African women founders won less than 1% of startup funding as Her Startup opens applications
Less than one percent. That is how much of Africa's $2 billion-plus startup funding pool actually reached women founders on the continent, and that number is still sitting in the room like an unwelcome guest nobody wants to address.
Her Startup has opened applications this cycle, stepping directly into that gap. The program targets African women founders and positions itself as a direct response to the funding disparity that has kept women-led ventures on the margins of the continent's booming startup scene.
The numbers tell a story that founders living it already know. While African startups collectively raised more than $2 billion, women were largely watching that capital move past them, landing in ventures that did not reflect their leadership, their ideas, or their ambitions.
Her Startup's open application window is the moment women founders have been waiting for. Whether the program can move the needle on that stubborn statistic is the question worth watching.
Originally published by BusinessDay.