African startups raised $3.499 billion across 275 funding rounds in 2025, yet women entrepreneurs continue to receive only a fraction of the capital inflow.
Despite the growing demand for financial inclusion over the past decades, access to growth capital remains one of the biggest obstacles facing women-led businesses today. Many female founders still face significant barriers to accessing venture capital, affordable credit, mentorship, and the strategic networks that often influence investment decisions.
To address this, a new generation of women leaders is working to change that reality. From venture capital firms and private equity funds to fintech platforms, angel investment networks and financial inclusion initiatives, these women are creating pathways for more women to access the funding, financial tools and investment opportunities needed to thrive.
These are top picks from Technext’s research, revealing that some are deploying millions of dollars into female-led businesses while others are building digital products that democratise savings, credit and investment opportunities. Together, they are helping redefine what financial inclusion looks like across Africa.
This list spotlights ten African women whose work is expanding access to finance for female entrepreneurs, professionals and underserved communities.
1. Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes
When Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes launched Aruwa Capital Management in 2019, she was stepping into a space where very few African women controlled investment capital.
Today, she is the Founder and Managing Partner of one of the continent’s few women-owned and women-led private equity firms, investing in high-growth businesses across West Africa’s small and lower mid-market segment.
Through Aruwa Capital, Rhodes is building a case on why women deserve a bigger share of investment capital. Not just as founders, but as fund managers, consumers and economic stakeholders.
2. Odunayo Eweniyi
Most people know Odunayo Eweniyi as the co-founder of PiggyVest, one of Africa’s most popular digital savings and investment platforms. But beyond helping millions of Nigerians save and invest, she is also quietly changing who gets funded in Africa’s startup ecosystem.
Eweniyi is the Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of PiggyVest, as well as the Co-founder of FirstCheck Africa, a female angel investment network backing women-led and women-focused startups.
Through FirstCheck Africa, she helps close a long-standing funding gap by providing early-stage capital, strategic support and access to investor networks for female founders.
3. Tokunboh Ishmael
For nearly two decades, Tokunboh Ishmael has been proving that investing for profit and investing for impact do not have to be separate goals. She is the Founder and Managing Director of Alitheia Capital, an impact investing firm that deploys capital into businesses capable of delivering both financial returns and measurable social outcomes.
Since founding the company 17 years ago, Ishmael has led investments across multiple sectors while championing inclusive economic growth. She also serves as Managing Partner of Alitheia IDF, a $100 million private equity fund focused on investing in gender-balanced businesses.
Through these platforms, she has helped channel significant capital into companies that create opportunities for women as founders, employees and consumers.
4. Chinyere Inya
Chineyere Inya is a prominent Nigerian-American investor, ecosystem builder, and futurist who serves as a Partner and Head of Platform at Future Africa. She is also the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Accelerate Africa, a pre-seed and seed-stage accelerator program designed to scale homegrown African tech startups.
As an investor, ecosystem builder and futurist, Inya plays a critical role in helping early-stage entrepreneurs become investment-ready.
By strengthening founder communities and supporting startups through key growth stages, she helps unlock access to the capital and opportunities required to scale sustainable businesses across Africa.
Read also: African female-led startups raised only 8.2% of $597m funding in Q1
5. Eloho Omame
Few people have contributed to Africa’s startup infrastructure as consistently as Eloho Omame. Long before venture capital became mainstream on the continent, she was helping design programmes that connected entrepreneurs to funding, talent and growth opportunities.
Today, she is a Partner at TLcom Capital, one of Africa’s leading venture capital firms, where she helps identify and support high-growth technology startups. She is also the Co-founder of FirstCheck Africa, which provides early-stage funding and community support to women-led startups across the continent.
Before joining TLcom, Omame served as the founding CEO of Endeavour Nigeria and designed Lagos Innovates, a flagship initiative of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund.
Her work has consistently focused on strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems and expanding access to opportunities for founders, particularly women building scalable businesses.
6. Maya Horgan Famodu
Maya Horgan Famodu is a Nigerian-American venture capital investor and entrepreneur committed to ensuring brilliant people, wherever they are located, have access to the resources they need to build wildly scalable businesses.
As the Founder of Ingressive Capital, she has built one of Africa’s most recognised early-stage venture capital firms, investing in startups across the continent’s major technology markets.
Through Ingressive Capital, Famodu has backed some of Africa’s most successful startups, including Nigerian companies such as Paystack and Mono.
Her investment philosophy centres on ensuring talented founders have access to capital, mentorship and global networks regardless of where they are building.
7. Yemi Keri
Yemi Keri is the CEO of Heckerbella Limited and Co-founder of Rising Tide Africa. She has become one of the continent’s strongest advocates for women’s participation in angel investing.
Rising Tide Africa was established to increase the number of women writing investment cheques, participating in venture deals and building wealth through angel investing.
Through education programmes, mentorship initiatives and cross-border investment opportunities, the network is helping more women move from being observers in the investment ecosystem to active participants.
Keri also serves as President of the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), where she works to strengthen angel investing ecosystems across Africa. Her influence extends beyond funding startups to creating pathways for more women to become investors themselves.
8. Feyisayo Alayande
After years in investment banking, Feyisayo Alayande now serves as Executive Secretary of the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF). This is an institution established to tackle unemployment through entrepreneurship support, skills development and access to finance.
Since assuming leadership, the organisation has trained thousands of Lagos residents and expanded programmes that provide financial support to entrepreneurs and job seekers.
Alayande previously worked with institutions including the Royal Bank of Scotland, FBNQuest and Letshego, where she held leadership roles spanning product development, digital transformation and financial inclusion.
Her work demonstrates how development finance can be leveraged to create jobs, strengthen businesses and stimulate economic growth at scale.
9. Folakemi Osho
Folakemi Osho is the General Manager of HoaQ, one of Africa’s most active angel investment communities, where she oversees investment operations, partnerships and community growth.
Under her leadership, HoaQ has built a network of more than 1,000 angel investors across over 30 countries and supported investments into more than 120 startups.
Osho’s rise within the organisation was from being an Executive Assistant to General Manager. This reflects both her operational expertise and commitment to expanding access to startup funding.
Through HoaQ, she is helping founders connect with investors while strengthening Africa’s growing angel investment ecosystem.
10. Damilola Teidi
Damilola Teidi-Ayoola is a venture capital Platform leader with over 13 years of experience working at the intersection of startups, capital, and ecosystem development across Africa.
She is currently a Principal and Head of Platform and Networks at Ventures Platform Fund, where she leads the firm’s post-investment and portfolio success strategy.
In this role, she designs and implements expertise-driven initiatives that support portfolio companies across talent, governance, market expansion, and capital access helping accelerate company growth, strengthen founder capacity, and improve fund-level outcomes.
Over the course of her career, she has led and supported the implementation of more than 22 pan-African startup initiatives, directly supporting over 150 high-growth technology startups to build, scale, and access follow-on funding.
Read also: Equity funding into Africa declines rapidly in 2026 as startups raise $708m
