Shecluded, a leading Nigerian Fintech startup driving financial inclusion for women, has been awarded an equity-free grant funding by Google for Startups through the Black Founders Fund Africa Program, to build its platform and make financial services more accessible to women.
Google, through the Black Founders Fund Africa, gives startups in Africa access to funds —a critical aspect needed by businesses to soar. The Black Founders Fund Africa —a $3 million fund, grants non-dilutive cash awards to Black-led startups across Africa. Each Selected startup gets awarded up to $100,000 in the capital, along with $220,000 in Google Cloud credits and Google.org Ads grants, as well as monitoring, technical and scaling assistance from Google.
Founded in 2019 by Ifeoma Uddoh, Shecluded’s mission is to enable women to attain and enjoy financial freedom by providing simplified access to financial growth services and business resources such as loans, wealth advisory, goal-based savings, business support, health insurance cover, and more. Since its launch, the company has spent over $1 million in growth loans and has helped more than 17,000 women get access to business development support, wealth advisory, health insurance, credit education, as well as financial and business literacy resources.
Ifeoma Uddoh, the Founder and Chief Executive of Shecluded expressed her excitement over winning the grant and reiterated the company’s dedication to enabling women to achieve financial freedom. “Our mission is to put more money in women’s hands and adopting more advanced technology will allow us to reach more women. We are super excited about this grant, as well as the mentorship and support that comes with it. We look forward to all the meaningful impact it will make for the women in our network,” she said.
“At Shecluded, we are seeing firsthand the urgent need for women to easily access key financial growth services. We believe that an advanced technology platform will go a long way to improve our ability to reach and provide these important resources to more women across more regions/locations,” she added.
The grant will help Shecluded develop its mobile application and expand its capacity to simultaneously process thousands of loan applications and service requests. It will also enable the startup to launch operations across pivotal regions in Nigeria and West Africa, increase its marketing efforts, and hire more hands to meet growing demand.
In the course of achieving its mission, Shecluded has participated in several global programs aimed at spurring action towards reducing inequalities and driving financial inclusion for women. These programs include UK-Nigeria Tech Hub – Gender-inclusive economy Nasdaq, NASDAQ Milestone Makers (Spring 2021), US Consulate Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE 2021), Financial Alliance for Women and the Women and Fintech Forum (WFTF Asia, 2021).
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