicate illiteracy, poverty and hunger in every nation. This year’s theme is Towards Vision 2020, Women Leading Innovative Transformation. On Wednesday 10 August, the Global Women’s Summit was hosted by Nairobi, Kenya.
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Each year, over 1000 Global Women’s Summits are being presented by The Women Information Network (WIN) in major cities worldwide. The mission is to strengthen women and families through Education, Empowerment, and Entrepreneurship in order to eradicate illiteracy, poverty and hunger in every nation. This year’s theme is Towards Vision 2020, Women Leading Innovative Transformation. On Friday 5 August, the Global Women’s Summit was hosted by Johannesburg, South Africa.
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On 21 July, around 70 of Johannesburg’s women entrepreneurs representing all sectors of business and industry, gathered for a morning of inspirational startup story sharing and great networking at the latest in the highly successful series of Lioness Lean In Breakfast events. As always in this popular Lioness Lean In destination, the event took place in the city’s Rosebank district at the Standard Bank Business Incubator in Rosebank, where the surroundings create a great entrepreneurial vibe for all those attending.
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The Seedstars World Competition is coming to Mozambique and the women startup entrepreneurs of Maputo are invited to apply to pitch their startup businesses at this exciting event. The deadline for applications for women entrepreneurs in Maputo has been extended to Sunday 10th July at 12pm - so get those applications in now!
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L-R: Nobesuthu Ndlovu, Melanie Hawken, Bushera Bashir, Jayshree Naidoo
On 23rd June, the day that the Dell City Index ranked Johannesburg as the 23rd best city in the world for high growth women entrepreneurs, the latest in the highly successful series of Lioness Lean In breakfast events took place in the city’s Rosebank district. Around 60 leading women entrepreneurs and startups gathered at the Standard Bank Business Incubator in Rosebank to share their inspirational stories, to network, and to connect for business.
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Speakers L-R: Indrani Govender, Victoria Verbaan, Paula Goosen, Melanie Hawken, Jayshree Naidoo
The latest exciting leg of the Lioness Lean In Breakfast event tour this month headed to the warm shores of Durban, South Africa on 8 June, and what a great event it was. Some of the most inspirational women entrepreneurs from the city took to the stage at host venue Mancosa to share their highly personal entrepreneurial journeys, experiences and startup stories.
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Speakers L-R: Karen Wessels, Melanie Hawken, Lori Milner, Jacqueline Rogers, Jayshree Naidoo, Lilian Muhammed
One of the highlights on the monthly event calendar at Lionesses of Africa are the Lioness Lean In Breakfast events, which take place in different cities and venues, bringing together some of the most inspirational women entrepreneurs to share their experiences and startup stories. The latest event took place on Thursday 19th May, once again powered by Standard Bank and hosted at their inspirational SB Business Incubator in Rosebank, Johannesburg. And, what a great event it was!
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The latest in the series of inspirational monthly Lioness Lean In Breakfast events is set to take place this week on Thursday 19th May, once again powered by Standard Bank and hosted at their inspirational SB Business Incubator in Rosebank, Johannesburg. The Lioness Lean In Breakfast events are proving to be a huge hit with women entrepreneurs who come from across the country to listen to successful women business brand builders share their stories, to inspire one another, and to network and connect for business success.
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L-R: Melanie Hawken, founder & CEO of Lionesses of Africa, with Dr Monique Nsanzabaganwa, Chairperson of New Faces, New Voices Rwanda Chapter, and Mr Ignace Rusenga Mihigo Bacyaha, Country Resident Representative, International Finance Corporation World Bank Group
On 8th March, the world celebrated International Women’s Day, putting the topic of the empowerment of women at the top of the global agenda. Lionesses of Africa founder and ceo, Melanie Hawken, was invited to help celebrate this important occasion in the inspirational surroundings of Kigali in Rwanda, to speak at the Global Women’s Summit being held there. Her topic was the rise and rise of women’s entrepreneurship in Africa, something highly relevant to the country given that it has recently been ranked the Best Place to be a Woman in Africa, according to the Global Gender Gap Report, and ranked 6th overall in the world in terms of closing gender gaps.
