Melbourne: Wednesday 5th February 2025 – Thrive Refugee Enterprise (Thrive), Australia’s leading NGO dedicated to empowering refugees with small businesses and employment outcomes, is pleased to announce a new funding partnership starting in 2025 with Minderoo Foundation, one of Australia's largest philanthropic foundations. This collaboration aims to enable Thrive to continue its impactful work as well as provide more resources for greater economic empowerment of refugee women across Australia.

As Australia’s largest and most successful organisation focused on creating economic opportunities for refugees, Thrive has supported the launch of 800 small businesses since 2017. Yet, refugee women entrepreneurs account for less than 20% of these businesses, underscoring the need for a more gender specific strategy and solutions – particularly within a cultural and linguistically diverse context.

The gender-lens funding partnership with Minderoo Foundation will focus on narrowing this gap by providing solutions to address gender specific barriers, ultimately boosting the economic participation of refugee women across Australia.

Jacqueline Joudo Larsen, Executive Director, Gender Equality at Minderoo Foundation: “$128 billion could be added to the Australian economy each year if women were given the opportunity to reach their full potential. For this to become a reality, women from all backgrounds and experiences need more support. Thrive does critical work empowering refugees, asylum seekers and migrants to build effective and impactful businesses. We look forward to supporting them as they increase their emphasis on advancing opportunities for women.”

Thrive Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Huy Truong, commented: “Gender inequality limits the rights, opportunities and freedoms of women and girls worldwide; this is especially true for refugees, migrants and asylum seekers. With Minderoo’s support, we’ll be able to further address the distinct economic barriers refugee women face, strengthening the impact and scale of our work. We thank Minderoo for their belief in us and our programs. Together, we’ll be enabling more women across Australia to unleash and capitalise on their potential.”

For more information or to arrange an interview contact Annie Walsh at Thrive Refugee Enterprise m. 0404 315 875, awalsh@tre.org.au

About Thrive Refugee Enterprise:  Thrive’s purpose is to provide pathways to economic opportunities for refugees that will enable greater financial inclusion and more effective settlement. Our vision is for all refugees to be economically empowered, integrated, prospering and contributing back to Australian society. Since 2017, Thrive has supported the creation of 800 refugee-led small businesses, collectively generating annual revenues more than $75M. In doing so it has provided business support to 3,000+ refugees. www.tre.org.au

About Minderoo Foundation:  Minderoo Foundation takes on tough, persistent issues with the potential to drive massive change. We incubate ideas, advocate for systems change and accelerate impact. We push the limits of what is believed possible. Minderoo Foundation is proudly Australian, independent, forward-thinking and seeks effective, scalable solutions. Through bold, collaborative, and selfless action, we seek to dismantle the systems that entrench inequality and fight for a fair future. www.minderoo.org