Introduction and Context
Why migrant women entrepreneurs in Belgium face a compounded funding gap, and why #SheDIDIT was built to close it.
1.1 The Funding Gap for Migrant Women Entrepreneurs
Women entrepreneurs face a persistent and well documented funding gap. In Europe, women led firms receive substantially lower levels of bank financing, face higher collateral requirements, and are more frequently rejected for loans than comparable male led businesses, even after controlling for firm characteristics such as size, sector, and creditworthiness. The European Central Bank’s Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises consistently shows that female led firms report greater unmet financing needs and more frequent use of informal funding sources. Globally, the picture is equally stark: a small fraction of venture capital investment reaches female founded businesses, and this proportion has remained largely unchanged for over a decade.
Migrant women entrepreneurs face compounded barriers. The gender gap intersects with language barriers, lower institutional familiarity, limited professional networks, the non-recognition of foreign credentials, and caregiving responsibilities that constrain working hours and constrain the ability to attend events, meet contacts, and build the informal relationships that sustain early-stage businesses. A migrant woman entrepreneur navigating the Belgian financial system faces not one set of exclusions but several, operating simultaneously and reinforcing each other.
Belgium presents a particularly relevant and instructive context for this study. Approximately one in three Belgians has a migration background, a proportion that is rising and that is not yet reflected in the country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, its financial institutions, or its policy infrastructure. Brussels, where #SheDIDIT is based, is one of the most diverse cities in Europe, with over 180 nationalities represented. Yet the entrepreneurial support ecosystem serving this population remains underdeveloped, and the microfinance landscape, though relatively advanced by European standards, has not consistently reached the most excluded segments of aspiring entrepreneurs.
The underrepresentation of migrant women in formal business ownership is not a reflection of lower ambition or capacity. It reflects structural exclusions that standard financial products and conventional business support services have failed to address. #SheDIDIT was founded to address precisely this gap, not by offering a modified version of existing services, but by building something qualitatively different: a support ecosystem rooted in the belief that potential is distributed equally, even when opportunity is not.
1.2 Purpose and Scope of This Report
This study was commissioned by #SheDIDIT and supported by the European Microfinance Network to generate qualitative evidence of #SheFUND’s impact, not only on funded entrepreneurs, but on all women who participated in the application process. The study proceeds from the hypothesis that the structured journey of applying, preparing, and pitching for funding generates empowerment effects regardless of the financial outcome. If this hypothesis holds, it has significant implications for how the program is designed, evaluated, and communicated to funders, partners, and policymakers.
The central research questions of this study are:
How does participating in #SheFUND’s loan selection and coaching process shape migrant women entrepreneurs’ skills, confidence, and perceived legitimacy?
How do these experiences differ between those who receive funding and those who do not?
These questions are addressed through a qualitative study with a selected sample of participants spanning all stages and outcomes of the #SheFUND program.
The study has four specific objectives:
- To assess the impact of #SheFUND’s full loan selection process and types of coaching across the participant population;
- To compare the experiences of funded and not funded entrepreneurs and identify learning and empowerment mechanisms across both groups;
- To assess how #SheDIDIT’s ecosystem influences entrepreneurial identity, perceived legitimacy, and business development practices;
- To generate actionable insights for #SheDIDIT and reflective observations for the EMN and the broader field.
1.3 About #SheDIDIT
#SheDIDIT was founded by a Belgian entrepreneur, who experienced firsthand both the barriers faced by women with a migration background in Belgium’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and the transformative potential of targeted and culturally sensitive support.
The organisation’s founding philosophy is articulated clearly in a conversation with the CEO & Founder:
“There are people of whom talent goes to waste because they don’t know where to start or where to go. We want to change the image of the entrepreneur and make it as normal as possible that everybody can be an entrepreneur, that everybody can recognize themselves in the image.”
“We choose to see diversity as a strength. Our approach is really different because we say, okay, it should be normal that you, wearing a headscarf, are also attending this New Year’s reception of the Chamber of Commerce out of your talent and passion. It’s only our role to unlock it, but you can do it yourself.”
This framing, beginning with potential rather than disadvantage, is not merely rhetorical. It shapes every decision the organisation has made, from the composition of the #SheFUND jury (women focused and entrepreneurially literate, by deliberate design) to the structure of the #SheMeansBusiness coaching program (practical, iterative, and built around the participant’s existing knowledge and ambition). It also shapes the relational tone of the organisation’s interactions with participants, which the evidence in this study identifies as a core differentiator.
#SheDIDIT operates a portfolio of four programs. #SheMeansBusiness is a 7 session coaching program for pre starters and early-stage entrepreneurs, covering business planning, financial modelling, pricing strategy, market analysis, and pitch preparation. #SheHub is a physical coworking space for registered businesses, providing workspace, community, and access to a professional network. #YouthPreneurs is a summer school and coaching program for aspiring entrepreneurs aged 15 to 28, offering an exploratory, identity oriented entry point to entrepreneurship. #SheFUND is the alternative lending product that is the central focus of this study.
