Female Business Grants Ontario (2025): Top 16 Grants, Eligibility & Step-by-Step Application Guide
Looking for business grants for women in Ontario? You’re in the right place!
This guide goes beyond just listing available grants. You’ll get:
- ✅ The top 16 grants for women entrepreneurs in Ontario
- ✅ A comparison table with funding amounts & deadlines at a glance
- ✅ Application tips & pitfalls from successful applicants
- ✅ How to get more money by “stacking” other types of funding
Last updated: September 2025 — we review and update this guide every quarter so you have the freshest information.
Key Takeaways:
What You Need to Know Before Applying for a Business Grant for Women
We often get asked three questions related to female entrepreneur grants in Ontario. We briefly answer each below:
What Qualifies as a “Woman-Owned” Business?
To qualify as a “woman-owned business” for grants in Ontario, the specific definition depends on the individual grant program, but typically involves a business that is at least 51% owned and controlled by women. This often includes criteria such as being led by a female founder, having a women-led or nonbinary-led management team, or having a female controlling interest. The business also often needs to be incorporated in Canada.
What Can Female Business Grants Be Used For?
Female entrepreneur business grants can be used to pay for many aspects of starting or running a business. Here are some of the uses that are covered by programs in our grants database:
And that’s just a sample! See the section below with a complete list of grants available for female entrepreneurs.
How Much Grant Money Can a Female Entrepreneur Get?
In our database we currently have grants for women-led businesses ranging from $5,000 to $50,000. However, there are many other types of funding programs that female entrepreneurs can access, including wage subsidies, rebates, tax credits, government loans, and more.
The Secret to More Funding: “Stacking”
Smart entrepreneurs don’t stop at one grant program – they “stack” grants AND other types of free funding (like subsidies, rebates, and tax credits).
And here’s a secret: there are businesses in Ontario that get tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars in free money year-after-year by following the stacking technique.
Common Eligibility Criteria for Female Business Grants
Probably the most common question we get asked at Ontario Business Grants is “What grants am I eligible for?”.
We analyzed the female entrepreneur business grants in our grants database, and these are the most common qualifications we identified:
Note: these are just the most common eligibility criteria – there are many grants with different requirements.
Top 16 Business Grants for Women in Ontario
WomensNet Amber Grants
Monthly $10,000 grants (with additional year-end $25,000 awards) for women-owned businesses operating in the U.S. or Canada.
Startup Canada Equal Slice Program
A national Startup Canada program that provides education plus pitch competitions awarding a $100,000 annual grant pool to underserved entrepreneurs.
Student Work Placement Program
SWPP is a federal wage-subsidy program for hiring post-secondary students (up to $7,000 per placement for women in STEM).
Rhyze Up! (Boundless Accelerator)
Rhyze Up! is a national accelerator for women-founded Canadian companies offering mentorship, leadership coaching, and project support.
Founders Fund – Pitch Fund
Pitch Fund is a grant competition for women founders (50%+ ownership) decided via a short video pitch, with finalists selected from a global applicant pool.
Odlum Brown Forum Pitch (The Forum)
Odlum Brown is a national pitch program where three finalists receive prize packages (~C$30k value) and one winner earns an additional C$20,000 cash award.
CCIB Indigenous Women Entrepreneurship Fund
IWEF is a micro-grant program for Indigenous women-owned businesses in Canada (recent rounds: C$2,500 grant plus CCIB membership), selected via a live draw.
NOW (SME) Program
NOW is a Northern Ontario grant that reimburses up to 90% of eligible one-time professional services, mentoring, and training costs.
BMO Celebrating Women Grant Program
An annual BMO grant initiative awarding cash grants to women-owned Canadian businesses.
PARO Centre’s BIZGrowth
PARO’s BIZGrowth and Prosper Circles programs help established Ontario women-owned businesses expand into new markets, including access to PARO-administered grants and supports.
Starter Company Plus
Starter Company Plus is not a women-specific program, but is an excellent startup grant for Ontario entrepreneurs.
i.d.e.a. Fund (Boundless Accelerator)
i.d.e.a. Fund is a southern Ontario program for sustainable/circular-economy ventures providing up to $20,000 in matching seed funding plus advisory support.
