Empowering Women Entrepreneurs.From Potential to Prosperity.
An ecosystem that walks with women-owned and women-led businesses from start to scale, with structure, accountability and a community behind them.
Join the HubWhy we exist
Programmes end. Businesses shouldn’t stall.
There are many programmes for women entrepreneurs, but most are once-off. When they end, women are often left on their own, and their businesses stop growing.
The EmpowHER Hub is built differently. We are an ecosystem that stays with you: we help you build, track your growth, hold you accountable and connect you to the people, partners and funding you need to scale.
Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey. Here, we are stronger together.
Explore the Hub
There is more to discover.
Use the tabs at the top of the page, or choose where to start below.
About us
Who we are, our story from Berlin, our founders and what we stand for.
Visit About usWhat we do
The EmpowHER Growth Path, pitch days, the Accelerator and the business health clinic.
Visit What we doServices
Launch and digital presence packages, monthly retainers and single services.
Visit ServicesWays to join
Join the community, become a member, get selected for the Accelerator or build with us.
Visit Ways to joinPartner with us
For corporates, funders, partner hubs, service providers, mentors and sponsors.
Visit Partner with usDirectory
A vetted directory of women-owned and women-led businesses. Coming soon.
Visit DirectoryOur contribution to the 2030 Agenda
Building towards 2030
Our impact goals
Goals we support
Every woman-owned business we help grow creates jobs, income and opportunity for the families and communities around it.
Get started
Ready to grow with us?
Whether you are building a business or want to back the women who are, there is a place for you in the Hub.
Home About us
About us
Who we are
The EmpowHER Hub is a women-owned entrepreneurship ecosystem that supports women-owned and women-led businesses from idea to startup, growth and scale.
We give women entrepreneurs the right support, at the right stage, in the right way: hands-on, tailored and structured, so every business we work with comes out stronger and closer to funding.
Our vision
To be the go-to ecosystem that takes women-owned and women-led businesses from idea to startup, growth and scale.
Our mission
We give women entrepreneurs what early-stage founders struggle to get: honest, actionable feedback, training, structured incubation, expert mentorship and a credible route to funding.
Our story
Born in Berlin.
We came home with a clear question: why don’t women entrepreneurs in South Africa have this?
- The MBA global module
During our MBA, we joined a global study tour of Berlin focused on entrepreneurship, ecosystems and startups, to experience one of Europe’s leading startup capitals first-hand.
- Hubs and ecosystems
We visited hubs where founders grow side by side, with community, guidance and advice built in.
Motion Lab BerlinbetahausDriveryAHOY! Berlin - The launch of Venture Café Berlin
We saw the power of pitching and storytelling up close, and how one great pitch can land a founder their next investment.
- The EmpowHER Hub
Our answer: the ecosystem we saw in Berlin, designed for women, starting in South Africa and growing into Africa.
Our founders
One who knows the boardroom, one who knows the books, and both know the shop floor.
The EmpowHER Hub is led by two co-founders who met while completing their MBA at one of Africa’s top business schools.
The idea was born in Berlin during our global module, when a small group of classmates asked why women entrepreneurs in South Africa don’t have the support we saw there. Today, we bring more than 25 years of combined experience to the Hub, along with first-hand experience of growing small businesses.
Vhutshilo Anna Nesamari
Co-founder and Executive Director
MBA (GIBS) | Customers, partnerships and execution
Rethabile Moleko
Co-founder and Executive Director
CA(SA) & MBA (GIBS) | Strategy and finance
Vhutshilo Anna Nesamari
Vhutshilo has over 15 years’ experience in financial services, leading customer strategy, operations and large transformation programmes at leading banking and insurance groups. She has run community programmes at scale, including a financial education programme that reached 23,811 people against a target of 18,000. At the Hub, she leads partnerships, programme design and founder support on customers and growth.
She holds a BCom Honours in Industrial and Organisational Psychology and an MBA. She serves on the Entrepreneurship Subcommittee of Young Leaders Connect, an initiative of the International Women’s Forum South Africa (IWFSA), received the 2026 YLC Ambassador Award, and is an alumna of the UN Women/ILO Young Women’s Leadership Development Programme.
Rethabile Moleko
Rethabile is a seasoned chartered accountant with over 12 years’ working experience across different industries. She combines extensive corporate expertise in finance, audit, tax and strategy with hands-on entrepreneurial experience.
