Whip Music, a music-tech firm based by Melissa Kariuki – just lately recognised among the many GRAMMYs’ 13 Women Shaping African Music (2025) – has been chosen to affix the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) flagship initiative, eTrade for Women.
The appointment locations Whip Music amongst 353 women-led digital enterprises from 69 nations championing inclusive digital commerce and sustainable progress. The firm’s inclusion underscores Africa’s rising international affect within the inventive and digital financial system and marks a significant milestone for women-founded tech ventures shaping Africa’s position in international commerce.
eTrade for Women, supported by the governments of Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, goals to strengthen the position of girls digital entrepreneurs as influential voices in public-policy dialogues on the native, regional and international ranges.
“There are so many women running digital trade businesses across Africa; many without even realising that what they do every day is part of global trade,” stated Melissa Kariuki, Founder & CEO of Whip Music. “Yet, too often, women are left out of the policy conversations that define how that trade works. For us, joining this network isn’t just an honour, it’s a responsibility. With the backing of the United Nations, Whip Music will actively amplify its voice in policymaking spaces to ensure women and creatives are included in shaping a more equitable digital economy.”
This milestone follows Whip Music’s illustration on the World Trade Organization’s Public Forum in Geneva, Switzerland final month, the place Kariuki mentioned the inventive financial system’s position in international commerce and the coverage frameworks wanted to unlock its progress. The firm’s inclusion in UNCTAD’s eTrade for Women Community displays a continuation of that advocacy journey: championing higher digital insurance policies, commerce frameworks and infrastructure that allow Africa’s inventive industries to thrive. Its choice displays rising international recognition of Africa’s innovators shaping the intersection of creativity, know-how and commerce.
Through its appointment, Whip Music joins an influential circle of women-founded know-how companies driving innovation and inclusive progress by leveraging digital instruments to resolve native and international challenges.
Whip Music’s mission is to allow African creators to succeed globally, not solely by offering AI-driven advertising options however by advocating for the digital insurance policies that make sustainable success doable. Africa’s inventive financial system is valued at US$58.4 billion, contributing about 4% of the continent’s GDP, but it represents lower than 0.3% of worldwide inventive exports.
With the best digital insurance policies and commerce frameworks, analysts challenge that African inventive exports might attain US$200 billion by 2030, probably accounting for 10% of worldwide inventive items commerce. Whip Music’s membership in eTrade for Women underscores the rising recognition of Africa’s inventive industries, not merely as cultural belongings however as strategic drivers of worldwide commerce.
“For too long, creativity has been seen purely as culture,” Kariuki added. “It’s one of Africa’s highest-potential commodities. With the right digital infrastructure and trade frameworks, African creators can reach global markets, scale new industries and shape the future of digital trade.”
Since its founding, Whip Music has supported artists in selling their music throughout the US, the UK, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Ghana, and Canada, enabling them to export their music, entry new markets and develop international audiences. Its data-driven method empowers creators to maneuver past conventional advertising, enabling measurable outcomes and larger management over their inventive IP.
The firm’s progress displays a broader African motion: the rise of women-led, tech-enabled inventive enterprises redefining how international audiences expertise African tradition.
Whip Music’s inclusion in UNCTAD’s eTrade for Women Community represents a continuation of this mission, guaranteeing Africa’s inventive entrepreneurs have a seat on the desk in shaping the insurance policies that can decide the way forward for digital commerce.
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About eTrade for Women and UNCTAD
eTrade for Women is a world initiative launched by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 2019 to empower ladies digital entrepreneurs in creating and rising economies. Through mentorship, coverage engagement and neighborhood constructing, the initiative helps ladies founders as they scale their companies and form inclusive digital ecosystems.
By connecting digital entrepreneurship with commerce coverage, eTrade for Women works to cut back gender inequality and speed up ladies’s illustration within the digital financial system. The programme is a part of UNCTAD’s broader mandate to combine creating nations into the worldwide financial system by commerce, funding and sustainable growth.
Headquartered in Geneva, UNCTAD operates below the United Nations General Assembly and serves because the UN’s point of interest for commerce and growth points, notably these affecting creating nations.
Melissa Kariuki is featured on the official UNCTAD eTrade for Women member listing, which recognises ladies entrepreneurs from creating nations driving inclusive digital progress.
About Whip Music
Whip Music is a music-tech firm headquartered in Johannesburg, on a mission to assist artists unlock their subsequent one billion followers. The platform leverages know-how to offer entry to social media advertising, music and video distribution, editorial playlisting, TV placements, radio, press, influencer advertising and digital promoting. Whether an artist has zero followers or a million, Whip Music empowers them to develop and monetise their fanbase globally.
For extra data, go to whipservices.com or contact whats up@whipafrica.com.
About Melissa Kariuki
Melissa Kariuki is the Founder and CEO of Whip Music and a Recording Academy member, recognised among the many GRAMMYs’ 13 Women Shaping African Music (2025) and Hotlist Africa’s Top 30 Executives within the African Music Industry (2025).
Her profession contains product roles at Google and Meta, in addition to expertise throughout Asia, Europe, the United States and Africa with organisations together with Bain & Company, H&M, the Gates Foundation and INSEAD. She holds a First-Class Honours diploma from the African Leadership University in Mauritius and a Master of Management Science in Global Affairs as a Patrice Motsepe Fellow and Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University in Beijing, the place she graduated with a 99% distinction for her thesis on blockchain, NFTs and Web3 regulation.
