Global flexible space provider WeWork recently announced the winners of Women For Tomorrow. This brand new initiative provides selected women-led businesses with up to $5 million worth of workspace and mentorship for a year. Businesses must be in the U.S. or Latin America to qualify.
Supporting women-led businesses during COVID-19
The pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on women in the workforce. As a result, WeWork launched the Women For Tomorrow initiative on International Women’s Day. This initiative chiefly helps to support women-led businesses that aim to shape a more equal future.
More than 100 women-led businesses in the United States and Latin America received WeWork All Access memberships. These memberships are available for up to 10 employees for one year. Latin American winners were also eligible to receive dedicated office space for up to 10 employees for one year. WeWork All Access provides members with access to hundreds of WeWork locations around the world. As a result, evolving businesses have flexibility in time, space and geography.
Additionally, the selected women-led companies have access to advice and networking opportunities with SoftBank’s specialists to help their businesses navigate challenges and grow successfully. This mentorship program offers the selected women-led businesses access to key professionals, educational sessions and networking opportunities to help scale their businesses.
The importance of empowerment
WeWork partnered with the Women’s Global Empowerment Fund. This is a nonprofit organization that supports women through economic and social programs. As partners, they identified and selected businesses that actively drive equality. These businesses must also support women’s empowerment in underserved regions of the world.
“We’re thrilled to announce the recipients of our Women For Tomorrow initiative,” said Lauren Fritts, WeWork’s Chief Communications Officer. “Across the globe, women in the workforce were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. We’re proud to provide these women-led businesses with solutions that offer the utmost in flexibility so that they can focus on their shared commitment to shaping a more equal future.”
In their own words
Among the recipient companies is Silvur. Silvur is the first and only super app that helps those ages 50 and older reach their retirement goals. This is a demographic traditionally underserved by the tech community. The company has intentionally built an inclusive platform. It will utilize WeWork All Access to bring its core team in New York City back to work in a flexible space that fosters collaboration.
“We’re thrilled to be selected for the Women For Tomorrow program,” said Rhian Horgan, Silvur’s Founder and CEO. “As we navigate the post-COVID work environment for our team at Silvur, the flexibility that the program offers will allow us to jumpstart our in-person collaboration. This is good news for both us and our Silvur customers who now more than ever need guidance as they navigate the complexities of modern retirement.”
Mango Soft, a cloud software company, is also a recipient. It provides low-code, easy to deploy data management solutions to companies that have big data needs. Often, these companies cannot rely on legacy cloud providers.
“At Mango Soft, we believe women’s contributions in the tech industry are key,” said Marta Visbal, Cofounder. “It provides cohesiveness, increases diligence in problem-solving and improves corporate social responsibility. It is an honor to be part of the Women For Tomorrow Initiative with WeWork and SoftBank, as the initiative empowers talented women to keep contributing to smart technology, innovation and a balanced future workforce.”
Winning women-led businesses:
Because Justice Matters is a non-profit in San Francisco. It builds pathways to brighter futures for women and girls in urban communities. It offers a variety of programs, mentorship and outreach. The Women For Tomorrow initiative will allow the organization to reduce overhead costs during a time of uncertainty. The organization will also expand its team, have a space to return to work and utilize WeWork resources and programming.
Digital Respons-Ability is a provider of digital citizenship education to parents, students and educators. It helps to create ethical, responsible and safe humans online. Currently without a central office, the company will utilize the two nearby Lehi, Utah, WeWork locations. These locations will provide the team – all of whom are parents – with an out-of-home (and child-free) gathering place to collaborate and plan for the future. Digital Respons-Ability is based in Vineyard, Utah.
Musicasa is a Miami-based community platform for musicians. It creates new opportunities for undiscovered musicians by connecting them with music lovers through intimate concerts. These concerts drive smarter exposure and new monetization opportunities. The company especially focuses on creating opportunities for Latinx artists. It will use WeWork All Access to network, immerse in the community and provide its team with a physical office. The physical office will help them grow and work smarter.
Tangible AI helps nonprofits and social businesses deepen their understanding of machine learning technology. It also helps to identify opportunities and challenges that can be addressed using AI. Based in La Jolla, California, the company will utilize All Access to unite and strengthen its currently-remote team. It will additionally launch in-face community education events and workshops, while leveraging SoftBank mentorship opportunities to build a scalable client pipeline.
About WeWork
WeWork was founded in 2010 with the vision to create environments where people and companies come together and do their best work. Since opening our first location in New York City, we’ve grown into a global flexible space provider committed to delivering technology-driven flexible solutions, inspiring spaces and unmatched community experiences. Today, we’re constantly reimagining how the workplace can help everyone, from freelancers to Fortune 500s, be more motivated, productive and connected. For more information about WeWork, please visit us at wework.com.
About Women’s Global Empowerment Fund
Women’s Global Empowerment Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that creates innovative economic, social and political opportunities for women and families in the post-conflict region of northern Uganda and East Africa. Those opportunities include literacy training, a unique microcredit lending model accompanied by business and leadership development training, health based programs, the Healthy Periods Initiative, sexual violence education, social justice programming and more. WGEF helps these communities transform by becoming their own advocates and creating their own solutions to move themselves forward.
About SoftBank
The SoftBank Group invests in breakthrough technology to improve the quality of life for people around the world. The SoftBank Group is comprised of SoftBank Group Corp. (TOKYO: 9984), an investment holding company that includes stakes in telecommunications, internet services, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy technology providers; the SoftBank Vision Funds, which are investing over US$100 billion to help extraordinary entrepreneurs transform industries and shape new ones; the SoftBank Latin America Fund, the largest venture fund in that region, and the SB Opportunity Fund, a US$100 million fund dedicated to investing in enterprises founded by entrepreneurs of color in the U.S.
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