Wendy Luhabe founded South Africa’s first fund to provide capital to women-owned businesses.
From Daveyton to the boardroom, Wendy Luhabe founded Bridging the Gap in 1991 and Women Investment Holdings in 1993, launching an R120 million private equity fund for women.
Wendy Luhabe was born in Daveyton, Gauteng, in 1957 and grew up in the old Benoni location. She graduated in arts from the University of Fort Hare in 1977 and in commerce from the National University of Lesotho in 1981. After about ten years in national and international corporate roles, including at BMW, she founded Bridging the Gap in 1991, a consulting firm that prepared young black South Africans to enter the world of work and helped companies integrate them.
Capital for women
In 1993 she founded Women Investment Holdings, an initiative to bring women into the South African economy. She launched the first fund to provide capital to women-owned businesses in the country, an R120 million private equity fund.
In 1999 she was recognised as one of the 50 Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World. The World Economic Forum named her a Global Leader of Tomorrow. She became chancellor of the University of Johannesburg in 2006, received an honorary LVO in 2014 for her work as a trustee of the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation, and Forbes listed her among Africa’s 50 most powerful women in 2020.
She also wrote Defining Moments in 2002. The idea behind her work is plain: when capital reaches women entrepreneurs, businesses and communities grow.
