Request for Applications: She Wins Climate Acceleration Program

Through this acceleration program, their goal is to support women-led startups with innovative climate change solutions by enhancing their investment readiness and fundraising capabilities through a comprehensive program that includes in-person and virtual workshops, training interventions, and mentorship opportunities.

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.

Eligibility Criteria

• This program is designed for startup founders who are women, whose startups focus on climate change solutions or technologies, and whose startups operate in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia (see country list below):
  • Criteria for participants:
    • You must be 21+ years in age
    • You must identify as a woman
    • You must be the founder, co-founder, owner, or executive of the startup
    • You must be fluent in English
  • Criteria for startups:
    • Your startup must be women-owned/women-led (see definition below).
    • Your startup must be legally registered and in business for at least 1 year at the time of submission.
    • Your startup must be early stage but past the ideation stage, targeting pre-seed, seed, and Series A funding. More mature businesses will also be considered unless at the growth or exit stage.
    • Your startup must be have the majority of employees, assets, or operations in one of the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Moldova, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, or Vietnam.
    • Your startup must focus explicitly on climate change solutions or technologies and climate change must be core to your startup’s mission, strategy, and operations. Solutions and technologies could address greenhouse gas emissions reductions, energy efficiency, adaptation and resilience, circular processes, sustainable products or services, pollution reduction or prevention, conservation, and/or nature-based solutions. Startups with only a minor focus on climate change are not eligible.

For more information, visit IFC.