the pride of Africa's women entrepreneurs
Didintle Moreki, founder, Organic Naturals Skincare (Botswana)
Lioness Launch
Organic Naturals Skincare, a leading manufacturer of premium skincare products in Botswana, founded by entrepreneur Didintle Moreki, is thrilled to announce its collaboration with Faithful to Nature, the South African pioneer in offering conscious consumers a wide range of ethically sourced and sustainable products. This exciting partnership showcases a shared commitment to quality, ethics, and sustainability in the world of skincare.
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Forget Shareka, founder, Chashi Foods (Zimbabwe)
Startup Story
Forget Shareka is the founder of Chashi Foods in Zimbabwe, and also a farmer, vibrant agronomic engineer, award-winning entrepreneur, environmental management, and sustainability professional. She is passionate about agribusiness, sustainable food systems, sustainability, community development, youth and women empowerment, and climate action. Her academic background is in agricultural sciences, entrepreneurship, and innovation. She is the founder and business development director for Chashi Foods, an agro-processing company committed to reducing postharvest and food losses in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, she works in the Environmental, Social, and Governance field (ESG) in Telecommunications.
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Masanda Peter, founder, Mineworker Magazine
Startup Story
Masanda Peter is a qualified, seasoned Marketing, Media and Communications Professional and a serial entrepreneur in South Africa who has launched a magazine publishing venture, Mineworker Magazine, focusing on sharing the untold stories of mineworkers. For a long time, mineworkers have not had their side of the story covered and through this magazine their stories will be shared. Masanda has a journalism background having embarked on her Journalism studies and completed her International Diploma in Journalism.
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by Blessed Agyemang
In the dynamic and ever-evolving world of supply chain management, the power of a purposeful, impactful, and strong personal or business brand cannot be underestimated. Just as an efficient and agile supply chain is essential for business success, a well-crafted brand identity is the cornerstone of recognition, credibility, and influence. Whether you're an individual professional or a business entity within the supply chain industry, it has become of utmost importance and benefit to master the art of building a powerful brand that stands out and commands attention. I will touch on a few points.
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by Lori Milner
Most people's first thought on waking in the morning is the fear of not having enough time and how they will get it all done and find the balance. Naturally, finance is another area where scarcity thinking comes into play. Through coaching hundreds of people, I've discovered the fear of running out of energy. Although this fear is common, how it's translated into reality differs from person to person because what may drain one person energises another.
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by Nicolene Schoeman-Louw
In recent years, South Africa has witnessed a surge in the influencer marketing industry. With the rise of social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, individuals from various walks of life have harnessed their online presence to become influential figures. These influencers can help brands reach a wider audience and boost their marketing efforts. However, as this industry continues to evolve, both influencers and brands must be aware of the legal implications and responsibilities that come with it.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
Marc Andreessen of the massively successful Tech investment fund ‘a16z’ likes to joke that the best thing about startups is that they “only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.” (See here).
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Tessa O’ Halloran, founder, plasticity (South Africa)
Lioness Launch
The need to find sustainable solutions to transforming discarded plastic waste into useful products has never been greater. Discarded plastic waste is a problem for the planet and for humankind as a whole. South African ecopreneur Tessa O’ Halloran, founder of plasticity, is playing her part in finding those solutions and has launched a new range of upcycled products in the form of brandable key tags and fridge magnets!
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Blandine Umuziranenge, founder and ceo, Kosmotive (Rwanda)
Startup Story
Blandine Umuziranenge is the founder and ceo of Kosmotive, a social enterprise founded in 2014 to improve Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health in Rwanda and throughout Africa. Early in her career she worked at Rwanda Broadcasting Agency and Contact FM radio. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Social Innovation Management, a bachelor’s degree in business information and communication technology and an Advanced Diploma in Information Technology. Her twelve years of experience combine Information Technology, Social Entrepreneurship and Circular Business Modelling. Blandine is a multi-award-winner including the Youth Connekt Africa 2019 Girls in Innovation Award and the Invest2Impact Africa 2019 Women's Empowerment Award. Blandine's ambition is paving menstrual freedom for girls and women in Africa.
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Marilize Jacobs, founder, Pigs Can Fly Interiors & VocalCord Reputation Management (South Africa)
Startup Story
Marilize Jacobs is the founder of two businesses, Pigs Can Fly Interiors & VocalCord Reputation Management in South Africa. She is a reputation strategist with a BCom Marketing Management (UP) and a career spanning interior design, marketing, and PR. Clients, especially in the Financial Services, Legal, Pharmaceutical, Hospitality and Retail industries which revere her strategic skills, thoroughness and tenacity when it comes to building and maintaining reputations. On the personal front, she is a boat skipper and avid cyclist, and also has a pro bono involvement with The Star Academy, an international institution for children with Autism.
