Women entrepreneurs have been advised to build viable businesses, understand their markets and financials and identify the appropriate sources of capital before seeking external investment.
The advice was given by stakeholders at the 10th annual She Code Africa Summit in Lagos, where they discussed practical strategies for women-led businesses seeking to raise capital and scale.
The summit, themed, “A Decade of Impact: African Women Architecting the Digital Future,” featured a panel session, “Capital Track,” which focused on funding opportunities, investor expectations and challenges confronting women entrepreneurs in accessing capital.
Principal, Platform and Networks, Ventures Platform Fund, Damilola Teidi-Ayoola, said founders seeking investment must demonstrate a strong understanding of their businesses, markets, customers, competitors and financial figures.
Teidi-Ayoola said investors were more likely to engage founders who could clearly explain their businesses, understand their competitive environment and demonstrate knowledge of the numbers driving their operations.
She also stressed the importance of effective storytelling, noting that a founder could have a viable business but struggle to attract investment if unable to communicate its value proposition and growth prospects effectively.
“It’s important for you to know the type of business you’re running and the type of capital that is best suited for that business,” she said.
According to her, entrepreneurs must also understand that not every company was suited to venture capital, urging founders to identify financing options that matched the nature and stage of their businesses.
Teidi-Ayoola also called for greater participation of women in the investment ecosystem, particularly as general partners and capital allocators who could influence decisions on which businesses received funding.
She urged investors and support organisations to address conscious and unconscious biases that could affect women’s access to finance.
The Ventures Platform Fund executive further called for increased representation of women within investment organisations, saying this would bring different perspectives to investment decisions.
She also urged ecosystem organisations to deliberately design programmes and communication strategies capable of attracting more female founders, noting that simply declaring programmes open to everyone had not always resulted in balanced participation.
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Shuttlers, Damilola Olokesusi, said she spent the first four years building the company without external funding, relying on grants, customers and other forms of support before eventually raising capital to scale.
Olokesusi said the experience helped her understand the transportation business, build customer traction and establish financial records before approaching investors.
She recalled that Shuttlers initially operated without an application, relying on manual processes, WhatsApp and Google Maps to serve its early customers.
According to her, the experience demonstrated the importance of learning how to communicate a business effectively, noting that communication with investors was a skill founders needed to deliberately develop.
“You need to learn it. It’s a different skill. Just the same way you have finance skills or accounting skills, communication skills is something that you need to learn,” she said.
Olokesusi also distinguished between lifestyle businesses, family-owned businesses and high-growth technology companies, noting that each could require different approaches to financing.
Also speaking, Entrepreneur Experience, Endeavor Nigeria, Esther Otusanya, said investors assessed more than a founder’s pitch, stressing that the underlying economics of a business remained critical.
She advised entrepreneurs to understand their cost structures from an early stage and demonstrate how additional capital would translate into measurable milestones.
Otusanya said investors also examined the strength of a company’s team, adding that founders should be able to build organisations capable of operating beyond their direct involvement.
She advised founders seeking funding to clearly explain what the capital would achieve, whether through increased revenue, expansion into new markets or the creation of new revenue streams.
Founder and Executive Director of She Code Africa, Mrs. Ada Nduka Oyom, described the initiative as a milestone for women seeking to build careers and businesses in the technology sector.
Nduka said the next decade of the organisation would focus on creating stronger systems and pathways that would enable more African women to participate meaningfully in technology.
She explained that She Code Africa, which began in 2016 with the aim of making women in technology more visible, had evolved into a community and structured organisation providing learning opportunities, scholarships, mentorship and access to opportunities for women across Africa.
“Over 500 has benefited from this initiative and over 65,000 in Africa,” she said.
The summit also featured a fireside chat where Founder, Creator and MBA Student, Adeife Adeoye, spoke on the importance of consistency in growing businesses both online and offline.
Other sessions included the Future Track Panel Session and Impact Track Panel Session.
The panel discussions formed part of activities marking She Code Africa’s decade-long effort to expand opportunities, skills development, mentorship and access to resources for women and girls in technology across Africa.
