Rising Stars: Young Women Entrepreneurs Shaping Social Entrepreneurship
what are
social enterprises?
Self sustaining businesses aimed at making a social or environmental impact through their commitment to create profits while addressing crucial issues within society.
Social enterprises can take a variety of forms and work across multiple sectors, including music, arts, sports, media, literature, children's literature, wellbeing and more.
MENA is the only region in the world where poverty rates have consistently increased since 2014.
why MENA?
the global impact investment sector is a $1.16 trillion market.
but less than 1% is coming to the MENA region.*
One of the reasons is there aren't enough accelerator programs that provide local social enterprises with funding and support to help them grow.
There is even less funding available once they exit these programs.
*according to the 2022 Global Impact Investment Network Report.
the program
The HerMeNow Accelerator is run in collaboration with a dynamic team of experts specialized in social entrepreneurship in MENA with more than 14 years of experience in the field: Bloom.pm
The participants are social enterprises created by women entrepreneurs who have already developed traction with their business and are ready to scale up.
what does the program look like?
Enterprises will get access to an empowering program that will include monetary prizes, mentoring, access to opportunities and more.
Open House
- online discussions
- info sessions
- selection Process
Bootcamp
- 30 teams
- online workshops
- pitch practice sessions
- light mentorship
Accelerator
- weekly workshops
- regular milestone check-ins
- mentorship coordination
- demo day
what do the finalists say?
The HMN program has a very high NPS* score as per industry standards. The NPS for HMN cycle 2 is an impressive 9.9. Additionally, it has increased (+0.02) from the first cycle to the second. Learn more from our impact indicators report.
*Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric used to quantify a company's customer loyalty, contentment, and excitement. For a more objective analysis of the responses, we calculate the score using an overall average of the responses to the “How likely are you to recommend this product/service to someone else” question.
about us
our mission
is to support women-led social enterprises whose purpose is to shake up the status-quo through their commitment to social and environmental change.
our vision
is to provide a platform where women are given the space and freedom to blossom by using their talents to transform the world through positive change as well as the tools to grow their impact and bolster communities.
our founder
The 2022 HerMeNow Accelerator edition is funded by the StardustConcept* ESG & Impact division.
The owner and founder, Natacha Fazal Karim, desires nothing more than to support women’s ideas, hopes and talents by empowering them through social entrepreneurship so they may be creative catalysts for collective change and sustainable development.
The program is almost entirely remote and accessible to enterprises across geographies.
*Stardustconcept is a design + branding agency, with offices in Dubai and New York.
our trainers
Bloom’s lead trainers individually have 9-12 years experience (each) training and supporting innovation and entrepreneurship across the MENA region, including substantial experience working with people from marginalized, underrepresented, migrant, and refugee communities.
They also have substantial prior experience in entrepreneurship, tech, education, and community building in the US.