WomHub explores new ways to tackle challenges at the intersection of gender and STEM.
Naadiya Moosajee, an engineer turned entrepreneur who supports women in science, technology, engineering, mining and manufacturing, has reached more than 150 000 women and girls in over 30 countries through her various programmes, she said in an interview with ITWeb.
WomHub, one of her programmes, is expanding its work with new AI‑powered financing tools for female entrepreneurs and a dedicated cyber security spinoff, Cybherfence.
Moosajee said one of WomHub’s biggest recent milestones is the development of an alternative financing tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide alternative credit scoring and deploy capital to women entrepreneurs. “Unlocking capital for female founders is one of the biggest challenges,” she said.
The organisation will mark 20 years of impact through its original WomEng fellowship next year. “It’s incredible to see women who will tell you how WomEng changed their lives,” Moosajee said. “Those engineers are now directors, CEOs, senior engineers and so much more.”
WomHub operates incubators and accelerators for women in mining, engineering, technology and sustainability, as well as talent development programmes focused on digital skills in areas such as AI and cyber security. Moosajee said one of the most rewarding impacts has been seeing girls who attended GirlEng high school technology camps later join its engineering programmes. “We have also seen engineers we supported in our WomEng fellowship thrive in the industry and then become entrepreneurs themselves,” she said. “We have made active investments in these founders.”
Cybherfence, which WomHub spun out as a separate entity, began in 2019 after the organisation faced an online harassment campaign. “We didn’t want other women to face the same challenges,” Moosajee said.
The platform provides a digital vulnerability assessment and education programme to help entrepreneurs build cyber security protocols for their businesses. She said common attacks include phishing and whaling, with threat actors using AI to improve their techniques and target organisations repeatedly.
Moosajee said women make up around 20% of the engineering and technology workforce in SA. She added that only 2% of venture capital dollars over the past three years have gone to female founders.
To address these barriers, WomHub has built innovation hubs with features such as fintech labs, virtual reality labs, digital boards, menopause and lactation rooms, and, in Cape Town, a co‑play space called the Junior Engineering Hub for children. “We need to think about how we create physically inclusive environments for women and how we can reduce mental loads,” Moosajee explained.
She said several success stories stand out, including a founder who became an ambassador in her country and used WomHub’s programmes to support over 1 000 girls, and another who volunteered at WomHub’s high school programmes before starting a digital health company that later received investment from the organisation. Internally, she said, the team has promoted staff from project co-ordinators to management roles, and WomHub’s then COO, Anjani Harjeven, has grown the organisation after succeeding co-founder Hema Vallabh and became CEO.
Looking ahead, Moosajee said WomHub plans to continue innovating. This includes a programme combining digital skills, entrepreneurship development, access to markets and capital, as well as exploring new opportunities in cyber security through Cybherfence and using agentic AI to improve workflows.
“For a long time, the fear of failure kept me motivated, but as I reflect, it’s really about trying to build a fairer, more inclusive world so my kids don’t have to struggle as I have,” concluded Moosajee.
