A structured programme combines practical business support, employee mentoring and prize funding for women-led microbusinesses in Taiwan
Supported by Standard Chartered Foundation, Standard Chartered Taiwan’s Women in Entrepreneurship programme focuses on a part of the business community that often struggles to secure the support needed to grow. Women-founded or cofounded microbusinesses can face tighter access to finance, weaker professional networks and fewer opportunities to build commercial skills at an early stage. The bank’s programme is designed to respond with more than sponsorship or one-off visibility.
The initiative targets women-founded or co-founded businesses under eight years of age and with fewer than 10 employees. Many of these firms have viable ideas and early customer demand, but still find it hard to move beyond the start-up stage. Growth can be held back by limited mentoring, patchy market access and a lack of structured guidance at the point where the business needs to become more stable and commercially confident.
Sequence of support
Standard Chartered Taiwan has built the programme around a clear sequence of support. Recruitment comes first, followed by capability-building through a bootcamp, workshops and one-to-one mentoring with bank employees. The final stage includes a demo day and awards event, with more tailored support for the top three participants. That lends the programme a practical shape and makes it easier to understand what participants are actually receiving.
The 2025 cycle was organised around three phases: inspire, connect and empower. The programme has moved participants through a set of stages intended to build skills, strengthen business planning and widen access to people who could support growth beyond the programme itself.
The initiative goes beyond grant-giving and public recognition. Participants are offered training, professional feedback, direct mentoring and exposure to a wider support network. Finance professionals, public-sector representatives and ecosystem partners are part of the wider programme, which helps extend its reach beyond a classroom setting.
Evolving model
The model has also changed over time. In its third cycle, Standard Chartered Taiwan added economic inclusion as an evaluation criterion, increased the prize pool to NT$2m ($63,025) and introduced advanced workshops and smaller-group mentoring for finalists. Those adjustments suggest the bank is trying to improve the quality of support as the programme matures rather than simply repeating the same format each year.
The available proof is mostly operational, but still useful. The 2025 programme received 46 submissions from womenled microbusinesses and involved 30 employee mentors. Standard Chartered Taiwan also reported 90% overall satisfaction and a 100% recommendation rate from participants. These are not end-state business outcomes, but they do show a programme that has attracted strong interest and delivered value that participants recognised.
Future goals
Longer-term targets for 2024-26 include supporting 90 women-founded or cofounded businesses, 180 participants and 28 new jobs. Those goals give the programme a clear direction. They also fit the scale of the target group, which is made up of very small firms rather than companies already equipped for rapid expansion.
What makes the programme work as a local-community story is its practical focus. Standard Chartered Taiwan connects community engagement with enterprise support for a group that is often underserved by mainstream funding and growth networks. The programme offers structure, mentoring and targeted financial support in a way that gives women-led microbusinesses a better chance of building something more durable.