Women-Led Businesses in Developing World See Major Push Toward Fintech-Fueled Finance
02 November 2026
African Development Bank and AXIAN Group have launched a digital finance program. Fasanara Capital and IFC have raised a $100m initiative. Finnfund, Swedfund and BIO invested $55 million in Indonesia's Amartha. IFC's local-currency lending backed by $10 billion in women-focused financing: Rapid fintech expansion and syndicated funding are driving greater access to tailored capital for women entrepreneurs across Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
The African Development Bank, AXIAN Group Launch Historic Finance Programme for 34,000 Women-Led Businesses
Two months ago, on 1 Sep 2025, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and AXIAN Group kicked off a major digital finance drive. At its hub, a £40 million programme to reach 34,000 women-owned micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in 5 African countries.
Supported by the AfDB's AFAWA initiative and the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), the programme represents a major boost to women's access to financial products and services. Based on digital financial platforms Mixx and Mvola, it aims to offer products focused on credit assessment.
The move is significant for its sheer scale and its digital-first delivery model for financial literacy training, digitising business operations, and fintech-driven financing. 25,000 women in 5 countries are due to benefit from financial literacy and entrepreneurship modules on top of the business product services.
The women-led business financing drive comes shortly after Fasanara Capital, IFC unveil $100m strategy to rapidly expand lending to SMEs
Fasanara Capital and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) unveiled a significant firepower boost to digital-driven women's finance in March 2025 with a $100 million initiative. The funds, backed by Fasanara and Greenwood Capital, plan to accelerate financing for women-owned SMEs in the developing world using fintech platforms as selection tools.
The initiative will address hard-to-finance SMEs, lending between 10,000-100,000 USD to these businesses, says IFC, and will operate across countries where such businesses remain underserved by conventional financing.
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Strengthening mobile money, digital lending and risk assessment are fast becoming key components in programs that are aiming to make a difference to women's business financing in emerging markets.
The Global Financial Inclusion Partnerships May Be Shifting But the Obstacles Remain
In 2024, Finnfund and partners invested in Indonesia's Amartha as a vehicle for rural financial inclusion. Swedfund, Finnfund and BIO collectively provided a $55 million loan, part of a syndicate led by the IFC. Amartha now has a facility to lend digitally to a female customer base at a greater scale than its legacy business could.
Last month, as part of its Banking on Women program, the IFC announced a $10m local currency loan to VisionFund's microfinance arm in Ethiopia, with at least $5 million for women-owned businesses.
While the pace of new funding initiatives has increased, many fundamental challenges for women entrepreneurs remain: market information disparities, limited potential for microentrepreneurs to leverage credit assessment technology, and uncertainty around repayment given localized products.
One thing is clear: partnerships merging fintech, mobile money and digital strategies with women's finance initiatives are changing the playing field. 350 Banking on Women financial institutions in 87 emerging markets attest to that; 34,000 business customers accessed via AXIAN suggest more to come.