Empowering women entrepreneur through a mentoring competition

At AXA, we are all about building the future with women’s vision and creating vitality, both locally and globally; and thus we take pride in standing as a trusted partner to unlock the decision-maker power of women entrepreneurs.

With “Global Invest Her” (GIH), we have launched a global mentoring competition, where five women entrepreneurs will benefit from six months mentoring with a senior AXA leader and get customized advice from AXA.

Introducing the program

To apply, you should meet the following requirements:

• Be the founder/Co-founder of a start-up or small business at least 6 months old
• Be enthusiastic and energetic Be entrepreneur, innovator or risk-taker
• Work in one of these sectors: FinTech, InsurTech, HealthTech, MedTech, IoT, FemTech
• Have an innovative business enterprise concept answering a global challenge

Here are the key benefits of mentoring:

Create an entrepreneurial advantage – You will be paired with one of AXA’s mentors, all experts in their field. By sharing their experience and knowledge, they will guide you through the learning curve on how to best run your business. It has been shown that mentor-mentee relationships are very beneficial to both parties, and that founders who had been mentored were three times as likely to become top performers.

Help you on your funding journey – Entrepreneurs spend the majority of their time and efforts trying to raise funds for their business, women entrepreneurs allocate even more resources to this as for them it is even harder. In the US for example, women-owned businesses receive just 7 percent of venture capital investment money, which is highly disproportionate to their role in the economy. In addition, loan approval rates for female entrepreneurs are 15 to 20 percent less than those for men. Your AXA mentor will help you through these loopholes by providing you with valuable insights and tips on how to secure funding. You will also have the opportunity to explore further partnerships with AXA, which could open up new opportunities.

Introducing our mentors

Dawn Miller is CEO for AXA Insurance Company (US), the AXA Group’s Property & Casualty Commercial Insurance subsidiary based in NY, after having joined AXA as Global Head of Business Development of AXA P&C.

Sandrine Coulange is in charge of Health Strategic Programs at AXA.