Applications for RevUP Caribbean Limited’s business incubator and accelerated training programme are now open, and they are looking to support women founders of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) seeking equity investment.
With a commitment to women-led businesses forming 50 per cent of the programme’s participants, the selected SMEs will benefit from world-class training, advising, and mentor matchmaking with local and global industry leaders.
Sandra Glasgow, managing director of RevUp Caribbean, said women entrepreneurs face additional challenges that impact the growth of their businesses, including gender-based discrimination, lack of adequate representation, lack of experience and support, and unequal sharing of family and domestic responsibilities.
“Women entrepreneurs face unique gender-based challenges that prevent sustainable business expansions. A dedicated ecosystem that is focused on the success of women-led businesses is critical for yielding positive results such as higher revenue and profits, stability and longevity, as well as contribution to economic growth and development,” said Glasgow.
She added that women-led businesses would expand further if institutional support with equitable access to the resources they need to start, grow and sustain their business ventures are accessible. Having dedicated years to entrepreneurship, Glasgow highlighted that “Jamaica and the Caribbean has a high ratio of women in management positions, but more structure is needed to ensure this happens across sectors and in entrepreneurship.”
Danielle Terrelonge, managing director of DRT Communications, one of the first organisations to receive funding from First Angels Limited, said it was initially challenging to receive financial support from financial institutions and investors in the early days of her company. Now a board member of RevUp Caribbean, she is looking to make a difference.
“I joined this organisation because I see where there is significant opportunity to expand women-led entrepreneurship, which itself brings so many benefits to the workplace. The female perspective in women-led organisations has been proven globally to have less staff turn-over and certainly when there is gender equity we see globally where organisations are more profitable,” said Terrelonge.
RevUP Caribbean participants will have access to several perks, including credit cards, e-commerce support, accounting, HR and corporate secretarial services and solutions and much more.
Registration for the programme closes on October 18. Interested people are invited to visit www.revupcaribbean.com for more information.
