EventsKnowledge Series

Scaling Women-Led Businesses: What Works in Acceleration and Investment Readiness

Tuesday, 27 October 2026

9:00 -10:00 am ET 

WATCH RECORDING

Women-owned and led SMEs (WSMEs) are important drivers of innovation, job creation, and economic growth, yet many continue to face barriers to accessing the capital needed to scale. Business accelerators and investment readiness programs can help entrepreneurs strengthen their business models, expand professional networks, engage with investors, and build their capacity to attract and secure investment. Yet women entrepreneurs remain underrepresented in these programs. An analysis of more than 300 accelerator programs found that only 13 percent of founding teams were composed entirely of women, compared with 52 percent composed entirely of men. Moreover, participation in accelerators does not necessarily translate into improved access to finance, underscoring the need for more intentional approaches to helping women entrepreneurs secure investment.

The webinar will bring together practitioners and experts to discuss emerging evidence and practical lessons from implementing business accelerators and investment readiness programs for women entrepreneurs. The discussion will explore what works, where implementation challenges persist, and how programs can be strengthened. It will also share key insights from a new We-Fi note on the topic, drawing on lessons learned from We-Fi-supported initiatives.

Speakers

Village Capital

Nathaly Botero

For over 5 years, Nathaly has led projects at Village Capital that generate new insights and solutions to better support entrepreneurs, expand their access to capital, and strengthen the startup ecosystem. She is passionate about translating research and data into actionable, innovative solutions and building systems that drive meaningful impact. Prior to joining Village Capital, Nathaly worked at Finance in Motion, where she supported technical assistance projects across Latin America.
Arizona State University

Eva Vazquez Ortiz

Dr. Eva Vázquez is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Thunderbird School of Global Management and an international leader in entrepreneurial ecosystem development. With more than 20 years of experience, she has designed and led high-impact acceleration and entrepreneurship programs across Latin America, the United States and the Caribbean, including AcelerarME and WE3A—initiatives that have strengthened hundreds of women-led SMEs in 10 countries. Dr. Vázquez’s research focuses on entrepreneurial mentoring, accelerators, and organizational learning. She holds a DBA with honors from IE University and is widely recognized for designing Puerto Rico’s first business accelerator and for her longstanding contributions to entrepreneurship education.
World Bank Group

Kiran Afzal

Kiran Afzal is a Senior Private Sector Specialist who has been engaged in Pakistan's entrepreneurial ecosystem since year 2008. She mobilized the World Bank support for Pakistan’s tourism destinations, and also led jobs and competitiveness engagement in two provinces that resulted in the creation of more than 250,000 jobs, and enabled US$3 billion in private investment. Kiran works on number of development sector topics, such as investment readiness, value chain strengthening, heritage management, start-up ecosystem, women entrepreneurship, and overall capacity development of the public sector counterparts. She is a certified Board Director, and an accredited TTL for WB’s financing instruments, including the Trust Funds, IPFs and PforR. She has an MSc in Social Policy and Planning and an MBA (Finance).
Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi)

Wendy Teleki

Wendy Teleki is Head of the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) Secretariat at the World Bank, which supports women entrepreneurs across more than 60 developing countries by expanding access to finance, markets, skills, and technology. Since joining We-Fi in 2019, she has led efforts to mobilize investment and advance policy reforms supporting women-led businesses, building on a long career at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), where she developed innovative approaches to SME finance, advisory services, and blended finance across emerging markets. In 2022, she was named to Forbes' "50 Over 50" in finance for her leadership in women's economic empowerment. She is co-author of "Rebalance: How Women Lead, Parent, Partner and Thrive" and holds an MA in International Economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS and an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School.
Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi)

Luciana Markstein

Luciana Markstein is a Research and Knowledge Consultant at the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) Secretariat, housed at the World Bank. She coordinates We-Fi’s monthly Knowledge Series and the learning agenda for implementing partners. With expertise in gender, entrepreneurship, and economic inclusion, she contributes to We-Fi’s research and knowledge initiatives, including co-authoring a practice note on effective approaches to accelerators and investment readiness programs for women entrepreneurs. Before joining the World Bank Group, she gained experience in research, policy analysis, and project coordination, and led social innovation initiatives in Geneva and at the UNDP Accelerator Lab in Argentina. Her experience also includes work with the OECD and the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as research in Kenya. Luciana holds a master’s degree in International and Development Studies from the Geneva Graduate Institute and a bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires.

9:00 – 9:05AM   Welcoming Remarks

  • Wendy Teleki, Head of the We-Fi Secretariat

9:05 – 9:15 AM   Insights from We-Fi’s Acceleration and Investment Readiness Practice Note

  • Luciana Markstein, Research & Knowledge Consultant at the We-Fi Secretariat

9:15 – 9:45AM   Panel Discussion

  • Nathaly Botero, Senior Manager, Learning & Innovations at Village Capital
  • Eva Vazquez Ortiz, Assistant Clinical Professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University
  • Kiran Afzal, Senior Private Sector Specialist at the World Bank Group

9:45 – 10:00   Q & A

 

Share