Partner

WEKH is a national, bilingual network with 10 hubs across the country and more than 200 partners that has underpinned the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy by leveraging research to understand the structural differences of women entrepreneurs, the barriers and enablers to their success and to evaluate what works for whom.

WEKH has worked with the Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship Network to identify gaps and opportunities to build a more inclusive ecosystem. This includes examining policies, infrastructure, stereotypes and culture at the societal level, examining processes and outcomes of organizations in the ecosystem from financial institutions, to business intermediaries, to post secondary institutions and incubators/accelerators in order to better understand enablers and barriers to success. Finally it focuses on the skills and capacity needed to support entrepreneurs at each stage of their journey and across sectors, taking into account the unique needs of women, Indigenous peoples, racialized and Black people, immigrants, persons with disabilities and the 2SLGBTQ+ community. The Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship Network is a research driven project with more than 100 researchers and partners focused on understanding the ways in which the ecosystem enables and impedes the success of women, Indigenous, racialized and Black and immigrant entrepreneurs as well as those with disabilities and are members of the 2SLGBTQ+ Community. WEKH and IIENet also collaborate on a wide range of inclusive entrepreneurship capacity building and support programs including WE-Hub focused on women, NEHub focused on immigrant entrepreneurs, Rise up focused on Black Entrepreneurs, Capital Skills focused on indigenous Entrepreneurs, Mindframe Connect, focused on tech entrepreneurs and more.