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With the spectacular scenery of Table Mountain in the background, and a cloudless sunny day in prospect, almost 60 women entrepreneurs from across the Western Cape gathered together for the first Lioness Lean In Breakfast event of the year, held in the inspirational surroundings of Workshop 17 in Cape Town. The aim of the event was to share startup stories, to hear inspirational women entrepreneurs speaking about their personal business journeys to success, to connect with each other for future business and collaboration, and to do some serious networking. And, given the incredible energy and noise levels of women deep in conversation from the minute they arrived, the whole concept of ‘leaning in’ to share ideas, swop stories, and do business, was absolutely understood by everyone.
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Effeminacy Women’s Entrepreneurship Breakfast is a monthly event hosted in Johannesburg. This breakfast aims to identify issues that retard women’s entrepreneurship journey. By hosting monthly panel discussions and inviting institutions that deal with the specific issues, we are able to alleviate these issues.
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Each year, over 1000 Global Women’s Summits are being presented by The Women Information Network (WIN) in major cities worldwide. The mission is to strengthen women and families through Education, Empowerment, and Entrepreneurship in order to eradicate illiteracy, poverty and hunger in every nation. This year’s theme is Towards Vision 2020, Women Leading Innovative Transformation.
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The first of this year’s inspirational monthly Lioness Lean In Breakfast events has just taken place in Johannesburg, South Africa, powered by Standard Bank and hosted at their inspirational SB Incubator in Rosebank. The event was a huge hit with a capacity audience of 65 women entrepreneurs who came from across the country to listen to successful women business brand builders share their stories, to inspire one another, and to network and connect for business success.
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ACTIVATE! is a network of young leaders equipped to drive change for the public good across South Africa. Connecting youth who have the skills, sense of self and spark to address tough challenges and initiate innovative and creative solutions that can reshape the country’s society. On Saturday 21 November, the ACTIVATE Switch initiative organised a reunion of some of its Johannesburg-based activators for an update event and brunch, held in the historical surroundings of the Women’s Jail on Constitutional Hill in the City. The aim was to provide a platform for each of the young activators to update one another on their current initiatives, their ideas for entrepreneurial ventures, and their progress to date.
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Lynette Hundermark, Managing Director and co-Founder of Useful and Beautiful with fellow keynote speaker Vusi Thembekwayo (far left)
On 7 October, one of South Africa’s leading mobile solutions entrepreneurs, Lynette Hundermark, Managing Director and co-Founder of Useful and Beautiful, took to the speaker platform to address delegates at the Achieve Success Summit at the Royal Swazi Convention Centre in Swaziland. The event positions itself as the Region's number one Success Seminar and aims to help attendees to develop a wealth creation attitude by learning the psychology of success, unlocking a real "Can do" attitude, and creating the right strategies to achieve success.
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If you are a woman startup based in Mozambique, then the Startup Weekend Maputo, sponsored by Standard Bank and powered by Google for Entrepreneurs, is the place to be this weekend from 13 to 15 November, at the Centro Cultural Americano Martin Luther King, Av. Mao Tse Tung 542, Maputo, Mozambique.
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On Saturday 7th November, Lionesses of Africa held its first Young Lioness Lean In event, aimed at inspiring a new generation of young women entrepreneurs of the future in Africa. This highly motivational event was coordinated with the kind support of Standard Bank and was hosted at the inspirational Standard Bank Incubator in Rosebank, Johannesburg in South Africa.
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The Ampion Venture Bus, a seven day startups bootcamp fostering entrepreneurship across Africa, is on its way in Southern Africa. Starting in Windhoek on November 13th, the AMPION Venture Bus supports 40 young tech entrepreneurs to build an agriculture startup in seven days. You are invited to the opening day with keynotes, workshops and a mini-maker faire at FabLab Namibia in Windhoek on November 13th from 12am
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