London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 17, 2025

Pushing all the right buttons: the network empowering female entrepreneurship

Business Planet heads to Italy to look at an online community that’s inspiring women to start, run and grow successful businesses.

Bonfanti Brothers have been making beautiful buttons for more than 70 years. Here quality really does matter. The company’s products can be found in retail outlets, such as haberdasheries and specialist craft and wool shops, all over the world.

Founded by their grandfather, Sister’s Serena and Chiara Bonfanti help run the small business of around 40 people, with their father and uncle.

Eventually they will take charge of the day-to-day running of the company but they're already making their mark, modernising the business, especially with regard to digitalisation.

Chiara (right) and Serena Bonfanti (centre) speak to Business Planet about their family business.


"We are doing our best to provide our customers always with bespoke solutions," explains Serena, while Chiara says: "[We're] also digitalising our communication with new channels in order to reach, support our customers, agents and distributors."

To expand their network, the sisters joined a local business association for female entrepreneurs in Turin called APID. It put them in touch with WEgate, an online hub dedicated to helping women in business.

"WEgate is an online gateway, that as an entrepreneur gave me the chance to enrich my personal skills, attending mentoring programme webinar training courses. But I’m also a person involved in a local business association and thanks to this we can share ideas, we can do networking activities, access to EU funds and share best practices," Serena says.

"WEgate is an online gateway. That as an entrepreneur gave me the chance to enrich my personal skills."
Gender funding gap

Building a business, whatever your gender, can be tough. But research does show women do face some specific hurdles, most notably access to finance.

For instance, it’s estimated while women create around one third of all businesses in Europe, female founders, in sector’s such as tech, only get about 2% of all venture capital.

More broadly, there is growing concern the pandemic has hit women-owned firms especially hard, given that these companies tend to be in sectors disproportionately affected by lockdowns.


In a bid to address some of these challenges, the WEgate network offers a range of services to help women in business.

"WEgate is a platform. It’s a place of trust where women entrepreneurs can find information and support on how to start and grow their businesses, for instance how to get finance and funding but also it’s a place to get inspiration and to celebrate female entrepreneurship," WEgate's Project Manager Eva Merloni says.

She adds, "entrepreneurship has no gender. Many entrepreneurial needs are exactly the same for men and women. However, women face specific challenges, such as access to finance and finding a good work life balance, that allows them to start and run a company."

Business Planet speaks to Anne Ravanona, Founder & CEO of Global Invest Her


Business Planet spoke to Anne Ravanona about the challenges facing female entrepreneurs.

_“WEgate is a go to platform created by the European Commission in partnership with other organisations on the ground serving women entrepreneurs. And the objective of the platform is to be the kind of go-to space if you're a woman entrepreneur in Europe, and you want to learn about all the different resources available to you in your country and internationally when you're building your business, funding your business, and to kind of connect with other women entrepreneurs. So it's a go to space. We are many organisations who are part of it, who are serving and supporting female founders. And in Europe, we absolutely do need to bring all that together. There's so many resources out there. So you need to have a one-stop-shop to know where to look. So WEgate is a great tool for that.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
×