Programme

Are you a growing enterprise making a splash in the female health and hygiene space with a sound business model and track record, as well as first sales under your belt, and actively working in our target countries Kenya, Uganda and/or Ghana? Join us for capacity building, networking, and financing opportunities to elevate your business to new heights.

What´s in it for you?

• Receive technical assistance to improve your business model, internal structure, governance, and SDG-related impact management with top sector-leading experts and trainers.
• Benefit from a €10,000 catalytic micro-grant to enhance your scaling capacities and test your implementation performance.
• Develop sustainable financing models to become (impact) investment-ready and ensure long-term operations.
• Connect with peers and investors, unlock impact capital and receive facilitation support and technical backstopping during the process.
• Scale your business and reach millions of women and girls at the Base of the Pyramid.

Implementation Mode

We invite companies that identify with one or several of the following product or service categories to apply. Please make sure to indicate the focus of your business clearly in your application.

To apply, you should comply with the following conditions:

• Maturity: Your product/service should be developed and tested, and you should have existing paying customers.
• Registration type: Your company should be duly registered in your country of operations.
• Solution: Your focus should be directly related to female health and hygiene (see categories), and your solution shouldn’t create or contribute to environmental problems.
• Business & revenue model: You should be able to demonstrate a clear customer focus, not just a dependency on philanthropic or development grants.
• Impact potential: Your solution should showcase a clear potential to achieve impact for women and girls at the base of the pyramid.
• Team: Your company should be locally grown and led, and clearly highlight how you empower women from within.
• Growth plan: Show us through your application that you have an appetite for risk, want to grow and create impact, know your gaps and have reasonable investment needs.

How much time do I have to commit to participating in the programme?
Participation in the Female Health and Hygiene Accelerator is a time-intensive endeavour and will require an average dedication of 4 hours per week. However, during peak moments throughout the programme, such as the transformation project and technical assistance, the time commitment may be much higher. Additionally, participants must be fully present for all programme components, including the face-to-face bootcamps, which will last for 5 consecutive full days. Availability to travel for these trainings is a prerequisite! The programme starts in August 2024 and ends in October 2025, with the most intense phase taking place from September 2024 to April 2025.

What does the participation cost?
Participation in the programme itself is free of charge. This means that all direct costs related to participating in the acceleration programme, including trainings, networking events, coaching sessions, etc., are covered by us. However, a symbolic fee of 150 USD will be collected per person for the face-to-face bootcamps. The rest of the bootcamp expenses (travel, accommodation, meals, etc.) will also be covered by us. Please note that only one person per company will be covered to attend these events, but you have the option of one additional team member attending at your own expense. Participants also can access a catalytic grant of up to USD 10,000. This fund is to be used exclusively for the transformation project developed during the programme.

Who from my team should participate?
Working with us requires intense collaboration, and we require either the CEO or an appropriate representative (e.g. co-founder, business development director, etc.) to participate as the single point of contact throughout the entire duration of the programme, particularly for key events such as bootcamps, and pitching events.