Seedstars, in collaboration with the SANAD Technical Assistance Facility (TAF), has officially launched the SANAD Elevate Her Programme, a pivotal multi-phase initiative designed to empower female-led and 2X-aligned startups across the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa. This programme directly confronts the persistent barriers that women founders face, notably a significant $42 billion funding gap and restricted access to crucial financial resources, markets, and vital support networks.

Seedstars, a globally recognized Swiss organization, operates in over 90 markets, delivering essential training, mentorship, and investment opportunities tailored for early-stage startups. Complementing this, the SANAD TAF is dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and economic inclusion within the MENA and Africa regions, with a specific focus on supporting women and youth in their ventures.

The Elevate Her Programme is structured to engage with 40 high-potential startups, providing a comprehensive suite of support. Participants will benefit from structured acceleration frameworks, bespoke technical assistance, and rigorous training aimed at enhancing their investment readiness. The overarching objectives of this initiative are to enable founders to build robust, scalable companies, strengthen local entrepreneurial ecosystems across the participating regions, and stimulate significant job creation.

Eligibility for the programme requires startups to be female-led and align with the principles of the 2X Challenge, which promotes women's economic participation. Priority sectors for the programme include sustainability, agrifinance, and fintech, recognizing their critical role in regional economic resilience. The programme’s reach is extensive, covering 15 countries: Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Rwanda, Senegal, Tunisia, Uganda, and Yemen.

This Elevate Her initiative underscores a broader global push to improve gender representation within emerging-market startup ecosystems, where women founders historically receive a disproportionately small share of venture funding. By offering a dual approach of training and access to capital networks, the programme is strategically positioned to close structural gaps that frequently impede the growth and scaling of women-led companies. The deliberate focus on 2X-aligned businesses ensures a measurable gender impact, linking the programme’s support directly to global standards for women’s economic empowerment. Given the significance of sectors like sustainability, agrifinance, and fintech to the economic stability of MENA and Africa, female-led innovation in these areas is expected to generate powerful spillover effects benefiting entire communities. By actively engaging 40 startups across these 15 diverse markets, the SANAD Elevate Her Programme aims to cultivate a robust pipeline of investment-ready companies and bolster investor confidence in women founders. Successful implementation of Elevate Her has the potential to fundamentally shift current funding patterns, positioning a greater number of female-led startups for sustained regional expansion and long-term growth.