How Africa Trust Group Aims To Assist African Female Entrepreneurs In Growing Their Businesses
How Africa Trust Group Aims To Assist African Female Entrepreneurs In Growing Their Businesses. Research has shown that the biggest obstacle women face when starting and growing any business is access to funding and ability to raise capital. The IFC reports an approximate $320 billion dollar gap in financing for women and that women-owned businesses appear restricted in their growth paths and are therefore skewed towards smaller firms. This is in spite of the fact that it has been found that female-owned businesses consistently out-survive male-owned businesses in many industries.
Africa Trust Group is a company of holistic early stage gender-lens investors committed to investing in Africa’s Women entrepreneurs. Its mission is to drive economic growth and development on the African continent through investing in entrepreneurship development with the hope of contributing to the economic transformation of individuals, communities and regional economies.
Leaders set the tone, pace and culture of an organisation. Therefore, ensuring that the entrepreneur is developing both their personal leadership capacity and business skills is cardinal to creating a growing enterprise that can scale and remain relevant in dynamic market environments. In this information economy it is easy for investors, policy makers and other key stakeholders looking to invest in entrepreneurship in Africa to get lost in the multitude of information and data. Africa Trust Group provides research and advisory services in the following areas: Gender-lens investing, Funds development and management and Entrepreneurship eco-system development.
Africa Trust Group has served clients across Africa, Europe and North America. Projects have included strategy development for gender-lens VC funds, debt funds, gender bonds and eco-system development in various parts of the continent. Its online platform Startupcircles.ai helps entrepreneurs to build commercially viable businesses and provides them guidance and access to a network of like-minded entrepreneurs and investors. The platform makes the start-up journey more enjoyable and less lonely for entrepreneurs.
The company also announced the receipt of a R4.2-million grant from the Shell Foundation. The foundation, founded by Shell in 2000 and based in the UK, helps create and scale business solutions to enhance access to energy and support low-income communities.
