The Empower Africa Business Platform is Now Live !!!
Alami Capital has taken a bold step toward rewriting the future of women in business with the launch of The LaunchPad, a new venture-building platform unveiled at GITEX Nigeria in Lagos.
The initiative, developed in partnership with Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Keystone Bank, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is designed to give women-led startups the financial muscle, regulatory support, and investor readiness they need to scale across African markets.
For decades, women entrepreneurs have been underfunded despite being key drivers of Africa’s economies. In 2024, female-led startups across the continent attracted just $48 million—barely two percent of the $2.2 billion raised in total.
This chronic undercapitalisation, Alami Capital argues, is not only unfair but also a major drag on Africa’s growth potential.
The LaunchPad is positioned as a structural intervention that aims to correct this imbalance by building a pipeline of investment-ready women-owned ventures capable of deploying capital at scale.
At GITEX Nigeria, the program took center stage with a dedicated exhibition space celebrating female-driven innovation.
One of the highlights was a Capital Readiness Clinic hosted with Alpha Morgan Bank and the SEC, where startups received direct feedback on investor engagement strategies and compliance requirements.
The platform also convened a high-profile panel discussion under the theme “Scaling: Unlocking Growth Across Africa.”
The conversation brought together senior women leaders from Flutterwave, Zipline, Glovo, NITDA, and Endeavour to share hard-earned lessons on expanding across diverse African markets.
Eight pioneering startups were chosen to showcase their work during the event, each led by a woman founder tackling pressing challenges in sectors ranging from fintech and health to agritech, logistics, and climate innovation.
They included ventures such as Locoomo, which is transforming everyday shops into cloud-based micro-warehouses; Herconomy, a platform empowering women with financial tools and education; Famasi Africa, which is building a digital pharmacy network; Okike Spaces, offering flexible work environments for SMEs and creators; and Startbutton, simplifying the complexity of cross-border compliance and payments.
Other standouts included Yemert, which provides climate finance and insurance solutions for smallholder farmers; BioVana Research, which is developing Africa’s first trusted biobank network; and Climaverb Innovations, which is crafting practical sustainability responses to climate change.
Alami Capital framed these businesses as emblematic of what The LaunchPad seeks to achieve: women creating scalable, future-focused solutions that cut across technology, healthcare, agriculture, and sustainability.
“By putting them on a platform like GITEX Nigeria, we’re showing that women-led ventures aren’t waiting on the sidelines; they’re already shaping the future of Africa’s economy,” the firm said in a statement.
By systematically preparing women-led startups for funding and growth, the program hopes to de-risk investment in this segment and position female founders as an indispensable part of Africa’s development story.
Whether the initiative succeeds will depend on how quickly these businesses can secure capital, expand into new markets, and deliver impact at scale.
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