Yasa Sourcing

Women-owned businesses (WBEs) represent 29% of US businesses and employ 8M people. Yet less than 4% of corporate and government contracts are awarded to WBEs. Companies and the government recognize this gap and have committed to sourcing billions of dollars from WBEs. However, procurement officers, the decision-makers of business contracts, still rely on their established referral networks or attend time-consuming trade shows. At best, they pay for access to static business listings which do not lend credibility or visibility to top-performing minority suppliers. Thus, while many organizations endeavor to support women entrepreneurs, there is nothing in the marketplace to efficiently match procurement officers with qualified WBEs.

Yasa Sourcing, a new social enterprise, revolutionizes procurement practices by connecting companies with procurement needs to qualified WBEs with matching supplier capabilities. Yasa aims to increase opportunities for WBEs through their technology-based platform which critically lowers the barriers to sharing business information between these two parties. Women are already highly engaged in social networking; however, procurement functions have yet to benefit from such innovations. By joining Yasa, WBEs can share relevant data and strengthen their credibility by soliciting independent reviews from past and current customers. For procuring companies, Yasa provides the opportunity to easily reach the growing number of qualified WBEs, post requests for proposals (RFPs) and enable WBEs to apply independently or collaboratively to meet supplier criteria and capacity requirements.

Yasa Sourcing was founded by Kellogg ’12 MBAs Sarah Hewitt and Yating Yu with a vision to increase global prosperity by spurring greater economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs. They believe Yasa Sourcing can permanently transform the procurement landscape to both benefit procuring companies and women-owned businesses. They invite you to partner with them in creating a new paradigm for leading sustainable, competitive businesses. Contact Sarah.Hewitt@yasasourcing.com and Yating.Yu@yasasourcing.com for more information.