HerVenture
Our award-winning mobile learning app, supporting women to build the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to start or grow their businesses.
Fun and flexible, HerVenture fits learning into women’s busy lives. Our award-winning app offers women entrepreneurs essential business training and support on the go. It features a range of learning tracks on topics including launching a business, accessing finance, expanding market access, e-commerce and mobile money.
HerVenture has been specifically designed to support women in low or middle income countries who are starting or running micro or small businesses in any sector.
Through our app, women gain foundational business knowledge and skills, confidence and self-belief to start and grow businesses, support their entrepreneurial journeys and digitise their enterprises.
The app generates a personalised learning journey for each entrepreneur based on their individual business needs. Learning content is provided in bite-sized, easily digestible formats such as swipe-able cards and quizzes, and can be used offline. Users can find and connect with each other, as well as learn about local business events.
HerVenture's impact
91% of users in 2023 improved their business management practices.
100,000 women have grown their businesses through HerVenture
90% of users in 2023 applied what they learned to their business.
HerVenture is designed to create long outcomes. For women using the app in 2023, when measured at the point of completing the programme:
- 78% had already improved at least one area of their business’s performance:
- 36% increased their number of employees
- 61% increased their revenue
- 67% increased their profit
- 75% increased their customers or clients
- 63% had already improved their business’s resilience
Purpose-built for women entrepreneurs
Women worldwide have the ambition and potential to run their own businesses. But many are unfairly held back from developing the skills and knowledge they need for success.
We’ve supported over 250,000 women entrepreneurs in low and middle income countries. We know from these women’s feedback, from our expert local partners and from our in-depth needs assessments what it is that women need to start and build businesses.
There is a huge appetite for tech-based learning, however internet connectivity is limited in some areas, which is why HerVenture is available offline.
Many women entrepreneurs don’t have excess cash to spend on training. They are also frequently time-poor, unable to fit traditional classroom learning into their busy lives. Our app is free of charge and provides learning in bite-size chunks so women can build skills wherever and whenever it suits them.
We collect feedback from users to continuously improve the app’s content, usability, and features. We also regularly update the app with new content and improvements based on user suggestions and emerging business trends.
I learned how to harness the full potential of social media for marketing purposes, which has tremendously increased my clientele.
Contextualisation and scalability
HerVenture is highly scalable and can be adapted to any geography or language. It is currently available for free on iOS and Android in Vietnam, Indonesia, Kenya, South Africa (where it is also available on Huawei), Nigeria and Guyana, with plans to expand further.
The app is directly informed by women’s needs: each country’s version is customised for the local context and adapted in collaboration with local partners.
How we partner
HerVenture is delivered in collaboration with our private sector, government and civil society partners who share our commitment to enabling women’s access to skills, networks and services to grow successful businesses. Our collaborations leverage each partner’s strengths, reach, knowledge and experience to deliver impact and scale
The app can be offered standalone or can complement other business support services – including our own other programmes. We can also work with partners to create new learning tracks on specific topics for users.
Meet some of the women who've built skills and grown their businesses with HerVenture...
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Nguyen Thi Kim Thoa’s story: growing a sustainable farming industry in Vietnam
Nguyen Thi Kim Thoa's company, Abavina, is building capacity for eco-friendly farmers in Vietnam.
Read more
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Susi’s story
Susi took part in all three of our flagship programmes through our WEAVE initiative. With our support, she turned her passion for Japanese food and culture into a thriving enterprise.
Read more
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Wangari’s story
In 2020, as the global pandemic hit, we brought our flagship business skills training app HerVenture to women entrepreneurs in Kenya, thanks to support from our partner DHL Express. Wangari is one of the 1,100 Kenyan women who took the opportunity to make use of the app and strengthen her business against COVID-19’s impacts.
Read more
A history of HerVenture
One in 25 women in Guyana use HerVenture
Our app has supported over 10,000 women in Guyana to start and build businesses
2022: HerVenture wins a Mobile App award for Best Use of Mobile for Social and Economic Development
This award celebrates incredible mobile apps in Kenya. Nominations for app winners were submitted by the public via an online nomination portal. They were then vetted and published online for voting by the general public.
2022: New learning track on mobile money launches
HerVenture’s newest learning track on mobile money became available for users of the app in Guyana, developed in collaboration with GTT
September 2021: HerVenture made available in Guyana!
The app aims to reach at least 3,000 women entrepreneurs in Guyana.
September 2021: HerVenture wins Digital Innovation of the Year Award
The app wins at the UK's prestigious Third Sector Awards
August 2021: New 'Business Resilience' learning track added to the app
The app's ninth learning track, available in South Africa, delves into essential topics like understanding personal and business resilience, diagnosing and dealing with the impact of crises, and designing strategies to deal with future crises.
June 2021: HerVenture launches in South Africa!
Our partner DHL Express supports us to bring the app to South Africa
September 2020: HerVenture wins the Empowerment of Women Gold Award
The award was won at the 2020 Global CSR Awards in Vietnam, in conjunction with our partner Qualcomm.
August 2020: we launch on iOS
Our app became available on iOS in addition to Android
July 2020: HerVenture available in Kenya!
Our partner DHL Express supports us to bring the app to Kenya
January 2019: HerVenture is launched in Nigeria!
HerVenture supported over 11,000 Nigerian women entrepreneurs in its first year in the country alone.
November 2018: HerVenture app is launched in Indonesia!
Our partner Qualcomm Wireless Reach supports us to bring the app to Indonesia
May 2018: HerVenture is launched in Vietnam!
Our partner Qualcomm Wireless Reach supports us to bring the app to Vietnam