Cartier Women’s Initiative
The Initiative is a global awards and year-long fellowship for women impact entrepreneurs, with grant awards typically ranging from US$30,000 to US$100,000.
Visa She’s Next (Canada)
She’s Next is a grants program for women entrepreneurs offering C$10,000 awards plus mentorship delivered through York University’s YSpace.
Waubetek Indigenous Women’s Entrepreneurship
The Mentorship Program for early-stage Indigenous women entrepreneurs in northeastern Ontario offers a business grant of up to C$3,000 .
First Nations Women’s Entrepreneurship
FNWE is a combined micro-loan with a grant up to and coaching to launch or grow a business .
Support Organizations for Women Entrepreneurs
As the saying goes: “Your network is your net worth”.
That’s especially the case for female founders, who face unique barriers to starting and growing a business.
But fear not! There are some amazing organizations in Ontario that have your back. We list some of the key support organizations for women entrepreneurs below, and you can see a larger list in our directory of women entrepreneur support organizations.
Key Organizations Supporting Female Founders in Ontario
|
Organization |
What They Do |
Learn More |
|---|---|---|
|
A not-for-profit social enterprise, we collaborate to empower women, strengthen small business, and promote community economic development across Ontario. | ||
|
National network that connects women founders to data, research, tools, and Ontario hub partners. | ||
|
Canada-wide women-focused microloans with “wraparound” support, delivered through partner organizations (incl. Ontario partners) | ||
|
Certifies Canadian women-owned businesses and opens doors to corporate/public procurement (supplier diversity). | ||
|
Community, mentoring, and 0% loans for women and non-binary ventures with a strong Canadian footprint. | ||
|
SheBoot (Invest Ottawa & partners) |
Investment-readiness bootcamp and pitch program for women tech founders (Ontario-based, national reach) |
How to Apply for Female Entrepreneur Grants: Follow These 6 Steps
Other Types of Funding for Women Entrepreneurs
As mentioned above, “stacking” is the smart way to increase funding for your business. But what other types of funding is there for female business owners? Many! In the sections below we briefly describe each type and link to an article with more information:
Loans for Women Entrepreneurs
Loans for women entrepreneurs are anchored by federal lenders (like the Business Development Bank of Canada), community lenders, non-profit microlenders, and sector-focused federal lenders. While the big banks don’t have loan programs specifically for women, they do offer advisory services for women entrepreneurs.
Equity Investment for Women Entrepreneurs
The equity landscape for women entrepreneurs in Ontario consists of women-focused venture funds at the national level, Ontario-based VC funds and angel groups, impact investors, and regulated equity-crowdfunding portals.
While most mainstream VCs don’t run women-only funds, many operate diversity initiatives and women-founder programs—and will invest on standard terms when a woman-led company fits their investment criteria (with sector-focused funds common in tech, life sciences, and cleantech).
Other Types of Funding for Women Entrepreneurs
There are many other types of business funding for women entrepreneurs in Ontario, including wage subsidies/hiring grants, training supports, tax credits, rebates, export/market-development cost-sharing, and innovation/advisory vouchers delivered through federal and provincial ministries and partner organizations (often via universities, industry groups, and community agencies).
While relatively few of these types of funding are labeled women-only, many delivery partners run women-focused cohorts, mentoring, and “wraparound” supports; women-owned firms can also benefit from supplier-diversity channels (certification-based access to corporate and public buyers), which function like growth capital by opening doors to paid contracts.
Wrapping Up
Here’s the bottom line: now’s the time for women entrepreneurs to move their businesses forward with confidence. There are more funding opportunities than ever before and more women-led businesses than ever before.
You, as a businessperson and a woman, can tremendously impact the Canadian economy and improve it more than any other demographic. It doesn’t matter who or what you are—Indigenous, black, young, or disabled—as long as you’re a woman with a great idea and the wherewithal to follow through with that great idea or you have a company you hold the reins of, you can guide your company to success with the help of these funding programs.
Related Resources for Female Entrepreneurs in Ontario
💰 Funding a Business in Ontario
💼 Business Support Organizations in Ontario