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Matina Razafimahefa
Lioness Weekender Cover Story
SAYNA, a business revolutionizing access to the job market and democratizing education in new technologies in Africa
Matina Razafimahefa is a pioneering entrepreneur on a mission to bridging the gap in Digital Education in Africa. She co-founded SAYNA in 2017, fulfilling a childhood dream she had shared with her mother, Nirina Rahoeliaribahy. SAYNA is the first Franco-African Edtech & crowdsourcing platform. The platform aims to connect organized IT projects, divided into micro-tasks, with a community of pre-trained developers. The business currently employs 15 people. Facing financial constraints in its early days, Matina launched a crowdfunding campaign in 2018 to accelerate the project and facilitate some acquisitions. Her efforts were recognized when she was awarded the title of "Best Social Entrepreneur" at just 20 years old, in a competition organized by the International Organization of the Francophonie, in partnership with Incubons. Matina's ambition extends beyond the success of her startup. She aims to provide millions of Africans with access to quality digital education and global job opportunities, without letting a CV become a barrier. Her second ambition is to create profitable businesses that can revolutionize the lives of millions and generate employment opportunities.
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Andrea Liebross
Book Review
In her book, She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary, author and business/life coach Andrea Liebross has discovered that the secret to getting unstuck is what you think, not what you do. She says it’s time to stop playing small and start Thinking Big.
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by Thembe Khumalo
“We need to get more like-minded people together. Lets put together a group of other people like ourselves, and we can really make an impact.” Unfortunately the last time I had a conversation like this will not be the last time I will have this conversation; and the problem is, I have a problem with this kind of thinking.
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by Margaret Hirsch
Collaboration is the name of the game! The old African saying “If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together,” it is so true, in business as well. I see so many startups who go really fast and then fail.
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by Sonya Skipp
iFacts, a leading employee screening and vetting organisation, has published its annual employee screening trends report. With these insights, iFacts offers an overview of the current trends in employee screening and vetting.
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by Marilize Jacobs
Being a single mom of twins is a full-time job. So is running my own business. This is what I do for a living and for the last couple of years I have been on a quest to feel truly at peace with my daily actions. I wanted to derive happiness from the fact that I was my own boss and had the freedom to live my life accordingly. In a nutshell: I wanted to be happy at work. Really happy.
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by Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
It was mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz who noted when studying and modelling the creation of Tornados that minute changes in initial conditions created significantly different outcomes in storms many miles if not countries and continents away. He likened these minute changes to a seagull flapping its wings and this vibration change in the surrounding air being the tiny difference that set either the Tornado off, or changed its direction. Luckily for our poetic sensibilities, he was persuaded to ditch the Seagull and write about a Butterfly fluttering its wings instead, and so in a lecture he gave in December 1972 he used the expression: “a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can produce a tornado in Texas.”, and the rest (as they say) became history.
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Pascalle Grotenhuis, Directeur Generaal Internationale Samenwerking, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands
In Conversation
In Conversation with Pascalle Grotenhuis, Directeur Generaal Internationale Samenwerking, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands
One of the key goals of Start-Up Night Africa is to discuss the critical role of investment and the power of partnerships to address the gender finance gap for women entrepreneurs in Africa. We speak to Pascalle Grotenhuis, Director General Internationale Samenwerking, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands, who has spent many years on the continent in her role as an Ambassador and gender key champion, to get her insights on finding effective solutions to this and other challenges to creating a more inclusive business environment for women on the continent.
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Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa
Talk to Africa’s high-growth potential women entrepreneurs about the ‘missing middle’ funding gap and they will tell you that it’s a reality - and a real barrier to growth. It’s a much talked about challenge that is in need of tangible action to find effective, impact-driven solutions. That’s why at Start-Up Night Africa in The Hague on 11 July 2023, I was privileged to host a panel discussion on this important topic with representatives from the finance community, government, and importantly, women entrepreneurs in growth mode from across the African continent.
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Stélia Dgedge, founder, Khuwana Water Filters Lda (Mozambique)
Startup Story
Stélia Dgedge is the founder of Khuwana Water Filters Lda, a Mozambican company dedicated to the production and sale of ceramic-based water purifying filters. She has a degree in Financial and Insurance Management from ISCTEM. Since very early on, she has always been interested in topics related to preservation, sustainability, and the environment. About five years ago Stélia was invited to be part of the Finance Department of a startup that operates in the Renewable Energy sector. It was a unique opportunity for her to demonstrate once again the knowledge obtained at the associated University and her professional experience, as she came from a company with over twenty years in the market and was well positioned in it. She discovered her purpose - a mixture of three words, “Entrepreneurship, Impact, and Sustainability”.
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