Divasity.com

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, GEM estimated that over 231 million women started businesses in 2019, a 30% increase from 2016. However, only 6.2% of women entrepreneurs globally, owned established businesses. Women are passionate about starting businesses but not well equipped to compete favourably. Divasity is developing the largest ecosystem supporting inclusive business models that empower female entrepreneurs. We address the problem of gender inequality by facilitating inclusion and diversity. We provide business support, access to technology and ready markets for entrepreneurs through software, web application and artificial intelligence solutions. We cater for three core areas for business success: Web, E-commerce and Business Development. When scaled globally, we will level up the participation of marginalized groups especially females in entrepreneurship, empower the increasing number of women who start businesses annually, ensure the realization of the untapped trillions of dollars lost annually and catalyze global prosperity. 

Over 231 million women started new businesses in 2019. Sub-Saharan Africa boasts the highest rate at 21.8%. Sadly, less than 6.2% of these women become established over a period of 42 months.    

Globalization is not only improving access to good jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities but also increasing competition. This makes it difficult for marginalized groups and regions to thrive in the midst of established individuals, businesses and regions. 

Our study of the African continent shows significant numbers of female traders in comparison to their male counterparts. However, there is a great disparity in investment funding for female startup entrepreneurs. Globally, men account for 92% of partners in the top 100 venture capital firms, and female-founded start-ups receive only about 2.8% of total investments by venture capitalists. Additionally, businesses located within Africa experience challenges in competing globally not only as a result of inability to access capital but also inability to access training, support, technology and markets. 

The neglect of passionate, female entrepreneurs, lack of inclusive and technology based business models is limiting the contribution of female entrepreneurs, the creation of jobs and the even distribution of wealth.

Divasity.com exists for Facilitating Entrepreneurship, Markets And Lasting Economic Solutions. A vision we achieve by focusing on the top three major needs of businesses: Web Development (technology), E-commerce (markets) and Business Development (support). We are developing a one-stop digital business solution which syncs the entire business activities of an organization ensuring that they automate their entire development processes; providing ease of access to mentors, investors, technology, services and customers facilitated by artificial intelligence. We are able to empower entrepreneurs and grow their businesses in the four simple steps below:

STARTUP: Entrepreneurs at the idea stage access our platform through their mobile devices from anywhere in the world. We presently target female entrepreneurs and operate both physical and virtual training programmes to ensure grass root reach.

ACCESS SUPPORT: Startups access support through our ecosystem, already established mentors and businesses on our network. They enjoy free and subsidized services covering all business needs and cloud based solutions.

LAUNCH: Startups are exposed to investors through our "investopreneur"   platform aimed at connecting investors with entrepreneurs. Startups also launch products developed on our platform directly to our e-commerce.

SCALEUP: Entrepreneurs are exposed to cloud based services and support programmes for growth stage businesses.

Divasity.com is working directly to improve the lives of female startup entrepreneurs. While we address the need of the entire entrepreneurship ecosystem, we reward them for developing inclusive business models beginning with Africa. 

GEM reports that entrepreneurial action is influenced by individual perception of opportunities, startup skills, fear of failure, and whether one knows an entrepreneur. The report which covered 59 economies showed lower performance of women in comparison to men when considering those factors. The report also attributed business discontinuance among women to a set of reasons including lack of profit, lack of finance, other job/business opportunity, retirement, sale or acquisition, personal/family reasons, government tax/regulations, and so on.

Our team not only depends on global reports to understand the need of our customers but use every occasion at our training programmes to get feedback through surveys and design thinking methodology so as to effectively solve their problems. Our solution is presently being deployed to 10 clients within Nigeria and we intend to extend to 100 more users before October 2020.  

Our solution will address their need through global access to our platform, training, support, mentors, investment, network, market opportunities, technology, free and subsidized cloud services.

