Program

She Wins Climate

Accelerating Women-Led Innovation for Climate Action

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She Wins Climate seeks to accelerate women-led climate startups and increase their access to climate investment in emerging markets and developing economies.

Women-led startups could be at the forefront of developing innovative climate solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance adaptation efforts. However, just 7% of venture capital (VC) funding goes to women-led businesses in emerging markets, with only 10% invested globally into women-led climate tech.

These unbalanced patterns are challenging to disrupt, and today, many women-led climate innovations are not receiving the visibility, business support, or investment they need to grow, scale, and bring impactful climate solutions to market.

Program Overview

She Wins Climate, launched at COP28, is IFC’s flagship program that seeks to accelerate women-led climate startups and increase their access to climate investment in emerging markets and developing economies. The program addresses several ecosystem challenges that prevent more equitable equity finance for women-led climate startups. The program has three primary focus areas:

  1. She Wins Climate regional startup acceleration programs, which target women-led climate businesses in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
  2. We Fund Climate fund manager peer learning platform, which connects and builds capacity for climate-focused VC funds to implement gender-lens investing strategies.
  3. Global research and awareness raising, which increases knowledge on what works to support women-led climate startups in emerging markets.

Focus Areas


The She Wins Climate regional acceleration programs will provide participating women-led climate startups with business development support, investor networking, and capacity building. IFC will partner with an expert accelerator in each region to co-design and deliver activities that meet the needs of the cohort and are rooted in market realities, including climate change priorities.

The accelerator program will be delivered in English and is open to women-led and founded climate startups based in Southeast Asia; South Asia; and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Türkiye. To be considered a climate startup, businesses must target greenhouse gas emissions reductions, energy efficiency, adaptation or resilience, sustainable products or services, pollution reduction or prevention, conservation, and/or nature-based solutions.

For more information on the acceleration program and the eligibility criteria, please see the She Wins Climate FAQs.


The We Fund Climate fund manager peer learning platform will bring together a cohort of climate-focused venture capital funds who will develop gender action plans to increase business support and financing for women-led climate businesses. Participating VCs will engage in a series of peer learning sessions and 1:1 clinics with gender-lens investing experts to identify and implement strategies that increase funding for women founders with climate solutions. To be eligible for participation, fund managers must invest in climate technologies/solutions, in pre-Seed to Series A funding, and in emerging markets.

For more information on the fund manager program and the eligibility criteria, please see the She Wins Climate FAQs.

If you’re a fund manager and would like to join the platform, please reach out to shewins_climate@ifc.org.


An overarching challenge in supporting women founders operating climate-related businesses is the lack of information and data about the nature of their businesses, the support and financing they need to accelerate their ventures, and the specific barriers they face in scaling their solutions (compared to men and compared to women in non-climate sectors). Throughout program implementation, She Wins Climate will collect data on entrepreneurs, investors, and entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) to advance knowledge in this space.

If you’re a research institution or ESO and would like to participate in this research, please reach out to shewins_climate@ifc.org.

Women entrepreneurs in a panel discussion. Photo: Raphael Gorgy

Applications open!

Are you a woman-led climate startup in an emerging market in Eastern Europe or Asia? Apply now to the She Wins Climate regional startup acceleration program.

Related Links

Contacts

She Wins Climate
Team Inbox
SheWins_Climate@ifc.org
Evangelia Tsiftsi
Communications Specialist, Gender and Economic Inclusion
+1 202-473-4159
ETsiftsi@ifc.org