WomHub’s Playbook: Building Resilient Women-Led STEM Startups

As the tech ecosystem in South Africa continues to grow, women-led STEM ventures continue to face challenges such as funding gaps, limited market access and the need to future-proof their businesses.

WomHub, a boutique incubator and advisory firm, argues that what female founders really need is not just an accelerator but a complete ‘ecosystem enabler’ spanning four pillars—Talent, Entrepreneurship, Spaces and Capital—to guide them from first spark to scale.

“Positioning WomHub as an ecosystem enabler means we don’t stop at incubation,” says CEO Anjani Harjeven. “We support women in STEM across the entire value chain—nurturing talent, strengthening business models, providing the right infrastructure and connecting founders to capital and markets, so they can transform industries and societies for the better.”

Why Women in STEM Need an Ecosystem, Not Just an Incubator

Traditional incubators offer short-term mentorship, training or workspace; an ecosystem enabler such as WomHub provides year-round support across every stage of a startup’s journey:

• Talent Pipeline Development: By engaging girls and young women in STEM through outreach programmes and hackathons, WomHub builds the future pipeline of innovators before they even conceive a startup or enter the workplace.

• Entrepreneurship Incubation and Acceleration: Beyond traditional incubation, it delivers holistic entrepreneur support programmes, including leading masterclasses, coaching, mentorship and impact outcome based technical support that equip women with both personal and commercial development.

• Physical & Virtual Hubs: A network of co-working spaces and online communities keeps founders connected—whether they’re in Johannesburg, Cape Town or East London—providing spaces for founders to work and connect and with democratised access to technology such as virtual whiteboards and VC facilities

 • Tailored Capital Access: Rather than funnel every founder into one funding model, WomHub matches founders with education and support in understanding capital needs that work with the growth ambitions of the business and provide access to a financier network with  the right mix of grants, equity, revenue-share or alternative finance, removing the mismatch between global VC flows and local needs.

• Market Linkages & Policy Advocacy: They broker partnerships with private sector and government, opening procurement pipelines and lobbying for startup-friendly regulations that benefit all women-led ventures.

“To create real transformation,” Harjeven adds, “we look at the end-to-end value chain around how we support girls and women to innovate in industries and societies.”

Building Resilience in Unpredictable Times

In today’s unpredictable economic landscape, female founders must develop both external readiness and internal resilience to weather constant change.

1. Visibility, Access and Readiness for Alternative Financing

“The new challenge is ensuring visibility, access and readiness for alternative financing,” explains Harjeven. “Founders need to understand and define exactly what form of capital they’re seeking—be it grant funding, VC equity or revenue-share models—and then target the right funders deliberately.”

By unpacking their precise funding needs, women-led ventures can stand out in a crowded funding environment and secure the capital support for their growth ambitions.

2. Agile, Scenario-Based Planning

“Previously, resilience meant moving from Point A to Point B. Now, Point B could be B1, B2 or B3,” says Harjeven.

Founders must embrace an agile strategy—remaining passionate about their vision but flexible in how they reach it. This means running multiple financial-runway scenarios, setting clear cash-flow buffers and knowing at a glance how far current resources will carry the business.

3. Variable Talent Models

“Founders should consider fractional specialists or gig-based collaborations to manage costs without sacrificing expertise,” Harjeven advises.

In lean times, on-demand talent—such as part-time marketers, contract developers or fractional CFOs—lets startups access high-level skills without the full-time payroll burden.

4. Psychological and Operational Resilience

“Resilience isn’t just about processes; it’s about mindset,” Harjeven notes.

Founders must build mental grit to adapt when outcomes shift unexpectedly. Operationally, this means continually refining workflows for efficiency, maintaining transparency in financial reporting, and cultivating a team structure that can pivot rapidly as circumstances change.

By combining these external and internal resilience practices, women-led STEM startups can navigate uncertainty with confidence—and turn unpredictable markets into opportunities for growth.

Upcoming Programmes: From Women in Tech to Regional Incubators

Over the next year, WomHub will roll out a series of targeted initiatives to support women-led STEM businesses at every stage of growth. Amongst its current running programmes are the SASOL Women in Engineering and Women in Mining programmes which kicked off earlier this year.

Furthermore, the organisation will be starting a new Women in Tech programme with partner Standard Chartered, an incubator in the Eastern Cape which will run for three years and the third cohort of its ‘STEM is Everywhere’ programme in partnership with VISA Foundation for women with early stage STEM businesses.

“There are various opportunities coming up for women running businesses who are looking for development support relating to technically developing business skills, themselves as a person and business readiness for growth and financing,” concludes Harjeven.