#6. Women who #ChooseToChallenge in Emerging Markets
Every woman who steps forward makes more space for the women who come next. —Jackie Bischof.
Welcome! Issue #6 of Emerging Markets explorer 🧭 is a Medley of stories of Women in Emerging Markets. International Women’s Day was yesterday, and I wanted to cover their stories, so that they are told, and you can get inspired. #ChooseToChallenge
If you wonder what Emerging Markets explorer 🧭 is, start here.
🔍 Did you know: the smallest entrepreneurship gender gap is in South Asia and MENA, where women create 20% less businesses than men. The largest is of 50% in East & Pacific Asia. Read it in this Seedstars report.
UN Women launched an article on women’s leadership, interviewing grass-roots women leaders bringing change to their communities in emerging countries. The stories range from Mayerlín Vergara fighting for the rights of children survivors of sexual exploitation in Colombia, to Amina Mirsakiyeva paving the way for women scientists in Kazakhstan.
This Medley is organized geographically and alphabetically and covers stories in:
Africa
Asia
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Latin America
Africa
Africa has a remarkably high number of female entrepreneurs, and the highest representation of women at the board level in the world: 25% when the global average is 17%. However, gender parity has not been achieved and it is far on the horizon: in 2018, women accounted for 50% of the African population and only generated 33% of GDP. You can read it in this McKinsey report.
TechCabal interviewed several women in African tech to celebrate IWD 2021, asking them for power advice and audacious career moves. Some of the advice includes having a growth mindset, networking, and acting now instead of later. Their audacious career goals? From creating peer networks to a Nobel prize.
Nigeria
FirstCheck Africa, the angel fund I introduced last week, created a list of 30 Nigerian Women in Tech challenging the Status Quo. The theme of the interviews is #ChooseToChallenge, and they tell what they are challenging through their roles in tech and what they love about being a woman.
The new Director-General of the WTO is Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian-American woman that has worked as Nigeria’s finance minister and previously worked for decades for the World Bank. She is the first female director-general of the WTO.
Rwanda
Economist and deputy governor of Rwanda’s Central Bank, Dr. Monique Nsanzabaganwa, has been elected as the African Union’s first female deputy chairperson. She is effectively the commission’s chief operating officer and will be tasked with overseeing a desperately needed reform.
Asia
Vietnam
If you want to get inspired, check the blog of Chip Huyen, a writer and computer scientist who grew up in a village in Vietnam. Her work in Machine Learning has made her one of the Top Voices for Data Science & AI on LinkedIn, and her writing has got her the publication of four best-selling Vietnamese books.
Singapore
Love, Bonito is a female fashion brand for customized shopping, which is tailored for Asian shoppers. Rachel Lim is her founder and CEO, and her business has raised over $10M from investors.
Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Turkey
TurkishWIN is a global network of women with ties to Turkey, with the goal to inspire and connect women. TurkishWIN is one of the leaders in the storytelling revolution that connects communities globally. Founded by Melek Pulatkonak, their slogan is: “If she did it, so can I!”
Arya Women Investment Platform is a platform that creates acceleration and investment opportunities for women entrepreneurs. Ahu Serter founded it after the birth of her third daughter when she decided that she wanted to do more to close the gender investment gap. Since its inception in 2015, ARYA WIP has invested more than $500,000 in women-led businesses.
Moldova
Elena Crasmari is a woman with disabilities who holds a local counselor seat in her home village in Moldova. She was motivated by her lack of access to her village medical center, and that made her run for office to create the changes that were needed. Moldova has an underrepresentation of women in politics: they make only 25% of parliamentarians. Read it in UN Women.
Latin America
Laboratoria is an ed-tech startup that pursues a more diverse and inclusive digital economy, with more opportunities for women. They have two complementary action lines: Laboratoria for Women, which is a bootcamp for women to learn web development or UX design, and Laboratoria for Business, in which recruiters can hire the bootcamp’s graduates.
Brazil
There are 2 women among the 36 founders of the 12 Unicorns in Brazil:
Cristina Junqueira, co-founder of Nubank, the biggest startup in Brazil and the leader in fintech in Latin America with $1,42BN of funding.
Mariana Paixao, co-founder of Loft, a prop-tech company for the buying and selling of residential buildings. It has $275M of funding.
#Elas&VC is a movement to support, connect and inspire women entrepreneurs, investors, and executives in Tech and VC. Their motivation is to see more women in the industry. They write a newsletter and post on an Instagram account.
Colombia
Ewa Capital is a VC led exclusively by women, with $2.5M invested, ROIC of 1,55x, and 24.5% IRR. They have a focus on education, healthcare, financial services, and retail; and have invested in startups like Platzi, Merqueo, and 1DOC3.
That’s it from me! Last year I was in the IWD march, and this year I’m contributing to a more equal world by telling these stories.
May we see the day in which every little girl is born with the same opportunities as a boy.
Special shout-out to my friends Jakub and Andrea for sending stories and inspiration my way!