Enterprise Challenge SEED FUND

The WHT Enterprise Challenge Seed Fund supports make impact through ventures that create change around the world.

This year with the help of our generous Trustees and alumni, WHT has launched the Enterprise Challenge Seed Fund. The Fund supports social impact ventures originated by WHT alumni during their time in Oxford. The Trust is very pleased to see these ideas finding their feet in the real world and hopes to support them further.

We are happy to share the enterprises that have won a grant from the Fund and invite you to follow their progress. Alumni and current scholars are welcome to get in touch if they are interested in getting involved in these projects or want to apply to the Seed Fund to support their own ventures.

Inspirame

Aileen Brown (Mexico), Martina Lejtreger (Uruguay)

We are an innovative fintech platform that advances financial inclusion to close the gender gap in Latin America. Inspira me provides professional tailored financial services to women through guidance, financial education, as part of a community which is a safe space to ask questions and share experiences. Based on data, we deliver real-time advice and feedback when they ask for credit, save, and invest, helping them understand products for which they are eligible to achieve their unique financial goals.

Enotis

Francisco Obando (Ecuador)

Enotis is a web-based tool for “community”-level mass prioritization and decision making. The users are the ‘customers’ of the owner of the Enotis tool. In the case of universities their customers are students, in the case of city councils it is  local residents, in the case of NGOs it is the communities they serve. The tool enables the owner to understand the priorities of their customers and to help them to interact in real time to collectively select the most pressing issues for the largest number of people, equipping the owner to meet the needs of their customers better.  The tool creates cohesion among its users and helps them and the owner to achieve their objectives. If that objective is public health – then the tool helps them to understand the public health issue affecting the largest number of people and provides avenues to address it.

Hace la fuerza

Martina Lejtreger (Uruguay), Andrea Terminel (Mexico), Andrea Gaviria (Colombia), Julia Dias (Brazil), Aileen Brown (Mexico), Francheska Loza (Mexico), Tania Risco (Peru)

“Hace la fuerza” (Makes the strength) is a community of women professionals from  Latin America that provides mentoring opportunities for female undergraduate students in their transition to the workforce and to high school students in their transition to university.

The community will work through a website and video communication platform and will rely on the voluntary participation of outstanding female leaders who will offer their time and experience to new cohorts of women professionals.

Our next steps include creating the project’s website, yielding a strong network of women mentors in key subject areas and launching an operational work plan for 2021.

GuardED

Małgorzata Słowińska (Poland)

GuardED is a mobile app that helps people protect their privacy in a world wherein the majority of business, education, shopping, entertainment, healthcare, and social interactions are conducted in an insecure online environment. A situation  that was aggravated by  the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In the next three months, GuardED will publish animated cybersecurity videos online to educate and strengthen the brand, have a professional website developed and increase its credibility and  the competence of the team. 

Help Beyond

Andrea Terminel (Mexico)

Help Beyond is a platform that connects care and domestic service workers (nannies, cooks, cleaners, and people caring for the elderly) to formal job opportunities. On the supply side, the enterprise would offer workers training and career development, basic health coverage, and it would facilitate continuing education opportunities and access to micro-credit.  The solution could be an end-to-end platform or an Application Programming Interface (API) offering a digital marketplace connecting employers and employees, while providing support with contracts, health benefits, insurance, and task-management.