Start Path Empodera

Mastercard and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have partnered to support women entrepreneurs in Latin America and launch Start Path Empodera.

The program seeks to advance womenʼs economic opportunities and foster a more inclusive digital economy through a program designed to support early-stage, female-founded ventures and inspire a new generation of female entrepreneurs in Latin America.

Start Path Empodera is a platform to support visionary women, with the initiative to innovate and think big, who lead early-stage companies with great growth potential in the financial technology, financial inclusion, and commerce sectors.

Through a pitch competition selection process, women entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to join Start Path Empodera, a business accelerator with customized curriculum providing access to skill-building, mentorship, technical assistance, and network-building support. Start Path Empodera cohorts will receive direct mentorship from Mastercardʼs network of experts to expedite company growth and leadership development, as well as a small monetary award to support program participation.

We are looking for entrepreneurs with the following criteria:

• Female-founded with a Latin American-based team

• Company demonstrates financial viability, technical feasibility, and a scalable business model

• Large target market with potential for high growth in one of the following areas:

• Scaling fintech solutions – Leveraging innovative tech solutions to enhance the access and use of digital financial services
• Driving financial inclusion – Increasing digital financial literacy and access to digital financial services, across any sector or application
• Scaling commerce – Digitizing and optimizing the buying and selling of goods and services, across any sector, retail or online