UN Women and Yep! Moldova award vouchers to 15 local women entrepreneurs

UN Women and Yep! Moldova’s programme "Ellevator. Level up Women Accelerator,” which was launched on 16 September to support women in business, has reached the final stage. Following four months of training and mentoring, 15 Moldovan women entrepreneurs were selected to receive a voucher worth up to 60,000 MDL, which will help them modernize their businesses, purchase new equipment and move to another level of development, including by expanding into foreign markets. The programme was open to women from Moldova and Ukraine who own businesses.

From September to December 2023, 40 women entrepreneurs participated in the programme with the objective of improving their products and services, implementing innovations, upgrading work processes within their businesses, accessing new markets and increasing their customer base. The programme also supported them in developing digital skills and using new technologies to increase business competitiveness.

The programme gave the participants access to bootcamps and mentoring sessions with the country’s best experts in finance, project management, creative entrepreneurship, digital marketing and branding. Another important stage of the programme focused on assessing the participants’ business development needs.

As a result of the business needs assessment and mentoring sessions, out of the 40 registered teams, 15 businesses reached the final stage after successfully going through all stages of the programme and demonstrating scalable results with the potential for expansion. These teams will benefit from vouchers worth up to 60,000 MDL, which can go toward purchasing equipment and/or development services. Among the winning teams, companies from a variety of sectors stood out—from the food industry to the production of recycled plastic furniture, the textile industry, cosmetics, board games and video production.

Congratulations to the winning teams: Biolactis, Top Candles, Recycline, Aufpet, MUNA, Brasoveanka, Sedefkrem, CornLine, CRISTALIN, Guga Gaga, Inimă Pură, Maryco, Laen Studio, Mămica Alăptează and Propharma.

By covering all regions of Moldova, the programme aimed to create equal opportunities for women across the country to access education and funding. The programme was implemented by Generation Nika and Yep! Moldova, with the support of UN Women Moldova and funding from the Government of Sweden.