Visa supports Canadian women entrepreneurs. We’ve partnered with IFundWomen to provide $10,000 grants and a year of business coaching to women entrepreneurs across Canada. Learn more about our latest grant recipients below.
Kind Karma Company
Laurinda Lee-Retter
Kind Karma is a social enterprise that employs at-risk and homeless youth in Toronto to handcraft fine jewelry. In addition to fair hourly wages, proceeds from sales are returned to youth artisans to support their individual goals such as funding education, housing and courses. Kind Karma aims to break the cycle of poverty by enabling vulnerable members of the future generation reach their full potential so they can continue to pay kindness forward.
Monday Girl
Istiana Bestari
Rachel Wong
Monday Girl works to narrow the Networking Gap and to provide more opportunities and accessibility for young diverse women in Canada. Monday Girl offers an annual digital membership to revolutionize the way young professional women build their careers in Canada through networking opportunities, resume reviews, coaching, a resource library, courses, job board, mentorship, and more.
Remix Snacks
Jamie Lee
Isabelle Lam
Remix Snacks was born from a simple mission created by two dietitians looking to fill a void in the snack industry: to create simple, healthy snacks that are good for well-being and the environment. Their first product, Bean Bark, is a delicious high-fibre, high-iron and protein-rich dark chocolate bark snack, which uses environmentally conscious ingredients while reducing food waste.
Our Ancestories Corporation
Ekiuwa Aire
Our Ancestories is a publishing company that creates children’s books that share positive stories based on African History. Their books provide an opportunity for kids to explore African culture in a way that has never been done before. Ekiuwa's books, passion and knowledge of African history have been presented to classes across schools in the United States, Canada, India and Nigeria.
Brave Soles
Christal Earle
Brave Soles believes in the power of circular fashion to build a better future for all of us. Founded in 2017 by Christal Earle, Brave Soles is focused on crafting classically styled footwear and accessories with upcycled materials and ethical, small scale production chains. THeir handcrafted shoes have up-cycled tire soles and all accessories are crafted from reclaimed leather from aircraft seats and other sources.
Employ to Empower
Christina Wong
Employ to Empower (ETE) is a registered charity that addresses the challenges faced by low-income and homeless entrepreneurs. ETE helps those within the community who are interested or already involved in entrepreneurship to develop the skills, confidence, relationships, and readiness to start or expand their business. ETE offers a business fundamentals training course, personalized mentoring, access to established entrepreneurs, marketing opportunities and micro-loans.
The Plot Market Garden
Emily Harris
The Plot Market Garden is combatting food insecurity on Vancouver Island by providing healthy, fresh produce to locals. Their small-scale farm is making a positive contribution towards solving problems that large-scale agriculture poses by growing bio intensively, producing more vegetables on a smaller amount of land, and increasing biodiversity and soil health through organic practices.
Toronto Womxn in Data Science
Kishawna Peck
As data is woven into the fabric of many everyday products and services, an inclusive lens is essential. Toronto Womxn in Data Science's vision is to inspire and empower 1 million data-literate women, increase the recruitment and retention of women in data professions and encourage innovation in this space. They provide programming for women interested in the field through events, mentorship, and data product co-creation.
EarthPup
Lucy Cullen
EarthPup is a Toronto startup addressing the food waste problem in Canada by turning nutrient-dense food otherwise destined for landfill, into healthy dog treats. Much of the food waste in Canada consists of nutrient-dense pulp sent to landfills. EarthPup turns this amazing, healthy juice pulp into natural dog treats! To date, they have upcycled 1,100 pounds of vegetables.
Nuba
Amal Soliman
Logaina Elkattan
Nuba makes certified organic, freshly brewed, all natural, ready to drink hibiscus tea. They are a mother daughter team, passionate about supporting small scale farmers in Nuba, a region in Southern Egypt, where their family is from. They use premium quality organic hibiscus flowers, maintaining its health benefits with no colours, flavours or preservatives. Nuba sells their authentic Middle Eastern herbal drinks worldwide.
Tut's Egyptian Street Food
Tut’s is a street food concept specializing in Egyptian sandwiches. The sandwiches are made with the freshest locally sourced ingredientsand buns baked freshly in-house. The modernized Egyptian recipes and the rich flavors will take you on a trip to the streets of Cairo and back!
DrawBox Inc.
DRAWBOX INC. is a design and fabrication company that specializes in being the Willy Wonka’s of the Marketing World. Utilizing local talent and innovative design they create unique, one-of-a-kind marketing assets for large and small scale brands.
Brite Art Graphics & Signs
Brite Art Graphics are premium graphic designerrs and installers, managing projects from coast to coast. They provide superior service to make any request come true. They strive to offer A Brite Solution For All Your Needs.
Arepa Republic
The first Venezuelan Arepas Food Truck in Canada. Founded in 2015, ther offer an authentic Venezuelan experience through the traditional arepa. The Arepa Republic also offers a variety of Venezuelan dishes, snacks and appetizers as empanadas, tostones (fried and smashed green plantains), yuca fries (cassava fries), Tequeños (Venezuelan deep fried cheese sticks wrapped in pastry).
Heirloom Food Company
Heirloom is an award winning, diverse full service catering & food truck operation. Known equally for sweet and savoury creations, they have been operating two of Toronto's favourite food trucks since 2015. Run by trained chefs, they are known for bringing fusion style comfort food to the city.
Choco Churros
Choco Churros is a family-owned business specializing in the making of fresh, authentic churros. Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, the offer both onsite and delivery service across the city.
Ghost Kitchen
Since Summer of 2018, Tom & Mel have been frying up tater tots to a perfect crisp with fresh & unique handcrafted toppings and signature sauces. With their complete dedication to friendly service & quality products, they've been a real crowd pleaser at several festivals, concerts & events in Ontario! They've created new concepts such as Stop Waffling, Krisp, and Pub Grub!
Kotn
Kotn is an impact-driven home and clothing brand that focuses on creating lasting products and communities. Utilizing direct trade practices and a ground-up approach to product creation, Kotn sources their raw cotton straight from smallholder farmers in Egypt and works directly with responsibly-run facilities. A portion of every order is invested into the creation of jobs, infrastructure, systems, and education. To date, Kotn has funded 10 primary schools, and built 7.
Britney Townsend Photography
Britney Townsend is a freelance photographer from Toronto specializing in interiors, lifestyle, and portrait photography.
Visa is proud to partner with Total Mom Pitch, a business pitch event that empowers mom entrepreneurs. Stacey Madge, Visa Canada’s President & Country Manager, is honoured to be a judge, alongside a panel of esteemed women.
Total Mom Pitch is run by Total Mom Inc., an organization with an incredible network of women business owners.
Start your business
Starting a business involves figuring out funding and startup costs, setting up a website and deciding what kind of payments you’re going to accept.
Run your business
Learn more about managing your finances, selling your product or service, optimizing your website and getting on online marketplaces.
Grow your business
Fine-tuning your efforts, discovering new strategies and managing your online reputation can help grow your business.
Digital Downloads
Learn more about the digital landscape and transforming your business digitally.
Visa has also teamed up with a number of organizations including Google, Shopify, and WordPress.com as well as Visa’s own payments platform Authorize.Net, to provide offers and educational resources for small business owners.
