The Top 5 Grants for Women Entrepreneurs

Mother’s Day is around the corner, and in celebration, we’ve come up with a list of The Top 5 grants for Women Entrepreneurs. Because levelling the playing field for women in business, and other minority groups, is something we’re a hundred percent behind here at Pocketed!

If you read our most recent post, we talked a lot about Government’s new Women’s Entrepreneurship Strategy. Don’t worry, if you missed it, you can read more about that here.

One of the coolest parts about the project is the new Women’s Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH). It’s an awesome site loaded with stats about women entrepreneurs like these:

• 16% of SME’s are women owned
• 36.1 % of self-employed Canadians are women

The site offers resources and connects women to financing, talent networks and industry experts. All with the goal of closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship in Canada.

And guess what?! The site’s research estimates that by breaking down financial barriers and levelling the economic field, we could see an increased GPD of $41-$81 billion in Canada. Now that’s huge and has us pretty excited about the future of entrepreneurship.

We asked our partners at the Toronto Metropolitan University what they thought levelling the playing field for women entrepreneurs could mean for the future. Here’s what they had to say:

“When we work to create an equal playing field for women entrepreneurs, the entire innovation ecosystem wins. The immense potential of women entrepreneurs has been largely untapped, yet we know they are key drivers of economic growth. We have a real opportunity to show young women that entrepreneurship is a riveting and rewarding career path, and by ensuring they have role models to look up to, we can spark a domino effect that will last for generations to come.”

Emily Smiley, Head of Programs & Investor Relations- The DMZ

YAAAS to setting an example to generations to come that they have the power to be key drivers in our economic growth!

At Pocketed, we want to help shatter any financial barrier standing in the way of your business’s growth by making access to grant funding a smooth and easy process.

When you download our list of the Top 5 Grants for Women Entrepreneurs, here’s two of the grants you’ll find inside:

Athena Digital Leaders

This initiative supports dozens of companies across many industries in BC with highly skilled women and new immigrants who have machine learning, data science and managerial talent.

The grant subsidizes up to 43% of salaries for 18 weeks. They are currently accepting applications for machine learning and data science projects, machine learning training courses and hiring a student.

Growing Opportunities by Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council

This program supports the development of connections between secondary students and employers in agriculture and post-secondary institutions. It contributes toward preparing a job-ready workforce for the Canadian agriculture industry.

Eligible participants can qualify to have:

• 50% of the wages (to a maximum of $5,000) for each net new placement.
• 70% of the wages (to a maximum of $7,000) for each net new placement.

They are currently giving subsidy priority to under-represented groups, including women in STEM.

The possibilities for Women Entrepreneurs are endless. Our partners at Riipen feel the same.

“Riipen is passionate about breaking down barriers for women to meaningful careers by making work-integrated experiential learning more accessible to ambitious learners of all backgrounds,” shares Midia Shikh Hassan, Strategy Manager at Riipen, the world’s largest online work-integrated learning marketplace.

“We match job-seekers and learners with opportunities to work with businesses on flexible, short-term projects that are more time-efficient for women with busy lives and don’t have the capacity for 3-month long internships. In our Level UP program especially, more than one-third of participants identified as women in a discipline where they are often underrepresented, especially in fields such as science, technology, engineering, and math.”

-Midia, Strategy Manager-Riipen

But do I need money for my grant up front?

Most grants do require capital up front, but we’re not letting that be a barrier either. Our partners at Bonsai are experts at helping businesses like your secure capital to support your grant while waiting for your reimbursement.

Ready to get started? Download your list of the Top 5 Grants for Women Entrepreneurs and hop over to Pocketed to sign up for your free account. Let’s start levelling the playing field today.