The investor sees entrepreneurship as a tool to resolve the most complex challenges in Africa. She, therefore, invests in entrepreneurs through her VC firm We Fund Women.

Hope Ditlhakanyane (photo) is the South African investor who founded VC firm We Fund Women to support women-led businesses' growth by giving them access to capital.

Her VC firm, launched in 2020, enables angel investors to invest in early-stage gender-smart startups easily. Its ambition is to support 100 gender-smart startups by 2025.

"We Fund Women is a gender-lens investing community so we aim to do three things. Firstly, we want to amplify the stories of different women entrepreneurs across the continent by giving them the platform to talk about their journeys. Secondly, we aim to connect capital allocators and people who can provide growth support to promising women with great innovations. Overall, what we're trying to do is leverage community to catalyze the move towards gender equality on our continent within the VC space," Hope Ditlhakanyane explains.

The VC investor is also the Head of venture sourcing for VC firm Founders Factory Africa, which she joined as a venture sourcing lead in January 2021. With Founders Factory Africa, she headed investments in several firms including Pneumacare, Zuri Health, Baia, Vitruvian, and Tibu Health.

For MEST Africa, which she joined as a venture partner in 2020, she worked with portfolio companies in four markets: Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa. In 2019, she worked for consulting firm Kearney as a Senior business analyst.

Thanks to her works, the Cape Town University graduate made it to Yahoo Finance and Mail & Guardian's respective lists "200 Young South Africans" and "100 Women Future Leaders."

Melchior Koba