KPMG Opens Continent-Wide Search for Africa's Top Female Founders — Here Is What You Need to Know

KPMG Advisory Services Limited is accepting applications for the 2026 Female Founders in Africa Competition, a continent-wide programme targeting women-led businesses across technology, health, agriculture, financial services and other high-growth sectors. The competition is registered in Kenya and open to female entrepreneurs operating in any African country.

The initiative arrives against a funding landscape that is moving in the wrong direction for women. Only 16.9% of funded African tech startups in 2025 had a woman on their founding team. That figure was 18.5% in 2024 and 26.3% in 2023. The decline is happening while total African tech funding rose 46.2% to 1.64 billion dollars last year. Capital is increasing. The share reaching women is shrinking. Startups founded solely by women accounted for less than 1% of total funding on the continent in 2025.

The numbers at a continental level tell the same story. Male-led startups captured approximately 75% of all venture capital raised in Africa in 2025. Women-led startups raised only 48 million dollars in total in 2024, representing a 2% share of overall VC. Africa simultaneously holds the distinction of having the highest rate of women entrepreneurship of any region globally, making the gap between activity and funding one of the most severe market failures in the continental economy.

There is a counter-signal worth noting. Total funding for startups with at least one woman founder nearly doubled year-on-year in 2025 to 275 million dollars. Targeted support programmes and gender-lens investors are beginning to move capital. But systemic parity remains distant and the direction of the headline ratios is still downward.

Who qualifies.

The competition targets women operating tech-enabled, tech-driven or tech-led businesses that have been active for at least one year. The business must be registered in an African country and must not be majority-owned by a large corporate entity. KPMG employees, their families, contractors and audit clients are not eligible. There is no application fee. All pitches must be conducted in English.

How it works.

Applications are assessed across four equally weighted criteria. Inclusivity. Innovation and disruption. Market potential. Financial performance. Entrants progress through a regional pitching process before a panel of investors. Finalists compete at a continental final across three categories corresponding to venture stage: early, growth and mature.

What the winners receive.

The competition does not guarantee funding. What it provides is access to KPMG's mentorship programme, introductions to investor deal flow, branding and media visibility, and community engagement within KPMG's private enterprise network. Finalists earn the right to identify their business as the KPMG Private Enterprise Africa Female Founder of the Year in their respective category. That credential carries growing commercial weight as institutional investors increasingly apply diversity metrics to due diligence processes. For founders operating in markets where warm introductions determine capital access, the investor network exposure may be more valuable than any cash prize.

Why this matters beyond the competition.

The funding gap facing African female founders is not a pipeline problem. The pipeline is the largest on earth. It is a capital allocation problem driven by investor networks, pattern-matching bias in VC decision-making, and the geographic concentration of funding in four or five markets that already have established male-dominated founder ecosystems. Programmes like the KPMG competition do not solve the structural problem. They create access points within it. For founders who qualify, the access point is open and the cost of entry is zero.

Applications are open now at the KPMG Female Founders in Africa portal.