She has owned and run her own businesses, a salon and a fashion boutique, and knows the realities of managing cash flow, staff and customers day to day. She brings a blend of commercial acumen, innovation and practical business-building insight, helping entrepreneurs in the Hub get their numbers right, stay compliant and become investable.
Stronger together
Between us, we cover what a woman founder needs to get funded and keep growing.
Vhutshilo
Your customers, your partners, your plan in action.
Rethabile
Your strategy, your numbers, your case to funders.
Together
Both of us have worked inside the large corporates that buy from, partner with and fund small businesses, and both of us have had to make a small business grow.
One team that helps you sharpen the idea, win customers, get the numbers right and become investable.
A programme run to corporate standards, with results you can report on.
What we stand for
Our values
Stronger together
Entrepreneurship is lonely. Community makes it lighter.
Lifting as we rise
Every woman who grows reaches back for the next.
Sisterhood
Women founders supporting, buying from and backing each other.
Allies welcome
Men who mentor, fund, buy from and champion women-led businesses are part of this. When women grow, businesses, families and economies grow with them.
Accountability
We track growth and hold each other to what we commit.
Who we work with
Women-owned and women-led
Women-owned
A business that is at least 51% owned by women.
Women-led
A business founded or led by a woman, with women in its senior leadership. Men may co-own, invest in and work in these businesses. What matters is that women lead.
We support women entrepreneurs and the women leading businesses, whoever they build with, at every stage: idea, startup, growth and scale.
Home What we do
What we do
Support that stays with you.
One ecosystem, from idea to investment. Here is how we help women-owned and women-led businesses grow.
The EmpowHER Growth Path
Build the business
Strategy, structure, compliance and the systems a business needs to stand on.
Access knowledge and mentorship
Training, expert sessions and mentors who have built businesses themselves.
Access markets
Visibility, introductions to buyers and corporates, and our vetted directory.
Become funding-ready
Business plans, financials and funding proposals that funders take seriously.
Connect and collaborate
A sisterhood of women founders, partner hubs and peer networks.
Scale
Ongoing support as the business grows, not a programme that ends and leaves you alone.
Pitch days
Pitch. Learn. Grow.
Free pitch days where women entrepreneurs pitch their business to our panel and get honest, actionable feedback.
Successful entrepreneurs and business school lecturers join our panels. The strongest businesses are selected for the EmpowHER Accelerator, and every business leaves with clear next steps.
Apply for pitch dayThe EmpowHER Accelerator
Selective. Structured. Hands-on.
A structured programme for the businesses selected at our pitch days.
Small cohorts, fixed milestones and one-on-one support, ending with a complete business plan and a funder-ready proposal. Graduates become EmpowHER Hub Certified businesses and keep growing with the Hub.
Business health clinic
A check-up for your business.
We assess your business, diagnose what is holding it back, prioritise what to fix first and guide you through it.
For businesses that are already trading and want to grow, but are not sure what to focus on next.
Book a clinicMore ways we support you
Beyond the programme
Funding readiness
Business plans, funding proposals and applications, reviewed before they go to funders.
Training
Practical workshops that build core business skills, online and face to face.
Mentorship circles
Small, guided circles to learn from mentors and each other.
Speaking and events
Events and engagements on entrepreneurship and business growth.
Visibility
Features on our website and social media, so customers can find you.
Venture partnerships
For selected founders, we co-create strategy and build alongside you.
Home Services
Services
Support for every stage.
Packages to get you started, retainers to run your business, and single services when you just need one thing done.
Services are delivered in-house or through our partners at preferential rates. Accelerator businesses receive selected services as part of the programme, and members pay reduced rates.
Packages
Start strong. Show up well.
EmpowHER Launch Package
For idea-stage founders ready to start properly.
- Business registration and structure
- Brand identity: logo, colours and fonts
- Starter website, domain and business email
- Social media and WhatsApp Business setup
- Google Business profile
- Launch roadmap and go-to-market plan
- Compliance checklist
EmpowHER Digital Presence Package
For trading businesses that need to be found and trusted online.
- Website build or refresh
- Social media setup and content plan
- Google Business profile
- WhatsApp Business catalogue
- Brand refresh
- Features on EmpowHER Hub channels
Third-party costs such as domains, hosting and software subscriptions are quoted separately and agreed with you before they are incurred.
