Supporting Female Entrepreneurship
Her Startup is a program designed as a response to the challenges faced by female founders in the entrepreneurial landscape.
Her Startup is a unique combination of proven entrepreneurship training, seed funding, and mentoring to offer comprehensive and long term solutions to the funding issue of female led start-ups.
About
The objective of the program is to provide guidance and invest in African+Women-led early-stage companies with high growth potential in emerging industries.
The Program can be divided in four main steps
1) Selection of the applicants
The selection will be done based on Her Startup and Founder’s Institute criteria. These criteria include:
- African company
- Female founder of CEO
- Tech-enable business
- 18-35 age bracket
- Monthly gross revenue of not less than $500
- Unique Value Proposition
- Operation of business not less than 6 months
- Maximum 20% of selected companies will be Fintechs
- At least 15% of selected companies will be from Francophone Africa
2) Training
The applicants selected will perform an intensive 4-month training from the Founder’s Institute accelerator program.
Costs of the training will be covered by the program and founders will receive an allowance in stages during the training.
The applicants who successfully complete the training will get a certificate and will be eligible to apply for funding.
3) Funding
The remaining start-ups will pitch their business model to the program Investment Committee to obtain a funding of 5,000 USD in average.
The funding will be a convertible revenue based financing.
4) Mentoring
The funded start-ups will be provided a 1 year mentoring from seasoned entrepreneurs and experts with monthly meetings and ad hoc requests.
Our Mission
Boost women’s confidence and ability to grow their start-up through targeted skills development and access to financing
Program
Her Startup is a unique combination of training, funding, and mentoring.
Featured Stories
Mentors
Aida Isah El-Hassan
Aida Isah El-Hassan is a vibrant individual from Kano state where her passion for making an impact and merging creativity with technology blossomed. Professionally, she navigates through the management realm, reveling in devising innovative strategies to unite brands with their audience. She is a nature lover and finds solace in appreciating the beauty of nature, capturing beautiful moments. Engaging in social causes fuels her purpose, and she actively volunteers for mentorship, educational and impactful initiatives. She has mentored over 500 youths in the tech and entrepreneurship ecosystem. She is open to connecting with like-minded individuals to collaborate on exciting ventures
Usman Fori
I hold a master's degree in information communication technology and have worked with tech hubs training over 35 Startups with amazing milestones. Throughout his career, he has been a driving force in the development of the technology ecosystem. He has dedicated himself to fostering strong relationships with key stakeholders in both the private and public sectors, working tirelessly to create a dynamic and thriving tech community in his region. In his journey he has developed passion for technologies and some of his meaningful achievements are winning two Hackathon events, organizing over 10 tech events with over 5000+ people in attendance. These achievements relate to his future goals of having tech solutions and impact driven lifestyles.
Ummie Nuhu
Ummie Nuhu, a certified entrepreneur in Food busienss and Processing and Licensed Business development Service Provider. With over 8yrs experience in customer relations and administration with a leading telecommunications company in Nigeria, Ummie has developed an understanding on how to navigate the complex challenges in developing and scaling of sustainable business.She is the Founder of 3Meals Culinary Kitchen, a food company that deals with Food processing, Catering Services, Culinary School and Food Business Consultancy. She also founded Go-Vision Development Academy that deals with Growth and Development for both Enterprenuers and those in active employment. Ummie Studies Bsc. Intl Studies, Masters in development Studies and Masters in Entrepreneurship with a couple of mini certificates here and there.She lives in Kano, Nigeria with her family.
Amina Ibrahim Idris
Amina Ibrahim Idris is passionate about Youth development and program implementation with a focus on technology, digital rights, internet governance, and digital inclusion, an ICT trainer, and a youth mentor who has Volunteered with various schools and upcoming startups. Microsoft #interns4Africa, Expert in training and capacity building involved in many ICT projects in northern Nigeria, certification courses in project management, effective communication for project stakeholders and teams, Digital Rights fellow at the Center for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, South Africa, and was Partnerships and Engagement Officer At Paradigm Initiative. RevUp women mentor. Currently training specialist at Startup Kano State coordinator for SDGS under Ideas and Data Global Academy.
Sumayya Umar Tofa
Sumayya Umar Tofa is passionate about leveraging technology and creativity to drive innovation, I bring a unique blend of strategic insight and artistic vision to every role I undertake. My leadership style is rooted in collaboration and inclusivity, fostering environments where ideas can flourish and teams can achieve their highest potential. My expertise extends to my role as Senior Manager in IT Governance at Al Zira'a Tech, where I lead strategic efforts to enhance IT infrastructure and governance. Currently, I serve as the Creative Director at both Sparklab Creativity and Innovation Hub and The Meraki. In addition, I am the Curator at WISH Society, where I nurture and support creatives across various art forms. As the Head of Partnership and Sustainability at the Global Shapers Hub Kano, I drive impactful collaborations and sustainable initiatives.
Founding partners
Tomorow Foundation
Tomorrow Foundation is a Swiss charity foundation based in Geneva aiming at supporting international cooperation, fairer economic policies, and improving living conditions through technology and skills development in Africa. The Foundation believes that learning by doing, empowerment, autonomy, and collaboration have greater effectiveness than traditional assistance through funding or turnkey solutions.
Khalil Suleiman Halilu Foundation
Khalil Suleiman Halilu Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to leveraging technology to bridge social gaps for early development, founded by Khalil Halilu, the Executive Vice-chairman and CEO of NASENI. They provide enablers in the form of mentorship, technical/intrapersonal assistance, and funding to young Nigerians who are driven to innovation in tech-related fields whilst helping create products and services with significant impact on development in Nigeria. While the foundation believes in equity, it is also aware of the social challenges faced by women and as such focuses most of its program, particularly on women.
eha Impact Ventures
eha Impact Ventures is a philanthropic impact investing enterprise that supports early stage, high-impact, female-led businesses in Africa. Unlike traditional business financing, we offer flexible and innovative financing paired with high-quality, local, shared business resources to ensure business growth and success. Their vision is To improve the wealth and health of African women, their families, and communities.
News
Her Startup, an initiative aimed at addressing the challenges faced by female founders in the
Empowering Female Entrepreneurs in Africa, Her Startup Launched by KSH Foundation, Tomorrow Foundation, and EHA
FAQ List
With our internal selection criteria, a minimum of 30 and a maximum of 50 participants will be selected and sent to FI, who will then conduct the final screening of 10 founders who will make up the first cohor
The program is open to female founders, co-founders or CEO from all over Africa. However, there will be a stronger focus on West Africa at the program launch.
The 4 months Core Program from the Founder’s Institute is split into three tracks designed for all kind of founders at the pre-seed stage. It covers the following topics: vision & mission of the business, customer development, revenue & business models, pitch mastery, mentors, legal & equity, go-to-market & scale, product development, investor progress review, co-founders & team, growth, funding.