New funding model supports female-led business ventures

Since launching in New Zealand in October, the disruptive economic model known as SheEO has brought together several powerful Kiwi women to support female-led business ventures.  
 
Created by SheEO.World, and launched in New Zealand by Theresa Gattung, this radical generosity funding model is designed to actively support a small number of women-led ventures with no-interest loans.  

New Zealand is the first country outside of North America to offer the SheEO World funding model, which aims to bring together 500 women investors, or ‘Activators’, each contributing $1,100 to establish a perpetual funding pool. The Activators will select five female-led ventures who will each receive a split of the funds.  

Over the past five months, SheEO has had more than 350 local female Activators sign up, who have each contributed $1,100 to support the five selected ventures. Activators include My Food Bag co-founder Cecilia Robinson, businesswoman Kirsty Reynolds and television producer Julie Christie.   

In another demonstration of generosity, Robinson, Reynolds and Christie have taken over the reins of the local chapter and rallied around Theresa Gattung as she recovers from a health scare.    
“We are thrilled with the number of activators who have come on board so far and we still need more” says Robinson.   
“Our aim is to sign up 500 Activators by the end of March which will create a funding pool of $500,000 for the five ventures.  

SheEO is all about women funding women to succeed but it’s more than just money. The ventures also gain access to a network of buying power and expertise to help them grow their businesses,” says Robinson.  

The programme has also received applications from more than 100 female-led ventures. The applications have been shortlisted down to eight, with the five selected ventures to be announced at the 2018 SheEO NZ Summit at Hilton Auckland on 9 April.  
          
Vicki Saunders, global founder of SheEO, says “I have watched time and again for decades, as investors (mostly men) have put their money into businesses that increase inequality, and perpetuate the cycle of putting more money into fewer hands – five men have the same wealth as a billion people right now – it’s insane – and it literally pulls apart communities  
I didn’t want to simply level the playing field by bringing more women into that broken model, I wanted to create an entirely different one.”  

The SheEO.World goal is to be in 1,000 cities by 2020 loaning $1B annually to 10,000 women-led businesses.  

For more information or to see the complete list of women activators, or to sign up as an activator please visit https://sheeo.world.   

Photo: The Pomegranate Kitchen team.