"The gender financing gap persists. Women-led startups raise significantly less capital than startups led by only men. According to PitchBook Data, in 2021, 85.4% of global VC dollars went to startups with only men on the founding team.

That number has hardly budged over the past decade — despite the fact that data continues to suggest that women-led startups outperform startups with all-men founding teams. For example, a BCG study found that women-led companies generate more than twice as much additional revenue per dollar invested (78 cents versus 38 cents) and a PitchBook study found that women-led startups reach their exit stage a full year earlier than all-male-founded startups (median 6.4 years versus 7.4 years).

For investors, focusing on only a fraction of all entrepreneurs means they leave significant opportunities for returns on the table. For startups, this gender financing gap means promising innovations do not receive the resources they need to scale.


That is why Village Capital partnered with IFC, We-Fi, the World Bank, and researchers Amisha Miller and Saurabh Lall to identify and test several concrete ideas for how to help close the gender financing gap. With the support of a research coalition that also includes Visa Foundation, Moody’s, ANDE’s Advancing Women’s
Empowerment Fund, Sasakawa Peace Foundation, and ANDE’s SGB Evidence Fund, we have identified several promising interventions.


Now we are sharing our results, and encouraging investors and accelerators to take action."

Climate change and environmental degradation pose a significant threat to Kenya’s economy. To combat these challenges, Kenya has supported a green economic transition through various government policies and initiatives. Green entrepreneurs play an important role in helping the country reach these climate and environmental targets by meeting consumer needs in a sustainable manner. This report examines the ecosystem of support for green entrepreneurs in Kenya. Using data collected via surveys and desk research, this snapshot report uncovers important challenges and opportunities for green entrepreneurship to inform stakeholders of how to better support the development of Kenya’s green economy.

The damaging effects of climate change in India are all-encompassing, threatening agriculture and food supplies, energy security, water security, and public health. To ameliorate climate and environmental challenges, India has committed to a green economic transition through various government policies and initiatives. India has the the world’s third largest entrepreneurial ecosystem after the United States and China, and an increasing number of sustainability-oriented startups, investors, incubators, and accelerators in India is shaping a vibrant green ecosystem. This report examines the ecosystem of support for green entrepreneurs in India. Using data collected via surveys and desk research, this snapshot report uncovers important challenges and opportunities for green entrepreneurship to inform stakeholders of how to better support the development of India’s green economy.

Climate change and gender inequality are among the world’s most pressing and complex development challenges. Women are catalysts for innovative solutions to tackle climate change. However, their underrepresentation in decision-making processes and labour markets means that women are prevented from fully contributing to climate-related planning, policy-making and implementation. Recently, WUSC joined partners in celebrating the development of a new roadmap for climate finance and marked the culmination of a unique project at the intersection of climate finance and gender implemented by a consortium of partners including ANDE and AKFC and generously funded by Global Affairs Canada. The purpose of the Roadmap is to present recommendations to donors on how to facilitate women climate entrepreneurs’ access to appropriate climate finance, contributing to greater equality and inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa while advancing innovative and transformative women-led climate solutions.

"This report offers a trend analysis of women’s entrepreneurship in 50 countries, five global regions and three national income levels. We focus on four key themes in the first half of the report, followed by a closer analysis of region- and country-specific patterns in the second half. The four themes are (1) gender differences in rates at various points in the entrepreneurial lifecycle, from intentions through to startup activity, new business, established business and business exit; (2) gender differences in COVID impacts, both positive and negative; (3) structural inequalities and women’s participation in high-potential startups; and (4) factors in the enabling environment that likely influence gender differences in entrepreneurial activity.

Our findings offer insights to a diverse audience of researchers, policymakers, educators and practitioners. Our goal is to highlight areas where women entrepreneurs have made significant progress, where the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their business outcomes, and where there are still gaps, challenges and opportunities that can be better addressed."

Enterprise growth in the developing world is often constrained by capital, lack of training and skilled labor, market frictions and a general difficulty in identifying ventures with greater growth potential. In the case of women, entrepreneurship or self-employment is constrained further by several additional factors, such as lower levels of education and skills acquisition, restricted mobility, a higher burden of care work and social norms regarding appropriate work for women. The expansion of e-commerce and internet access in recent years has led us to investigate if digital technology could be leveraged in our setting to improve these skilled women’s access to wider product markets and enhance their earnings. This project update shares the methodology used to address this research question and early insights that have emerged so far.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the region with the lowest rates of female-owned business, as only 10% of all firms are owned by women. Increasing and promoting female entrepreneurship is therefore very important and has a high potential to broaden labour force participation and diversify the economic landscape of MENA countries. This project aims to address this issue by assessing the effectiveness of an export promotion program targeted at female-owned enterprises in Tunisia who have the objective to export to other African markets. This project update shares the methodology used to address this research question and early insights that have emerged so far.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) act as drivers of economic growth due to their positive impact in creating jobs and driving social change. However, their owner-managers (entrepreneurs) generally face a lot of stress in running a business through role conflicts, working long hours, high time pressure, coping with past failures and managing many economic demands. This project examines the impact of a psychosocial intervention on the business performance of female entrepreneurs in Nigeria. This project update shares the methodology used to address this research question and early insights that have emerged so far.

After one year of implementing the Accelerating Women Climate Entrepreneurs (AWCE) project at ANDE, a learning brief was created to share key takeaways. The report discusses strategies for supporting women entrepreneurs in climate-related value chains as well as investment and programming opportunities in the climate entrepreneurship ecosystem in the region.