African women founders won less than 1% of startup funding as Her Startup opens applications

African women founders secured less than one percent of the more than $2 billion raised by startups across the continent in 2025, exposing a funding disparity that a new accelerator programme hopes to address by combining business training, mentorship and flexible financing.

This is even as Her Startup, an accelerator for women-led technology businesses, has opened applications for its second cohort, targeting 10 early-stage founders seeking to build investment-ready companies.

The initiative, spearheaded by KSH Foundation, Tomorrow Foundation and EHA Impact Ventures, will offer selected founders a 12-week training programme delivered by Founder Institute, a global pre-seed startup accelerator, alongside monthly stipends, sector-specific mentorship and an opportunity to pitch for investment.

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The funding gap is particularly striking given that women account for 58 percent of Africa’s self-employed population, according to figures cited by Her Startup. The disparity highlights the challenge of translating women’s participation in economic activity into access to the capital required to build and scale technology businesses.

For early-stage founders, limited access to funding can constrain product development, customer acquisition, hiring and expansion. Her Startup is seeking to address some of these barriers by combining entrepreneurial training with access to potential investors rather than treating funding as a standalone intervention.

However, the programme’s ability to narrow the broader financing gap will depend partly on how many participating businesses ultimately secure capital and whether they can sustain growth beyond the accelerator.

A distinctive feature of the initiative is its financing model. Selected founders will have an opportunity to pitch to Her Startup’s investment committee for funding through convertible, revenue-based financing, under which repayments are linked to a company’s revenue.

Evelyn Castle, co-founder of Her Startup and EHA Impact Ventures, said the initiative had adopted the structure to give founders financing that supports their businesses’ growth.

“It is not enough to just give these companies financing. It’s about giving them financing that will truly help them succeed,” Castle said, describing the model as founder-friendly.

Unlike conventional loans with fixed repayment schedules, revenue-based financing links repayments to business performance. This can provide flexibility for companies with fluctuating income, although the precise terms of any financing arrangement will determine its ultimate cost and implications for founders.

The convertible element also means the financing may carry implications beyond repayment, depending on the agreed terms. Her Startup has not disclosed the amount of capital available to the second cohort or the maximum funding individual companies could receive.

The programme builds on a pilot conducted in 2024 and 2025, which attracted more than 200 applications from 18 African countries. Ten founders were selected, and three ventures secured funding at the programme’s Pitch Day in Lagos in April 2025.

According to the organisers, participating founders have since won grants and awards, attracted investor interest and gained greater visibility for their businesses.

One of them is Dynalimb Technologies, which develops affordable 3D-printed prosthetics. Blessing Aniefiok, the company’s chief operating officer and a participant in the first cohort, said the business had recorded increased customer adoption and product sales since participating in the programme.

The experience provides an early indication of the potential value of combining business support with market access, although the organisers did not disclose revenue figures or other metrics to quantify the programme’s overall impact.

Khalil Halilu, co-founder of Her Startup and founder of KSH Foundation, said the initiative aimed to support women entrepreneurs beyond Nigeria and build an ecosystem in which they could develop and grow their businesses.

Maggie Gu, co-founder of Her Startup and president of Tomorrow Foundation, said technological development was creating greater opportunities for women to lead businesses and shape economic activity.

The second cohort will accept applications from women founders or chief executives aged 18 to 35 who run technology-enabled businesses that have operated for at least six months and generate a minimum of $500 in monthly gross revenue. Founders from Francophone Africa are particularly encouraged to apply.

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Applications close on October 26, 2026, with programme information and application details available on the initiative’s website.

For Africa’s startup ecosystem, the central question extends beyond training more women to build technology businesses. It is whether programmes such as Her Startup can help turn women’s substantial participation in entrepreneurship into a greater share of the investment capital that enables companies to grow.

With women securing less than 1 percent of the funding cited by the organisers, the initiative enters a market where access to capital remains a critical test of whether entrepreneurial participation can translate into scalable businesses.