Divasity.com's vision is Facilitating Entrepreneurship, Markets And Lasting Economic Solutions. As a mission we focus on facilitating inclusion and diversity, targeted at female startup entrepreneurs. We understand the challenges of operating businesses in developing economies and the impact empowering marginalized groups can have on the creation of good jobs and global wealth. Additionally, through our division Heryaher.com, Divasity is prepared to connect more women to job opportunities created by our users and to prepare the globe for the future of learning, work and trade. We are working to build the largest entrepreneurship ecosystem that supports inclusive business models.

Our direct competition are Amazon Inc, Alibaba Group (both operate e-commerce and web development on separate platforms) and recently, Think IDA (focuses on business support and web development for women on the same platform). Others are Jumia, Konga and other E-commerce websites operating locally and globally. Our solution is unique and disruptive on the following note:

We are a One-Stop-Business Solution: Unlike our competitors, our clients will get all the needed tools for their businesses from one user friendly platform. We provide business support and integrate their business data with e-commerce and web development services facilitated by artificial intelligence. Additionally we will operate a cloud based support for other technology based services required for their business growth.    

We are Pro-Female: We encourage the participation or inclusion of women in all all businesses and open organizations to more benefits when they do so. We will use this approach to leverage partnership with organizations, networks and individuals interested in the course of empowering the female gender.

We are an Ecosystem: Our goal is to be the largest ecosystem supporting entrepreneurship. As an ecosystem we will connect entrepreneurs to other entrepreneurs, mentors, investors, technology, services and markets needed to achieve sustainable growth. 

We presently operate using the Software, Mobile/Web Application Technology and plan to develop into Cloud Technology. However, the core technology that powers our solution is Artificial Intelligence owning to our scope of managing data across web, e-commerce and business development. It is described below:

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial intelligence is finding its greatest use in data analysis, processing and application. Our objective as an organization in deploying AI is to provide for the best process of collecting business data and deploying it in their best use and that of our overall users

Divasity.com will thrive upon  AI as its core technology. We intend to build an organization run with the power of data. This is why we are interested in building businesses from the idea stage, integrating web development, and e-commerce ensuring that our clients can develop their businesses with ease through an artificial intelligence system. This will impact businesses in the following ways:

1. Entrepreneurs will be able to identify with the most creative solutions for their businesses.

2. Entrepreneurs will be able to process business data for all their development purposes with ease. 

3. Entrepreneurs will be able to match up with mentors, investors, markets and make important purchase and sales decisions aided by artificial intelligence.

4. Entrepreneurs will be able to operate their businesses and grow their team through Artificial Intelligence automated systems.

5. Entrepreneurs will also be able to access processed data from the operations of Artificial Intelligence.

Finally, we envision a future of fully automated e-commerce delivery through AI powered drones.

Artificial Intelligence has been used vastly in the e-commerce industry far back as when Amazon.com started to match customers with products of interest. It is the level of accuracy in its prediction that improved sales of products on their platform. Today, the level of automation through Artificial intelligence in the industry is phenomenal. AI also find its application as:

1. Virtual Agents: Virtual agents have become personal assistants, providing customer care through chat bots. Almost every technology company has one developed as device feature examples like Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana and so on.

2. Natural Language Generation: AI is also deployed in generating reports and summarizing business intelligence insights.

3. Biometrics: AI is able to identify unique human behavioural patterns or physical features that enable human recognition for identity access management and access control.

4. Automation: AI enables automation in all industries through scripts that replicate human activity like repetitive tasks. This finds use in process automation and driver-less cars.

5. Robotics: Aside the virtual operations of AI, they are also deployed in robots with potential of engaging human relationships, activities, accessing and processing information intelligently.

AI is also used in the health industry, in engaging activities that require precision. AI is deployed in education as a tool for assessing students, it is deployed in Agriculture for determining the measure of exposure of agricultural produce to nutrients. It is deployed in augmentation technology and so on. 

Our theory of change is based on the following premise:

1. Female entrepreneurs are enthusiastic about starting up businesses. This is evident in the 30% increase from 163 million women in 2016 to 231 million in 2019. Figures from our training event also reveal this fact.  

