By Esther Onyegbula

The Her Startup Pitch Program has concluded its inaugural edition with the emergence of three standout female entrepreneurs, spotlighting a growing movement to empower women as catalysts for grassroots economic transformation across Africa.

Organizers say the initiative goes beyond funding,it’s a strategic investment in women-led innovation that can reshape communities, economies, and public policy.

Announcing the winners after their pitch, expert asset manager, board member of Tomorrow Foundation, Denis Daronnat, said:
“This project is really about identifying talented women who can change the economic development of their neighborhoods, cities, and countries.
We need future-facing economic models that include these women at the center of policy change and fair development,” Daronnat added.

The three winners, selected after an intensive 14-week training with the Founder Institute, each received $5,000 in convertible financing and one year of mentorship to help scale their startups. The training, widely regarded as one of the most demanding accelerator programs globally, pushed participants to rethink their business models and growth strategies.

“What’s truly rewarding,” Daronnat added, “is hearing how the program helped them develop new ideas, commercialize their products, and better organize their companies. That’s the real impact we aimed for.”

The Her Startup initiative, a collaboration between EHA Impact Ventures, KSH Foundation, and the Tomorrow Foundation, seeks to correct systemic imbalances in funding and support for women-led businesses. In a world where less than 4% of global venture funding goes to female entrepreneurs, programs like this aim to level, and rebuild, the playing field.

“We’re not just giving funding,” said Augustina Okpechi, Project and Communications Manager at KSH Foundation. “We’re building a foundation so these women can attract larger investments and scale sustainably.”

According to Olapeju Nwanganga, co-founder of Ploutos Page, one of the winning startups:
“This funding will help us roll out the new version of our software and expand our sales team.”
Nwanganga’s business offers bookkeeping and financial tools tailored for small enterprises.

Another winner, Ngozi Nwabueze, founder of PocketLawyers, a web-based platform that connects users with lawyers in real time, said:
“It’s literally your lawyer in your pocket. This grant will power our digital marketing and accelerate user acquisition.”

Underscoring the urgency of supporting women-led businesses not out of charity, but out of economic necessity, Fayo Williams, Managing Consultant at Simply Exponential Consult Ltd., said:
“Excluding women from funding and decision-making is not just discriminatory, it’s economically disastrous. We are running the economy on half power.”

Echoing that sentiment, Aisha Tofa, Special Assistant on Digital Economy to the Minister of Women Affairs, stressed that programs like Her Startup are crucial for shifting from inspiration to implementation.
“This isn’t about women asking for permission,” Tofa said. “They’re claiming their place in the economy, and our job is to make sure the systems are ready for them.”

With plans already underway for future editions, the Her Startup Pitch Program appears poised not only to elevate women entrepreneurs but to redefine the architecture of economic development, one woman-led startup at a time.