Womentum - the pay-it-forward platform supporting female entrepreneurs the world over

by Startacus Admin

Entrepreneurship is difficult. Entrepreneurship for women can be more difficult. Entrepreneurship for women in developing countries can be nigh impossible.

Women in these countries who try to start their own business can be confronted not only by a lack of support, but opposition to them even trying. They find it much harder to gain access to traditional sources of funding, partly because many of those who might otherwise fund their ventures are of the mind that women should not be doing such things, and partly because they simply do not have the means of contacting them, pitching, and so on.

Until communications and general knowledge of such funding improves, and this frame of mind changes to something a little more enlightened, Womentum is a new solution.

It works in a similar way to most crowdfunding platforms, raising funding for women entrepreneurs in developing countries via donations from the public and from corporations. Womentum works with ‘growth partners’, which are nonprofits and NGOs that work directly with the entrepreneurs, helping them submit their application to Womentum and ensuring they are suitable for the platform. This helps everyone involved, from the entrepreneurs themselves to the donors and it ensures that things work smoothly and that everything is legitimate.

Womentum is the brainchild of Prabha Dublish, who created it after spending time with women entrepreneurs in Northern India. Inspired by how these women used their limited resources to start businesses despite the lack of support, she created a platform to give them that support.

Because Womentum finds funding externally, 100% of the money donated goes to the entrepreneurs, helping them to make their dreams a reality and improve the lives of their children.

We expect to hear more on both Womentum and Prabha Dublish over the coming months, but for now congrats to Prabha and the Womentum team for their work to date.

If you liked this Women in Tech related article, you might also want to read our recent article on Women of Wearables - the world's first organisation for women working in wearable technology.

 

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Published on: 16th July 2017