2. Startup, Female and all Entrepreneurs do better within an ecosystem that supports them. This is evident from reports of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

3. Globalization can only produce global prosperity by empowering marginalized groups and communities through enabling technology

DIVASITY THEORY OF CHANGE

ACTIVITIES

• Access Support: Entrepreneurs access our platform from anywhere in the world, receive training, use development tools to develop their business ideas, work with support from artificial intelligence/personal assistance and mentor. 

•  Launch: Entrepreneurs access investors and investment opportunities, make relevant business development activities visible to the public, they access markets, networks and other entrepreneurs who require their product and services.

• Scaleup: Opportunities to engage further developmental process are made available to entrepreneurs to scaleup their businesses in three additional stages of support aimed at ensuring their businesses remain lasting economic solutions

OUTPUTS

• Completion of Company Documentations: Completion of business documentations like Vision, Missions, Goals, OKR's, Core values, Logo, Business Model, Personal/Business Bio, Market Research, Pitch deck, Business Model, Market Research, Business Plan etc.

• Completion of Website/Technology/Products: Provision of subdomain/page on Divasity.com, Development of company Website and Configuration of Corporate email addresses and other technology based products. Completion of company products and services.

• Market Visibility: Company products and services made available on Divasity.com.

SHORT TERM OUTCOMES

• Entrepreneur gains confidence

• Entrepreneur develops inclusive business model and a sustainable business

• Entrepreneur is eased of the demand and details of developing a business

• Money is saved as a result of accessing global tools at reduced costs and tailored professional support

• Sales are generated from visibility of business

LONG TERM OUTCOMES

• Entrepreneurs become established and mentors on the Divasity platform

• Entrepreneur raises grants and investment funding with ease

• Entrepreneur develops entrepreneurial and technology skills

• Businesses achieve phenomenal growth and sales

• Businesses develop more cloud solutions through Divasity for the purpose of facilitating entrepreneurship, markets and lasting economic solutions

Our numbers are based on the impact we want to have on entrepreneurs, businesses and the world at large. The figures are all interrelated as the number of entrepreneurs will greatly determine how many businesses are registered on our platform, and likewise the number of people who will find Divasity.com a resourceful e-commerce to visit. They are as follows:  

CURRENT USERS WE ARE SERVING

• 20 Entrepreneurs (11 females)

• 10 Businesses

• 6 Mentors (4 females)

• 2000+ Total Reach

PROJECTED USERS IN 1 YEAR

• 200,000 Entrepreneurs (120,000 females)

• 100,000 Businesses

• 5,000 Mentors (3000 females)

• 1,000,000+ Total Reach

PROJECTED USERS IN 5 YEARS

• 3,000,000 Entrepreneurs (1,800,000 females)

• 1,000,000 Businesses

• 200,000 Mentors (120,000 females)

• 20,000,000+ Total Reach

VISION: Facilitating Entrepreneurship, Markets and Lasting Economic Solutions.

ONE YEAR GOAL

• Complete development of a fully functional web/mobile application to handle the capacity of at least 1 million users.

• Raise 250,000 USD in grant funding.

• Grow staff strength from 5 to 50 talents. 

• Partner with 10 major organizations that empower entrepreneurs to leverage on their network.

• Engage 5,000+ mentors through entrepreneurship networks. 

• Engage 200,000+ startup entrepreneurs through networks, educational institutions and government bodies.

• Register at least 100,000 businesses and empower them to deliver quality products and services through platform.

• Reach out to 1,000,000+ internet users through search engine and social media advertisement as E-commerce customers.

FIVE YEARS GOAL

• Scaleup web/mobile application to handle an unlimited capacity of users.

• Raise 1,000,000+ USD in grants or equity investments.

• Grow staff strength from 50 to 3000 talents globally.

• Establish operations in at least 3 continents. 

• Introduce scaleup programmes for established businesses. 

• Grow mentor network to 200,000+ mentors. 

