RevUp Caribbean emphasising female enterprise

by Marlon Madden

Officials of the Caribbean’s first virtual incubator is boasting of a very high female-owned business participation in its first cohort, while promising continued focus on this group.Managing Director of RevUp Caribbean Sandra Glasgow Ltd. said the recently concluded incubator and training programme had just over 60 per cent female participation, as she pointed to the need for more female entrepreneurs to get the necessary hand-holding as they grow their businesses. Glasgow said research has shown that female business founders had greater difficulty getting the needed investment for their operations and RevUp Caribbean intends to assist as many female entrepreneurs as possible.

She said while the target for the first cohort was to have 50 per cent female participation, “It actually was 63 per cent”. “It is important because in Jamaica, in the region, and in fact, across the world, female founders have difficulty getting investments and getting support to grow their businesses. We understand,” she said.

Glasgow, who is a Co-founder of the Jamaica-based angel investor group FirstAngels JA, said she knew “first-hand that when women are given the opportunity to grow their businesses they really take great advantage of that opportunity and sometimes surpass the achievement of the men”.

“So, it is really important to us. We have placed a focus on having at least 50 per cent of our cohort be female led or owned businesses . . . we have also for this cohort placed a focus on having companies in the fintech (financial technology) space,” she said.

Glasgow was speaking during the recent official launch of RevUp Caribbean, a Jamaica-based virtual incubator and training programme for small and medium-sized enterprises, which is designed to help businesses across the region increase their ability to receive financing, grow through mentorship, and training, and gain access to strong business networks.

The programme, which is also designed to fill the knowledge gaps of the business founders, is split into two – the training programme for owners seeking to scale-up their operations and the Seeking Equity programme for the start-up firms.

In its first iteration, RevUp Caribbean worked with 30 participants over a five-month period. There was participation from only one firm out of Trinidad and Tobago, and the rest were from Jamaica. Application is now open for the second cohort that is to begin next month, and businesses from around the region are being urged to apply by visiting the RevUp Caribbean website – https://www.revupcaribbean.com/

Terry-Ann Segree, Private Finance Operation Senior Specialist with IDB Lab, said she was pleased with the focus on women in business, as she noted that all start-ups across the region were in need of greater business support, capacity building, strengthening and networking opportunities.

IDB Lab is one of several local and international organisations providing support for the RevUp Caribbean initiative. “We realised that with the inclusion of women integrated in the workplace we see greater productivity, we see higher level of involvement and we see greater solution. So, in a lot of the countries we realise that women are not included and sometimes we need to help them because they do have additional challenges beyond the regular business support,” said Segree.

“Gender and inclusion of women in business is a significantly important aspect for IDB. Climate change is also relevant and that digital inclusion. So supporting these women-led businesses is of importance,” she stressed.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb