STYLISA FoundHers: Nanna S Soenya on Radical Funding, Collective Power, and Building What We’ve Been Waiting For

During Black History Month, I wanted to bring you a story that does more than inspire - it challenges. And few people challenge systems more boldly than Nanna S Soenya.

She’s the founder of OmegaSeven Global Ltd, a business built to create ecosystems that put women first. Through her groundbreaking initiative, FundHerShip, she’s redistributing power in real time: offering £10,000 each month - no crowdfunding, no gatekeeping, to Black and Brown women in the UK who are ready to build, sustain, or scale their businesses.

In this month’s STYLISA FoundHers interview, Nanna shares how FundHerShip flips the traditional funding model on its head, why application fees, not investors, fuel the vision, and what it truly means to build something for us, by us.

Nanna S Soenya, founder of OmegaSeven Global Ltd and the visionary behind FundHerShip.

What inspired you to launch OmegaSeven Global Ltd, and how did your background in international development and nonprofit consulting shape this venture?

OmegaSeven is a full-circle moment in my life. I first went to Mexico in 2007 to work with girls and women who had been pulled into exploitation. What I saw stayed with me forever. In 2008, I founded OmegaSeven - the name itself carried that sense of finality, of closing the door on broken systems that had failed women. Over the years I stepped into different forms of mission and advocacy, mainly in Mexico. But the stark reality became impossible to ignore: the gaps women face are not local, they’re systemic and global.

Today, OmegaSeven is not just an idea but a well-built organisation. It stands on seven AMETROS pillars, everything I’ve learned about creating ecosystems that don’t collapse under women but carry them forward. My international development background gave me structure, but it was my personal journey that gave me the urgency. OmegaSeven is both: it’s a company and a vessel, designed to meet the moment we’re in now.

FundHerShip is a groundbreaking initiative. Can you share the moment or experience that sparked the idea for a fully-funded, monthly, no-crowdfunding-required grant for Black and Brown women entrepreneurs in the UK?

It came from frustration and love. Frustration at being told, again and again, that there was “no money,” while watching Black and Brown women create whole businesses out of scraps. Love, because I knew Black & brown deserved and deserve more than scraps.

I had built and run a CIC, yet basic support was always out of reach. I saw friends with powerful ideas slip through cracks that shouldn’t exist. I thought, what if we stopped waiting for funders to catch up? What if we built it ourselves, because no one else is coming to help us?

FundHerShip was born out of that question. No begging, no performative pitches. A simple, self-sustaining grant that belongs to the community it serves. I’d seen a similar model thrive in the U.S., and I believed we could do it here in the UK too. So I built it.

The structure of FundHerShip is unique, relying solely on application fees to sustain the grants. What led you to this model, and how does it ensure sustainability and community ownership?

Because asking the institutions that have historically shut us out to help us in my opinion would be futile. I have learned that give the opportunity, Black & Brown women, do not hesitate to support each other. In our communities doing something for the greater good has always been part of how we thrive so I didn't think it would be far-fetched to apply it to this model.

The £20 application fee is transparent: 75% goes straight into the grant, the rest keeps the system running. 

No investors. No corporate strings. No middlemen. It also allows us to award the grant without heavy conditions placed on us normally by institutions, because Black & Brown wen are not a monolith and we have all sorts of projects, businesses and ideas that need to be funded without barriers.

And lastly it's a circular economy that says: your application isn’t just for you, it’s part of building something bigger. That’s why I say that the women applying are part of an ecosystem. They’re shaping a system that prioritises them.

Each month, £10,000 is awarded to a Black or Brown woman entrepreneur, with an additional £25,000 granted at the end of the year. How do you envision these funds impacting the recipients’ businesses and communities?

It’s never just about the money. It’s about what happens when a woman who has always had to make do is finally given enough. but when Black and Brown women are given access to funds, it immediately has a positive ripple effect in the local and sometimes global economy.

For some, that means paying rent so they can breathe while an idea takes shape. For others, it means buying stock, hiring their first team member, or scaling something they’ve been quietly holding together with string and faith. For others it's the catapult to scale and breathe while doing it.

£10,000 might not sound life-changing in every context, but in the hands of Black and Brown women who have been overlooked, it’s catalytic. And because it happens month after month, the ripple effect grows one woman changes, then her family, then her community.

The £25,000 year-end grant is about momentum. It’s a way of saying: your impact carried further than even you imagined now take it even further. As the grant grows and we expand we hope to have distributed £1,205,000 by the end of our 5th year. That's 1 million circulating through our communities, reshaping futures, building lives and giving hope to future generations.

