SheFound builds, verifies, and develops female-led businesses across Africa — and connects them to the capital and markets they've earned.
Women own around 40% of Africa's small and medium businesses — the highest share of women entrepreneurs anywhere in the world. Yet women-led ventures receive less than 7% of the continent's startup funding, and women-owned businesses face a financing gap estimated at $42 billion. SheFound exists to close that distance.
Sources: African Development Bank (AFAWA gender financing gap); Africa: The Big Deal funding data; Global Entrepreneurship Monitor women's entrepreneurship rates.
Some women come to us with a business. Others come with a skill, a craft, or an idea that earns nothing yet. We help turn what a woman can do into a business that can grow — structure, pricing, customers, systems.
Our model →The SheFound Standard confirms what funders and markets need to know: this business is genuinely woman-led, genuinely trading, and genuinely able to grow. No inflated labels. No names on paper.
The Standard →Verified businesses meet capital, markets, and partners. And we track what happens next — revenue, jobs, funding — and publish it. Evidence, not anecdotes.
Insights →
Where SheFound began in 2019 — home to the Aspire Incubator, Bloom Accelerator, Apex, and the Female Founders Marketplace.
tanzania.shefound.africa — launching soonOur second market — bringing the SheFound model to Africa's largest economy and its deepest pool of women entrepreneurs.
nigeria.shefound.africa — launching soon