The digital world is full of opportunities, but let’s be real—female entrepreneurs still face big challenges. From funding bias to limited networking, the hurdles are real.
AI has the potential to change the game, but only if we design it right.
When Anuj Tanna and Rob Burnet first put their heads together in 2021 to design what is now MESH, they already recognized the potential of AI for the community.
This year, we're making it happen. We're integrating AI into the platform —but we know AI can amplify biases if we’re not careful.
Our previous work on gender equity taught us that conscious design for gender equity is crucial. In 2022, our community was 70% male and 30% female, and after several design interventions, we grew the female user base to make up 50% of the community.
We teamed up with Dalberg Data Insights to ensure our AI actively promotes fairness, not just automates the status quo.
We're sharing our five AI use cases... and how we think we can make them more fair for women.
Philippa Itabaza (Dalberg Data Insights) and Anne Miltenburg (MESH) report.
1. Recommender systems: Closing the engagement gap for female MESHERS
Networking is crucial in business: “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”. Connecting with the right suppliers, funders, partners, and customers is key to biz success. But women often have a harder time breaking into the right circles. In the informal sector, your network is often defined by your family connections or your local community. If they are limited, so are you.
On MESH, women are already networking—mingling in a women’s only group, promoting themselves on the newsfeed starting conversations, and creating biz content for each other. But they do so in much smaller numbers than men.
AI-driven recommender systems can directly address this gap by intentionally matching female MESHERS with relevant mentors, suppliers, and customers. By analysing sectors, skills, trends, and individual goals, we can create powerful, meaningful connections that might never have happened otherwise.
For women, these tailored recommendations can unlock critical opportunities typically reserved for entrepreneurs with stronger initial networks, actively broadening their reach and visibility. For men, the recommender systems will still offer tailored connections and opportunities, but the real power lies in how this intentional design corrects existing imbalances that have historically limited women's growth on platforms like MESH.
2. Credit scoring engine: Levelling the financial playing field
Securing capital is one of the biggest struggles for female entrepreneurs. The stats don’t lie—women get way less funding than men.
In the informal economy, many young entrepreneurs don’t have the collateral or the documentation they need to get loans to start or grow their biz— women even more so than men. They are also more risk-averse, and less confident in their ability to pay back a loan.
We built MESH to make users’ data work for MESHERS. When used responsibly and transparently, data can be transformative— especially for women entrepreneurs. Currently, when users apply for loans, our team manually reviews their platform engagement history to prequalify them for lenders. This process is time-intensive and can unintentionally overlook nuanced signals of creditworthiness, especially among women who may have less visible traditional indicators of readiness.
With users' explicit consent, AI systems can further leverage platform engagement data combined with transaction histories to build nuanced credit profiles. This approach specifically benefits women by assessing non-traditional data points, such as community contributions, business skill growth, reliability, and personal growth—areas where women entrepreneurs often excel but which conventional, manual credit assessments frequently overlook. By surfacing these previously invisible strengths, AI-driven assessments can actively reduce biases inherent in manual evaluations, enabling a fairer and more objective assessment of women's real business potential, that is captured through their online interactions.
AI can make loan application decisions fairer. However, maintaining a human-in-the-loop remains crucial to continuously verify AI outputs, provide contextual judgment, and ensure that automated decisions remain aligned with real-world considerations.
3. Gig matching system: Unlocking fair opportunities
In our opportunity section, we list gigs from trusted partners, such as roles as a data collector across Kenya, or sales agent for Unilever in Nairobi. MESHERS use these gigs to generate income, but also to save capital to start or grow their biz.
But matching candidates to opportunities can be complex and time-consuming. Moreover, finding the right business opportunities quickly can mean the difference between thriving or struggling as an entrepreneur. In informal markets, women typically have fewer existing connections, narrower networks, and face additional barriers such as social expectations or biases.
AI-driven lead-generation engines can significantly streamline this matching process, reducing time and effort while proactively addressing gender-specific hurdles. By objectively analysing each MESHer’s gig history, skills, and user behaviour patterns, AI can predict the opportunities in which entrepreneurs, particularly women, are most likely to succeed. This approach can specifically benefit women by matching work opportunities that align with their preferences for safety, proximity to home, and compatibility with family responsibilities.
4. Content discovery through a Gen AI chat assistant
MESH has a wealth of knowledge on business-related topics generated by MESHERS and our content team.
We know from research and data that male and female users are interested in different topics and respond differently to how it is presented. We also know that they are more interested in one-on-one direct mentorship. Furthermore, we intentionally work with creators of both genders across the topics of money, tech, sales and marketing. This ensures MESHERS see positive role modelling and female expertise when they visit MESH.
Our thinking on AI-powered content discovery is designed specifically to enhance this strategy by ensuring female MESHERS consistently receive content that resonates with their experiences and preferences. By analysing patterns in how women engage with topics, interact with various content formats, and respond to specific role models, a Generative AI chatbot can proactively suggest personalized pathways featuring relevant success stories, practical business guidance, and confidence-building resources tailored for women. It can provide a scalable means to provide one-on-one conversational mentorship.
5. Insights for all: equipping stakeholders with data to drive gender equity
We’ve long had a vision for a public good data product that would allow stakeholders (like financial service providers, corporates, government agencies, and MESH service providers) to access and analyse data collected by MESH.
Importantly, this data product would reveal nuanced insights into the unique challenges and opportunities faced by women entrepreneurs, highlighting their distinct patterns in accessing financial products, skills training, and business opportunities compared to male counterparts.
For example, financial institutions could more accurately tailor loan products to address specific challenges women entrepreneurs face, policymakers could craft gender-informed policies to stimulate equitable entrepreneurship, and service providers are more incentivized to design support programs aligned with women’s entrepreneurial journeys because the data helps them identify the return on investment.
With this data they could generate their own insights to service Gen Z entrepreneurs better. Ai could bring this vision much closer on our horizon.
In short
AI is more than just a tech buzzword—it’s a game-changer for female entrepreneurs, breaking down barriers in funding, networking, and mentorship. At MESH, we’ve seen firsthand that when women thrive, the entire community benefits. The future of entrepreneurship is digital, and with a gender-conscious approach to AI, it can also be fairer, more inclusive, and full of opportunity.
Let’s build AI that works for everyone—because a more equitable future starts with the technology we create today.
Do you want to engage and support female entrepreneurs on MESH? Contact Anne Miltenburg, brand@mesh.life to discuss how we can make it happen.
Dalberg Data Insights is committed to supporting organizations to design and deploy responsible AI. Reach out to philippa.itabaza@dalberg.com to learn more.
More resources
Removing Barriers for Women Entrepreneurs Online: Six research and design tips for social networks, community builders, and educational organizations that want to support gender-inclusive entrepreneurship - by Anne Miltenburg, Brand Director at MESH, for Stanford Social Innovation Review.
What Women Want from Loan Providers: Five Insights unpacked by MESH researcher Tessie Waithira.
EGAL’s 2Equity Fluent Leadership Playbook for Mitigating Biasing AI. Watch the Webinar, a one hour in depth walk through, or Read the Guide.
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