WIC Capital

WIC Capital launched in March 2019 as an initiative of the Women's Investment Club Senegal, which itself began in 2015 when four female executives from firms like Dalberg and Deloitte gathered during an International Women's Day lunch in Dakar and decided to pool resources to back women entrepreneurs in the region. That original group expanded from four friends to more than 80 women contributing personal savings, and what started as informal angel investing grew into a formal fund structure that now manages institutional capital.

The fund invests exclusively in companies that meet at least one of three criteria: the business is founded by a woman, at least 50% of the ownership or management team is female, or the enterprise strengthens women's economic empowerment across its value chain. Fund I was a $20 million vehicle, and Fund II targets $35 million with backing from institutional partners including USAID, FSD Africa's Nyala Facility ($1 million commitment), Mastercard Foundation, FMO, and ADA Microfinance. WIC Capital uses equity and quasi-equity (self-liquidating) structures, which means founders retain more control than they would with a traditional equity-only investor.

What makes WIC Capital distinctive is the depth of its non-financial support. The fund operates a three-pillar model covering investment, tailored operational support (governance, compliance, financial management, HR optimization), and business network access through sector-specific events and introductions. In a region where only 3.5% of women entrepreneurs in Senegal access formal finance, WIC Capital is filling a gap that traditional VCs and banks have ignored entirely.