• Grow startup entrepreneurs to 3,000,000+ users through networks, educational institutions and government bodies.

• Grow registered businesses from 100,000 to 1,000,000.

• Grow e-commerce users to 20,000,000+ internet users through service delivery to already existing customers.

1. INSUFFICIENT FUNDING: Lack of required funding to complete development of a fully functional web/mobile application and to employ the number of staff members we require which may also result in an over laboured team.

2. INSUFFICIENT SKILLED STAFF: We lack sufficient skilled web development staff with expertise to achieve desired management of web/mobile application.

3. COMPETITION: Competing for market share with already established competition may serve a barrier in achieving desired target.

4. CLIENT ACCESS TO INTERNET: Internet access and availability of enabling infrastructure in developing nations like Nigeria may pose a threat to effective usage of our platform by some users in such regions.

5. LACK OF TRUST: Public skepticism and lack of trust in engaging electronic transactions which is very common in developing nations like Nigeria. Companies within Nigeria have had to adopt traditional mediums of transactions for the fear of losing customers. 

6. INTERNATIONAL RESTRICTIONS: Existing international restrictions with respect to business engagement on some nations is a possible threat to conducting smooth business operations.

7. OPERATIONAL COSTS: Operational costs resulting from the use of alternative power supply may increase our running costs within our headquarters.

INSUFFICIENT FUNDING: 

• Our team actively engages in applying for grants and other equity investment opportunities.

• We are developing partnerships that cover for other costs and also increases patronage.

• We are currently bootstrapping through our pilot programme.

• We are working with the available resources and engage volunteers to complement for required staff.    

• We improvise on our web/mobile application by deploying content management sites and low cost applications.

INSUFFICIENT SKILLED STAFF: 

• We have been embarking on training members of our team.

• We have been working at new partnerships but however believe efforts towards raising funding will produce desired result ensuring employment of paid skilled staff.

COMPETITION: 

• Legal protection of our business and products through corporate registration, patents, trademarks, copyrights etc. 

• Active work in raising funding required to scale up.

• Focus on partnership with organizational networks.

CLIENT ACCESS TO INTERNET: 

• We are working to develop an offline application,

• Establishment of centres/hubs that enable clients get access and support from our team. This will be done in partnership with tertiary institutions and as an entity.

LACK OF TRUST: 

• Adopt alternative mediums of transactions for the immediate.

• Develop a security system that provides guarantee for users. 

INTERNATIONAL RESTRICTIONS: 

• Grow international recognition through partnerships with government and other institutions that removes restriction for our business and users.

OPERATIONAL COSTS: 

• Operate a sustainable model of business through investment in solar power and other improved sources of electric power.

• Operate using the lean manufacturing model by saving unnecessary costs.

• 3 Full-time Staff
• 1 Part-time Staff
• 1 Contractor

Divasity consists of a team with diverse background in Education, Law, Programming and Entrepreneurial Experience. The team has in common,  passion and experience to support female entrepreneurs, work with mentors across various fields and is led by a Chief Strategist with 20 years of entrepreneurship experience, working with individuals and organizations to develop sustainable businesses.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, Queen Oduah has a background degree in English Language from the University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria. She is president and director of research, "Sustainable Africa Youth" and undergoing a course specialization "Human Resources Management: HR for People Managers" with the University of Minnesota USA. 

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE, Precious Nwankwo holds a LLB  Law Degree from the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK and a BL from the Nigerian Law School. She has years of experience as a Business Development Manager, reeling in multi-million Naira deals. She has also worked as a fundraiser for various charities in Bristol, UK developing incredible team spirit and passion to help people. She holds a certificate in personal development from the  Learning4Living Training Academy.

CREATIVE DIRECTOR, Wisdom Chibeze is a college graduate and attends National Institute of Information Technology, popularly known as NIIT. He is a Software Engineer with multiple IT skills under his belt. 

CHIEF STRATEGIST, Adeola Adebayo is management team lead and has training with various organizations including Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Lagos Nigeria and early years of experience as entrepreneur and leadership mentor.

