The Future Females Invest FFI Enterprise Studio has become an NSIS Accredited Incubator under the National SME Incubator Scheme by the Mauritius Research and Innovation Council (MRIC).
FFI is powering financial opportunity for African women. Among women in the start-up world, there are around 131 corporate-run accelerators, and 87% of these are run by men. Y-Combinator – one of the world’s leading start-up accelerators – has invested in more than 700 start-ups, but just 13% of these are led by women. Women-dedicated business incubators and accelerators stimulate growth intentions and support high potential female entrepreneurs.
FFI is launching Mauritius’ first incubator and acceleration programme for female founders with innovative businesses that are ready to scale and grow.
Professor T.Bahorun, Executive Director of the MRIC, commented, “The MRIC has been operating the National SME Incubator Scheme since December 2017 and, to date, we have 14 graduated start-ups and some 220 projects incubated under five of our NSIS accredited Incubators. The role of the NSIS is to provide a collaborative platform to NSIS accredited incubators to promote and consolidate the innovative start up ecosystem in Mauritius. We are pleased to onboard the FFI Enterprise Studio as the 6th NSIS Accredited Incubatee. We are hopeful that FFI Enterprise Studio will bring the much-needed boost to women-led start ups in Mauritius.”
The programme uses online and in-person workshops, panel discussions, witness sessions, group coaching, peer group work, 1-2-1 mentoring and support and individual applied learning assignments. At the end of the programme, it provides women with more equal access to long-term business management learning, practical lessons that could be applied to their businesses immediately, a strong network of their peers and business mentorship from senior professionals.
The programme offers three courses:
● Ready to Ignite (Pre-incubation: Idea to MVP): This is for women entrepreneurs to get their business idea out of their head and ignited into a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and a general overview of their business plan.
● Ready to Grow (Incubator: MVP – Market): This is for early stage women-led businesses to take them from MVP to market, strengthening their business in order to turn their ideas into market ready products and solutions, solidify their offerings and start generating revenue.
● Ready to Fly (Accelerator: scale and growth): This is an acceleration program for women-led businesses to enable faster growth, increase social impact and profitability.
Commenting on the FFI Enterprise Studio programme, CEO of FFI, Aysha Tegally said, “We believe that Mauritian women entrepreneurs should have equal access to opportunity so that they can build sustainable and profitable businesses that have a big impact on society. They need investment; it is the right and smart thing to do.”
“We are delighted to be recognised as an NSIS Accredited Incubator by the MRIC to acknowledge the importance of women-led businesses in Mauritius. Through the FFI Enterprise Studio programme, we are able to deliver world class training using a blended learning model with sessions taking place both in person and online by a renowned international faculty who are recognised industry leaders and experts. Additionally, participants are paired with a mentor from our global network,” she added.
FFI is driving women economic empowerment solutions and systems change interventions for the entire entrepreneurial and investment ecosystems. FFI puts power into the hands of African women, ensures their voices are heard and are given economic power. FFI provides consultancy, training, ecosystem support and access to investment and market opportunities. FFI is the delivery partner for gender lens investment in Africa.
About Future Females Invest (FFI)
FFI provides coaching, training, investment and ecosystem support to African women entrepreneurs and angel investors. We also provide consultancy and training to help companies work effectively with women and include women in their supply chain to positively impact and financially empower African women. In 2019 FFI merged with WOWe to enter into some of Africa’s fastest growing markets to support, train and make investments into women entrepreneurs. WOWe had been running since 2013 providing training and events for West African women entrepreneurs and investors. Founded in 2013 by Tori Abiola, the Nigerian Ambassador for WED the UN-Foundation backed initiative for women entrepreneurs WOWe became a widely respected and impactful organisation that supported and trained over 7000 West African women entrepreneurs. WOWe have run the renowned WOWe Festival since 2013 in Lagos providing a high-level networking platform that connects the most influential women entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and dialogue on issues related to entrepreneurship and leadership. WOWe’s merger with FFI created more opportunities and connections for West African women entrepreneurs, helping them to increase their scale and reach. The expanded business is now Pan-African
