Without adequate access to information, capital and other critical resources, women entrepreneurs are chronically excluded from the global marketplace. But the sky is the limit, and with the right partners, women entrepreneurs can scale their ventures and help them go global.

We Empower Cities (WEC) is an acceleration program powered by a consortium of public and private sector organizations to provide knowledge training, mentorship, professional networking and early stage capital to female entrepreneurs from Latin America. WEC supports women entrepreneurs in accelerating innovative businesses that also create positive impact for their employees and communities.

After successfully launching in Panama and Colombia, WEC is expanding into the rest of Latin America’s national and regional entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems.

The target annual expansion rate is at least 2 new countries, 10+ new companies invested, 1000+ new women entrepreneurs benefited, and a growing team of global investors and mentors interested in supporting Latin American women’s potential.

WHAT WE EMPOWER CITIES OFFERS

WEC offers a comprehensive suite of services to women led or co-led small and medium enterprises, in order to facilitate high-scale and sustainable growth.

We Empower is the only program that offers a series of webinars to prepare the entrepreneurs for participation in the competition for funding.

First, a free on-line business training course is available for the entrepreneurs who sign up to its platform (also enabling them to connect to other regional entrepreneurs). This course will help the entrepreneurs to improve their business plans, and then self-assess whether they are ready to participate in competition for funds that WEC will hold in their country. Our current Challenge is taking place in Colombia, with registration open now!

After the application to the Challenge is submitted, it will be reviewed by the We Empower Cities and its partners to determine whether the company meets the primary criteria: scalability, gender inclusion and community impact. The selected businesses will be mentored by relevant local and international sectoral specialists, preparing them to pitch their projects to investors at the Demo Day. Five to ten businesses will be selected and will receive a blend of advisory services, growth capital, and acceleration.

The program’s current format was successfully introduced in Panama in 2018, and in 11 countries in the Middle East and North Africa before that. Providing capacity-building, advisory services, diverse capital sources, and new local and international networks gave the entrepreneurs and businesses the tools that are a prerequisite for success.

Join Us

Whether you're a woman-led or co-led business contestant, investor, donor or ambassador, there's plenty of incentive to participate in the We Empower Cities platform and Start-up Competitions.