In 2020, USAID and Mastercard built a partnership to support women-led entrepreneurship. With the joint objective of contributing to the economic empowerment of more women in Latin America and building on the reputation and experience of the global Start Path program, we identified opportunities to build stronger entrepreneurship ecosystems in developing countries.

Thus, Start Path Empodera, an acceleration program for high-growth potential ventures led by women in fintech, digital financial inclusion, and technologies for trade expansion, was launched in 2021. The program was tailored to the specific needs of the 40 ventures accelerated through four Start Path Empodera cohorts between 2021 and 2022.

Start Path Empodera was conceived as a platform for growth, heightening the visibility of ventures taking part in the program and providing them with knowledge, specialized mentoring, access to capital flows, and connections with new opportunities to scale.