Deadline: 20-Jun-22
The Government of Canada’s Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES) Inclusive Women Venture Capital Initiative is now open to strengthen and build a more inclusive venture capital environment for Canadian women.
The WES Inclusive Women Venture Capital Initiative has been designed to provide non-repayable contribution funding to projects led by not-for-profit organizations to strengthen and build a more inclusive venture capital environment for Canadian women.
Projects will support the objective of building a more inclusive venture capital environment, and could include initiatives that aim to: strengthen the capacity of women entrepreneurs to access venture capital funding; contribute to increasing representation of women in the venture capital industry; and initiatives that ensure that the venture capital industry is sensitive to gender and potential unconscious bias in their operations.
This initiative will not support direct investment in funds, the creation of funds, or direct disbursements to entrepreneurs/enterprises, or research projects that are not directly serving the objectives and desired outcomes of the initiative.
Focus Areas
- Assist women entrepreneurs to better understand available options for financing and enable them to pursue and access such options
- Support efforts to advance and grow the representation of women in roles such as investors/fund managers in various venture capital industry contexts
- Provide education and training to support equitable access to funding and/or promotion of related practices to the venture capital industry (such as venture capitalists, angel networks, financial institutions, and others)
- Engage investors to better understand, adapt to and work with women entrepreneurs or their enterprises
- Foster networking or mentoring models to facilitate access to capital for women entrepreneurs and their businesses, and
- Demonstrate support and contributions in other areas to strengthen the network of women and diverse entrepreneurship organizations in Canada, aligned with the Inclusive Women Venture Capital Initiative's objectives
Details
- Have a minimum total project budget of $600,000 and not exceed a budget of $5,000,000 with a reasonable budget request based on organizations' previous experience, history, and capacity.
- Be completed by March 31, 2025 (project lengths may vary).
Eligibility Criteria
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The lead applicant must be a Canadian not-for-profit organization with minimum of two years of operating experience with a focus on supporting women in the venture capital environment. The lead applicant should fall under at least one of the following categories of not-for-profit organizations or associations:
- Business or investor associations
- Post-secondary academic institutions or research institutes
- Business/entrepreneur support organizations and associations
- Research/innovation hubs
- Indigenous organizations
- Business accelerators and incubators, and
- Associations representing not-for-profit social enterprises or co-operatives
- Applicants may also apply as a partnership of not-for-profit organizations or a partnership of not-for-profit and for-profit organizations/entities where the not-for-profit organization is the lead organization (i.e., A for-profit organization may be an eligible partner if the lead applicant is a not-for-profit organization).
- The applicant organization (or in case of partnerships, at least one partners) must have at least 2 years of operational experience with a mandate or history of programming or services that demonstrates a focus on supporting diversity in the venture capital environment and/or women as entrepreneurs or fund managers/industry professionals.
For more information, visit Government of Canada.
For more information, visit https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/women-entrepreneurship-strategy/en/wes-inclusive-women-venture-capital-initiative