Partnerships have not yet been formalized

KEY RESOURCES

• Divasity.com; Service Providers (Mentors, Personal Assistants, Professionals), Investment Opportunities.
• Presently also deploying Trello.com, Wordpress.com, Canvanizer.com, Canva.com and Amazon Web Services in the course of the pilot. 

 KEY ACTIVITIES

• Business Development (Business Support, Documentation and Development, Funding)
• Web Development
• E-commerce

KEY PARTNERS

• Entrepreneurship Networks
• Educational Institutions
• Government

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

• Female Entrepreneurs (Globally)
• African Entrepreneurs/Developing Nations
• Internet users (E-commerce) 

UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION

• Pro-female Solution
• One-Stop Digital Business Solution
• Artificial Intelligence system

CHANNELS

• Divasity.com
• Educational Institutions
• Entrepreneurship Networks
• Government 

COST STRUCTURE

• Salaries
• Cloud Infrastructure
• Advertising and Marketing

REVENUE 

• Subscription
• Commission per E-commerce Sales
• Advertisement

Bootstrapping

Employing subscription, through our pilot of 10 we raised 1513 USD which is part payment of users. We plan to raise 27,777 USD from our pilot of 100. 1,000,000 USD from our first 100,000 users and 10,000,000 USD from our first 1 million users. By our 5th year we hope to start generating tangible commissions from consistent E-commerce sales.

Advertisement

Secure advertisement from users and other external organizations seeking to promote their products and services to our users and market reach.

Grants

We are working at securing within 250,000 USD  to 1,000,000 USD in grant funding through grant funding organizations and ecosystem support.

Equity Investment

We are open to equity investment opportunities beginning with a 1,000,000 USD offer and look forward to opening up for an Initial Public Offer by 2025.

1. We look forward to securing funding through Solve's prize awards and network of funders.

2. We look forward to leveraging on Solve's network of social entrepreneurs to empower the entrepreneurs through our platform.

3. We want to enjoy mentoring from Solve's network of mentors.

4. We look forward to international exposure through the Solve platform

5. We look forward to representing the interest of the African region for the purpose of stimulating trust.

6. We want to grow our idea from feedback received from Solve's community.

7. We want to grow the skills of members of our team through Solve's educational offerings and exposure

8. We look forward to the development of strategic partnerships at Solve's flagship event.

9. We look forward to identifying with talents for the purpose of recruitment especially in technology development.

10. We want to leverage on the support provided by Solve to scale up our organization.  

Solution Technology

Develop strategic partnerships with technology experts especially in software, web, cloud and Artificial Intelligence development. 

Product/Service Distribution

Leverage on the Solve network and the networks of other organizations to achieve the partnerships that ensures the use of our products and services.

Funding and Revenue Model

Raise targeted 250,000 USD within one year through Solve's prize award, and other partner awards. 

Talent Recruitment

Identify with other Solver teams, partners and mentors who will be able to add value to our business.

Board Members or Advisors

Engage potential board members and advisors who we can leverage on their networks to establish international presence.

Marketing, Media and  Exposure

Gain exposure through Solve platform, events and partner organizations.

OTHERS: Networking 

Secure strategic partnerships especially with network organizations like Solve that focus on entrepreneurs to leverage on their already existing networks.       

The World Bank Group

Our partnership with the  World Bank Group will enable us make more funding opportunities available to female entrepreneurs on our ecosystem. The World Bank Group will also open us up to a larger network of funding organizations to include on our "investopreneur" network.

Vodafone Americas Foundation

We want to leverage on Vodafone Americas Foundation network of social entrepreneurs that empower females. We would also love to be part of their accelerator programmes and impact upon their community.

Microsoft

Through partnership with Microsoft, we will be able to build partnership for the development of our technology especially in cloud and Artificial Intelligence. We also look forward to the possibilities of securing equity investment and board membership in our organization.  