Business support retainers
Your back office, without the full-time hires.
Many growing businesses think they need to employ an accountant, an HR manager or an IT person full time. Most don’t.
Our retainers give you professional finance, compliance, HR and IT support for a monthly fee, scaled to the size of your business.
Finance
- Bookkeeping
- Monthly management accounts
- Payroll
- Annual financial statements
Tax and compliance
- Income tax, VAT and PAYE submissions
- CIPC annual returns
- Beneficial ownership filing
- B-BBEE affidavits
People and HR
- Contracts and policies
- Recruitment support
- UIF and COIDA registration
- Employee relations advice
IT and digital
- IT support on an agreed service level
- Microsoft 365 setup and licences
- Basic cybersecurity
- Website maintenance
Single services
Just need one thing done?
Use any service on its own, with or without a membership.
Funding proposals are charged on success. If your application is not successful, you remain part of the Hub.
Home Partner with us
Partner with us
Invest in women who build.
Women-owned businesses create jobs and lift communities. Partner with the Hub to grow them, and see what changed.
We welcome mentors, funders, sponsors and partners of every gender who believe in backing women-led growth.
Corporates
Meet your ESD, B-BBEE, ESG and supplier diversity goals by investing in women-owned businesses with measurable outcomes.
Talk to usFunders and investors
Access a pipeline of vetted, funder-ready women-owned and women-led businesses.
Talk to usPartner hubs
Share workspace, events and programmes so women founders can grow across our networks.
Talk to usService partners
Women-owned service providers offering preferential rates to Hub businesses.
Talk to usMentors, experts and speakers
Give your time at pitch days, training and mentorship circles, and gain exposure for your business.
Talk to usSponsors
Sponsor a pitch day, a cohort or an event, and put your brand where women founders grow.
Talk to usWhy partner with the EmpowHER Hub
- Direct support to women-owned and women-led businesses
- Outcomes tracked and reported from every cohort
- Alignment with ESD, B-BBEE and ESG commitments
- Access to vetted, growing women-owned suppliers
- Contribution to SDG 5 and SDG 8
Our contribution to the 2030 Agenda
Building towards 2030
Our impact goals
Goals we support
Every woman-owned business we help grow creates jobs, income and opportunity for the families and communities around it.
Home Directory
Directory
Buy from women-owned businesses.
A vetted directory of women-owned and women-led businesses for corporates, partners and our community.
Coming soonOur directory is coming soon.
Every business listed will be vetted by the Hub before it appears here. Want your business considered? Get in touch.
Impact at a glance
Coming soonOur impact story starts soon.
After our first pitch day and cohort, we will share real numbers here: businesses supported, funding secured, jobs created.
Home Contact
Contact
Let’s build together.
Empowering Women Entrepreneurs. From Potential to Prosperity.
- info@empowherhub.co.za
- Website
- www.empowherhub.co.za
- Based in
- South Africa
Home Ways to join
Ways to join
Find your way into the Hub.
There is no single way to belong. Choose the support that fits where your business is today.
Community
Free
For every woman entrepreneur who wants to be part of the movement.
- Events and pitch day invitations
- Newsletter with opportunities and funding calls
- Access to the sisterhood network
- Apply for pitch days
Member
Enquire about pricing
For trading businesses that want ongoing support at better rates.
- Reduced rates on Hub services and retainers
- Member-only service bundles
- Preferential rates with our partners
- Visibility on our website and social media
- Mentorship circles and expert sessions
- Directory listing, once vetted
Accelerator
By selection
For high-potential businesses selected at our pitch days.
- A structured programme with milestones
- Hands-on, one-on-one support
- Selected services included in the programme
- A funding-ready business plan and proposal
- Graduate as an EmpowHER Hub Certified business
Venture partner
By invitation
For founders we build with, from strategy to launch and beyond.
- Strategy co-created with you, before launch
- Ongoing involvement as the business grows
- Terms agreed per business
Not ready to join?
Use our services on their own.
Packages, monthly retainers and single services are open to every woman-owned and women-led business.
See our servicesEmpowHER Hub Certified
Businesses that complete the Accelerator become EmpowHER Hub Certified.
Certification is not the end of the journey. Certified businesses keep access to support, visibility and our network as they grow.