Both brands are housed under the social enterprise, The Creative Co-Operative, where Priyanka is Founder and Director. And in 2021, Ashraf was named Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year at the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards for her work across this space.
Dismantling barriers
As research from The Creative Co-Operative tells us, only 0.03% of venture capital funding raised in Australia goes to early stage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Black and Women of Colour founders. It’s a minute portion of the billions of dollars in startup funding distributed in Australia each year.
Ashraf’s work is all about dismantling the barriers that are preventing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Black and Women of Colour population from accessing the entrepreneurship and funding landscape. This starts with challenging the gaps that exist in wellness and wealth.
“My mission as an entrepreneur is to democratise access to the world of wellbeing and wealth building,” Ashraf shared with Women’s Agenda recently.
“The reason for that is because I strongly believe that Black and Women of Colour are disproportionately impacted by the economic and social gap that's experienced as a result of systemic racism and colonisation.
“One way to start closing that gap is to build intergenerational wealth amongst diverse women. We have seen how the successful model of microfinance founded by Bangladeshi Nobel Laureate and current Interim Head of Government of Bangladesh Professor Muhammad Yunus, that preferentially lends to women borrowers, has lifted millions out of poverty around the world.
“Entrepreneurship, in the right conditions, can allow you to navigate systemic barriers and build wealth in ways that working in a day job won't allow you to."
Values
Coming from Bangladesh, Ashraf explains that much of her ethos as an entrepreneur stems from the values instilled in her by her country and family.
“In my lifetime, I grew up in a country that got its independence in 1971. I am part of a generation that was born free. I grew up firsthand learning how all humans are deserving of freedom and justice” she says.
“My dad believed in freedom – that’s the household I grew up in. From a young age I was taught that, ‘you have a reason for being here, and your reason is to leave this world a better place’.
“How are you going to do that? Are you going to do it through law? Are you going to do it through entrepreneurship?”
Far beyond just creating a product or a program, Ashraf’s leadership at The Creative Co-Operative is focused on creating a future economy that is inclusive and empowered.
On a practical level, that means reinvesting financial success back into the community of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Black and Women of Colour.
“It's really important for us, that we do business ethically, sustainably, that we do business in a way that is conscious of the types of barriers our community faces,” Ashraf says.
“When we are successful, we don't hoard that for ourselves. We think about ways to share that with our community. We've been around for about three years and a half years and as at March 2024, the funds that we have reinvested and redistributed into our community reached $625,774.”
Fixing the system
Priyanka also says it’s time we dispel the myth that the reason there is such a workforce talent or funding gap for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Black and Women of Colour is because there’s a “pipeline problem”.
“It's not a pipeline problem,” she says. “Companies are improving how to hire for diversity, but they’re failing to retain or advance diverse talent. Why are they leaving? Why aren’t they advancing? As for the startup ecosystem, we have had over 760 applications for our programs, and that’s for roughly 100 spots. It's not a pipeline problem – it's a leaky pipe problem, it’s a systems problem.
“Since the release of our report, we are starting to see some ecosystem stakeholders and investors take intersectionality a bit more seriously. We’ve still got a long way to go, but it's a good start.”
This article was written in partnership with and originally published by Women's Agenda.
