Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Jul 23, 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

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×