, and according to Partech Africa, start-ups raised $1.163 billion raised in equity funding in 2018 – a 108% year-on-year growth.
Africa-specific data is lacking, but sources suggest only nine percent of start-ups have women-leaders, and female-led South African start-ups receive only 4.5 percent of all funding. Female-led start-ups are in short supply. And, where they are available, they often lack the investor backing to scale. The result is a significant loss of insight, perspectives, development, and solutions, which affects us all.
Sehat Kahani developed a platform that pairs these female physicians with patients in need of healthcare. Patients receive affordable and quality care virtually using telemedicine, while female physicians are able to remain active, working at home on their own hours to effectively balance family life. If it weren’t for these two women entrepreneurs, this challenge, opportunity, and approach could have been missed entirely.
So, the question becomes: What is needed to encourage more women to start businesses, and investors to take bigger bets on them earlier?