You’ve highlighted that the £10,000 is not a prize, but a tool, not for the best pitch, but for the clearest intention and the greatest need. How does this philosophy influence the selection process?

FundHerShip isn’t a competition. It's a redistribution. We don’t reward who looks the most polished or who can pitch like Silicon Valley. We listen for truth and clarity. Sometimes that’s a woman who has been building with nothing. Sometimes it’s someone right at the beginning, but with a crystal-clear sense of what she wants to create.

Our advisory board are all Black and Brown women who know these realities first-hand, are the ones who listen, read between the lines, and decide. It’s about stewardship, not gatekeeping.

Building trust within communities that have historically been excluded from traditional funding routes is crucial. How are you fostering trust and ensuring accessibility within FundHerShip?

We keep it plain. No jargon. No hidden steps. We meet the women where they are, they all have direct access to me. 

Every month, we announce the grant publicly. We cap applications so women know exactly what they’re entering. We explain every stage, from how the money is collected to how it’s awarded.

But more than that, we name the truth: Black and Brown women have been overlooked for decades. This fund exists because of that exclusion. Trust isn’t a branding exercise. It’s simply showing up, doing what we said, and doing it again next month.

Transparency is clearly the cornerstone of your approach. How are you maintaining transparency in the grant distribution process, and what measures are in place to ensure fairness?

We publish how the money flows in and how it flows out. We announce every recipient publicly. Our advisory board is introduced and visible. And we guarantee predictability: if you apply and don’t receive it, you know you can reapply in three months.

Fairness, to us, is about consistency and creating a rubric with the women who are applying in mind. We keep refining, we ask applicants for feedback and if the process ever feels like it’s becoming gatekeeping, we redesign. So far due to feedback we have redesigned the questions and allowed for things we had not considered to be taken into consideration.

You’ve assembled an advisory board comprising experts in various fields. How does their expertise contribute to the mission and operations of FundHerShip?

They’re not figureheads. These are real women, with real stories, from finance to activism to entrepreneurship. They don’t just help select recipients, they shape how we define fairness, what impact looks like, and how we adapt over time. They are guardians of our values. They make sure the fund remains what it set out to be: a tool for women, not another gate to get through.

Social media has played a role in your outreach. How are you leveraging platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn to engage with potential applicants and supporters?

Visibility is key. Building a community is also vital. letting them see that I am a real person just like them is very important to gaining the trust of the women we are trying to reach. On TikTok and Threads, we’re blunt, cheeky, sometimes playful, but always honest. On LinkedIn, we’re strategic and sharp, laying out the systemic failures and the numbers. Each platform carries the same truth in a different voice: this is not charity, this is not a handout, it’s a structural shift.

Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for FundHerShip and OmegaSeven Global Ltd? How do you plan to scale or evolve these initiatives in the coming years?

FundHerShip is designed to grow while staying simple and clear. Month by month, twelve grants a year, each one grounded in trust and collective power. Over time, we plan to expand as mentioned before to more than one grant. If we are successful, we will definitely work to expand it into other parts of the world if there is demand.

With OmegaSeven, we hope to branch into our work more deeply in Mexico with women with our second initiative and in areas where women have been displaced with our 3rd initiative. This isn’t just about funding women; it’s about creating ecosystems where are able to have the resources directly in their hands so that they can rebuild, because we believe they know best how to do so.

For aspiring entrepreneurs, especially Black and Brown women, what advice would you offer about navigating the funding landscape and building sustainable ventures?

First, know this: you are not behind. You’ve been blocked. And you are under-resourced solely because you've been ignored by systems not built for you. Once you see that, you stop waiting for permission. Start with what you have, where you are. Look for opportunities that honour your dignity. Apply where you don’t have to shrink yourself to fit. Scarcity isn’t your fault. But your ability to build in spite of it, that is your power.

Finally, how can individuals or organisations support FundHerShip, whether through spreading the word, contributing resources, or other means?

Talk about it. Share it. If you have resources, contribute to it. If you have a platform, feature it. If you’re serious about structural change, sponsor our events.

But most of all, don’t treat this as a “nice project.” It isn’t. It’s a model. it will shift the landscape of funding for Black & Brown women in this country permanently. This work needs all who know and have even suffered due to lack of access to resources in this country, to get behind it.

FundHerShip belongs to all of us who are tired of waiting for the system to make space. Together, we can build an ecosystem that makes us a priority.

A massive thank you to Nanna S Soenya, for being the Ocotober Female FoundHer and becoming a part of the STYLISA FoundHers community. If you’re interested in finding out more about her work:

Discover OmegaSeven: https://www.omegasseven.org

Connect with Nanna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nannassoenya/