The London School of Economics and Political Science

We would like to partner with them for the development of our team members in the fields of Economics, Political Science and Business Development so as to be more experienced in influencing the economic and political space to support female entrepreneurs. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Partnership with MIT will enable us develop a successful research and development program in collaboration for the advancement of Artificial Intelligence for use in the fields of business development and drone delivery systems. 

Solve Network

We look forward to becoming a part of the Solve member community as partners to support Solver Teams with funding, resources and training as a way of advancing the review and use of our solution.

As a startup that empowers female entrepreneurs to access opportunities and to create opportunities in entrepreneurship and job creation, we are well suited for the Vodafone Americas Foundation award. Our entrepreneurship ecosystem supporting female entrepreneurs, inclusive business models and the creation of opportunities for female entrepreneurs qualifies us  to receive the award. Through our pilot of 10, we have also proven that the model works ensuring that female entrepreneurs are provided the ecosystem that enables them to thrive.

We also look forward to the Vodafone Innovation for Women Prize to achieve our set target of 250,000 USD. Additionally, part of the funds will serve as grants to other businesses that empower female entrepreneurs on the Divasity platform. 

As a means of promoting the use of our platform, we hope to publicize an opportunity for women empowering businesses and inclusive business models to secure grants of up to 10,000 USD in partnership with the Vodafone Americas Foundation. We believe this will help to increase access to our platform to a great extent. This would also be an avenue to sensitize the public on the need to contribute to the development of female entrepreneurs.

The Vodafone Americas Foundation will also find the grant giving programme a strategic platform for exposure to female entrepreneurs in the African region who are contributing immensely to the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

We are qualified for the General Motors Prize on Good Jobs and Inclusive  Entrepreneurship because though Divasity was a vision of a male entrepreneur, we have carefully developed an inclusive team. Additionally we constantly ensure that our values are not only reflected in our organization but also in the organizations who use our platform through ensuring that we support inclusive business models. 

Through our division, Heryaher.com we are also ensuring that organizations who pass through our system and other clients are creating jobs, education, trade of the future and inclusive opportunities. As a goal, Heryaher is also focused on future readiness ensuring that both employers and employees are ready for the future.

The GM prize on Good Jobs and Inclusive Entrepreneurship will enable us advance our solution through ensuring that we achieve our goal of raising 250,000 USD to aid our first 3 years of operations. The grant will serve as a kick starter for our launch. It will enable us reach more users. It will also help to create awareness for the contribution of General Motors to the entrepreneurship ecosystem and catalyze other organizations to do same.

As an organization, Divasity focuses on a completely digital process enabled at simplifying technology for the commoner. This approach is also intended to ensure that anyone can use technology tools with ease. As an organization, we have learned to use the digital technology to advance our course and are actively involved in ensuring that other individuals and organizations find our platform an opportunity to also advance their course through digital technology. We believe the use of digital technology will improve access and learning globally.

We will use the award to advance our solution by engaging experts and for research aimed at improving and simplifying technology. The award will help us equally achieve our goals of empowering marginalized groups and ensuring global prosperity. Through the award we will be able to ensure more users have access to our platform.

Additionally it is important to note that the easiest way of learning is through knowledge application. Our platform, in the process of empowering entrepreneurs to develop their businesses will also aid their ability to learn.   

Our team is well qualified for the AI for Humanity Prize because our processes depend entirely on data. We are helping businesses develop from idea and integrating Artificial Intelligence across all our tools with the aim of improving business productivity and access to markets. As an organization, we believe that Artificial Intelligence does not have to take away jobs when humans are allowed to focus on their strengths leaving AI to manage routine and more calculative processes.

The Prize will help us advance our solution by providing the needed resources to build a fully developed Artificial Intelligence platform. We hope to launch a drone delivery system within 5 years of our operation to further ensure our entrepreneurs can focus more on creative tasks.

The prize will further enable our entrepreneurs to create jobs and opportunities focused on empowering human creativity thereby creating alternative jobs complimented by AI.