Mercado Pago offers 5,000 scholarships to women-led entrepreneurship in Latin America
Mercado Pago has teamed up with the Pró-Mulher movement, Aliança Empreendedora, and Barkus to provide free training for female entrepreneurs.
Mercado Pago launches a new call for proposals
Mercado Pago is rolling out its third round of free training for 5,000 women throughout the region. This effort is part of the 'Emprende Pro Mujer' programs in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay, and the 'Agora Vai, Mulher!' initiative in Brazil, carried out in collaboration with Aliança Empreendedora and Barkus. The main focus is to nurture women-led businesses and ventures with financial education, digital skills, and leadership training.
“In Latin America, over 50% of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises are led by women. However, there's still a long way to go to close historical gaps. Mercado Pago and its partners aim to empower women in their roles as entrepreneurs, provide them with tools to enhance their income-generating abilities, and help them envision a sustainable future for their businesses,”
Training and personalized mentoring
Through these programs, female entrepreneurs from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay can participate in digital courses, accessing dynamic content, training, and personalized mentorships to acquire financial, leadership, and digital skills. The aim is to boost their business sales, better manage their finances, and achieve financial autonomy. The program is designed so that entrepreneurs can complete it at their own pace, depending on their availability and timetables.
"To help all women in Latin America reach their full potential, we need to create synergies and work as a team. We are pleased that Mercado Pago will continue to believe in our organization for another year because, with their support, we will be able to expand our impact and reach thousands of women with concrete solutions to improve their businesses and transform their quality of life,"
Women's economic empowerment
"The 'Agora Vai, Mulher!' program stands as a powerful partnership aiming to financially empower women, bringing significant transformations to their lives and businesses. So far, over 700 female entrepreneurs have been trained, and more than 144 have grown their businesses. We continue to work to further expand the impact and reach of our partnership," says Lina Maria Useche Kempf, Co-founder and Institutional Relations at Aliança Empreendedora.
In the last two years, this initiative has trained over 5,400 women entrepreneurs, equipping them with skills and solutions to boost their projects. After completing the program, 87% of the participants felt empowered in their roles as entrepreneurs, 63% reported having incorporated financial skills, and 85% said they added digital sales channels to their businesses. Additionally, 86% mentioned that the program allowed them to implement budget planning, and 75% started saving.
The program has been designed to meet the needs of women in the ideation stage as well as those who already have an established company and want to expand into new markets. The program also aims to promote the continuous development of the entrepreneurs, offering those who have already completed the program a new scholarship to continue their training: 26% of the participants continued on to the next stage of the course. Candidates from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay can register for 'Emprende Pro Mujer' using this link. Entrepreneurs based in Brazil can register for "Agora Vai, Mulher!" using this link.
Find out more about our initiatives to promote female entrepreneurship.
We are acting today
We know the challenge is huge, but we also know that the time to act is right now.
Download Report 2023