Women and entrepreneurship, the challenges that persist
Latin America has had an explosion of successful ventures in the last two years. However, boom has a pending task: to integrate more women.
By Agustín Rotondo, director of Wayra Hispam
Latin America has become , in recent years, one of the regions of the world where entrepreneurship has had the greatest flourishing and development, with Mexico being one of the countries that has acquired the most prominence.
For example, in this country there are four unicorn companies - Kavak , Bitso , Clip and Konfío - each valued at more than 1,000 million dollars, which are transforming the sectors to which they belong and the way they live from day to day. your consumers.
However, this boom has a pending task: to integrate more women . And, although the ecosystem is increasingly solid, with the presence of all kinds of actors, from entrepreneurs to investment funds, accelerators and universities, there are still few leaders present.
Data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) reveal that, in Mexico, women entrepreneurs own only 36% of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises ( Mipymes ), in addition to only covering 25% of the personnel working in these companies and according to figures from the World Bank in the world, only one in three companies is owned by women.
Despite this situation and the undeniable gap, more and more women are little by little venturing into entrepreneurship, founding all kinds of companies that are on the way to success, there are several examples. Women who have undertaken in the segment of accessories, beauty, technology, among others. Some of its ventures are growing on a regional scale and achieving new investment rounds.
The participation of women as entrepreneurs and owners of their business is positively correlated with the income level of the countries, they are undoubtedly key in the economic reactivation, and in terms of entrepreneurship, they are beginning to lead in Mexico more and more companies, in a movement that does not only remain within its borders, but is already replicated throughout Latin America.
Given this, what can we do to make this integration progress much faster? There are a couple of factors that can give us positive results as soon as possible.
In the first instance, it is essential to work on education, training and mentoring issues. Innovation requires valuable ideas that can be carried out through knowledge, coordination and organization of the work team, leadership and capital raising, among other situations that require the skills, abilities, knowledge and capacities of female entrepreneurs.
On the other hand, the issue of access to capital for their companies is substantial, an ecosystem is required to be able to prosper, to promote, accelerate and scale startups. Venture capital funds are one of the most important sources of financing for entrepreneurs, helping to produce more innovations and of higher quality.
It is a reality that advances in the integration and development of women within entrepreneurship continue to be driven by different actors in the ecosystem, there is still an important way to go and from Wayra Hispam we joined by investing close to 3 million euros in active startups founded by women in the region such as: Nubimetrics from Argentina, Firstjob from Chile, Fitco from Peru, Rebus from Mexico and Viajala from Colombia; in addition to strengthening and promoting female growth within the organization, collaborating with the development of different competencies that allow them to take on new challenges in positions of higher level and responsibility, as well as leadership capacities through regional programs.
This is just the beginning of our work as promoters of female entrepreneurship in the region and in Mexico, where we will continue working to benefit the inclusion of more women in the ecosystem.
