We collaborate with female-led startups in over 40 countries, providing tailored insights, mentorship, and connections to industry leaders and investors. Women founders often face additional barriers, from limited access to capital to breaking into traditionally male-dominated industries. Our role is to bridge these gaps and create opportunities for growth.

Beyond individual support, it is important to focus on fostering a broader community of female entrepreneurs, ensuring they have access to peer networks, expert guidance, and investment opportunities. By partnering with leading accelerators, venture funds, and tech-focused initiatives, we help women-led startups gain visibility, credibility, and the resources needed to scale effectively.

Duamentes focuses on helping female-led projects gain VC attention. The reality is that social impact startups – whether in sustainability, education, or community development – often experience slower growth. They frequently serve niche or underserved markets. While the work is essential, scalability can be challenging due to limited market size and higher operational costs in regions with weaker infrastructure.

Women-led startups are gaining recognition, yet those prioritising social impact often face significant challenges in securing funding and scaling. Research indicates that women founders are more likely to build mission-driven businesses, prioritising social value over immediate financial returns. However, many investors remain hesitant to back such ventures, perceiving them as higher risk with uncertain scalability.

Another challenge we see is measuring success. Traditional investors prioritise financial metrics such as revenue growth, customer acquisition, and profit margins. The impact of a business – such as improving healthcare access or reducing inequality – is more complex to quantify, making it harder to position these ventures within conventional investment frameworks.

Even among impact investors, there is a preference for scalable solutions that align with financial sustainability. As a result, many socially driven startups struggle to secure investment, caught between profit-driven investors and those seeking highly scalable impact models.

Duamentes is addressing this challenge, in one of the recent initiatives we support is the Aurora Tech Award, a global program designed to back women-led startups in the IT sector. More than just a prize, this initiative fosters skill development, professional networking, and investor engagement, providing female founders with the tools to accelerate their businesses.

The annual award, established by inDrive, provides $85,000 in funding to five winners and offers mentorship and networking opportunities. Experts from inDrive New Ventures assess applications, provide strategic feedback, and select the most promising ventures. Of the 100 startups chosen for the pitching session, 15 progressed to the final round.

We will be glad to see more impactful projects, more female role models, and a growing number of female-led unicorns.

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