€10,000 grant for women-owned businesses

Visa opens applications for a grant programme aimed at businesses owned by women.

Payments corporation Visa is starting the third edition of its She’s Next grant programme. The programme is run in collaboration with female business-owner network Feminvest and the open innovation partner Helve.

The aim of the programme is to support female business owners by offering them finance and resources to expand their businesses.

In its press release, Visa says women are still underrepresented among business owners. There are around 300,000 business owners in Finland, of whom around a third are women. Only around six per cent of start-up funding goes to companies founded by women.

Survey: One in two dreams of starting a business

A survey conducted by Visa in the Nordic and Baltic countries found that around one in four women had founded a business of her own during her life. Over half of the respondents dreamed of setting up their own businesses.

The survey found that female entrepreneurs in Finland start their businesses out of passion and to execute their ideas more than men do. In the Nordic and Baltic countries, women appreciate the opportunities for personal development and learning more than men do. In money questions, female entrepreneurs are more security-oriented than their male counterparts. More female entrepreneurs consider financial security important than men do.

The online survey, commissioned by Visa and conducted by Kantar, attracted responses from 1,000 people in seven countries. The survey was conducted in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark in August and September 2024.

These businesses can apply

With the She’s Next programme, three female-owned businesses in Finland will each receive €10,000 and personal business coaching for a year. In this year’s programme, the new and previous years’ She’s Next grant recipients will be invited to an alumni network via the Feminvest EXPAND programme.

“With the She’s Next grant programme, we want to encourage enterprise and play our part in supporting female entrepreneurs who have made a brave choice,” says Juha Sillanpää, Group Country Manager, Finland and Baltics, at Visa.

The She’s Next grant programme is open to companies registered in Finland that have operated for at least a year. At least 51% of the company must be owned by a woman or women.

Applications for the She’s Next grant programme are open from 1 to 31 October. Find more information and application instructions here.

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