Fery Rides Raises ~ ₹2 Cr from IAN Angel Fund to Grow India’s 1st Women-Led, Women-Only Mobility Network

Fery Rides, India’s first women-led mobility platform built for women, has raised ₹2.075 crore in a seed funding round led by IAN Angel Fund, part of IAN Group. The round was led by Hari Balasubramanian, Uday Chatterjee, and Sri Prakash. The investment will help the company strengthen its technology platform, scale operations beyond NCR, and onboard more women drivers — referred to on the platform as Sister Partners.

Fery Rides is tackling one of India’s most urgent challenges: the lack of safe and reliable transportation for women. Every day, millions of women across Indian cities travel with anxiety or fear of harassment. The idea for Fery began when co-founder Ajay Kumar saw a close friend being harassed by a ride-hailing driver. That was the moment he realised how unsafe the daily commute had become for women. Together with Vindhya Mehrotra and Himanshu Chaubey, he built the platform to create a service where safety, reliability, and dignity come first.

Fery ensures every ride is operated by trained and verified women drivers and is exclusively used by women passengers. Technology enables easy onboarding, real-time tracking with SOS alerts, and WhatsApp-enabled customer support, through a robust app. Additionally, all vehicles are electric, making the platform both sustainable and inclusive.

Since launching in April 2023, Fery has completed over 65,000 eco-friendly rides, empowered more than 250 women drivers, and crossed 50,000 app downloads. The service currently operates in Gurugram and is preparing to scale across Delhi NCR and other major cities. Fery has partnered with players like Sakha Cabs for airport rides and participated in pilot operations during the Mahakumbh in Prayagraj.

Ajay Kumar, Co-founder & CEO, Fery Rides, said, “This fundraise is more than just capital; it’s a strong validation of our mission to redefine mobility for women in India. With the backing of IAN Group and our mentors, we are ready to scale Fery into a national movement for safer, sustainable, and women-led urban transportation.”

Padmaja Ruparel, Co-founder, IAN Group, said, “Real change happens when innovation meets inclusion. Fery Rides places women at the centre of the solution to one of the biggest challenges — safe mobility. This company has built an innovative solution to a real problem, creating both value and social change. We’re proud to support a team that is redefining transportation through empowerment, technology, and trust.”

Fery’s model is unique because it empowers women on both sides of the ride. It offers commuters a trusted, stress-free way to travel while creating dignified livelihood opportunities for women drivers who are often excluded from the gig economy. These Sister Partners receive training, financial independence, and confidence through their work — and many now serve as role models in their communities.

Beyond the numbers, Fery’s story is deeply human. One early driver, who was once hesitant to even ride in traffic, now completes 20 rides a day and supports her daughter’s dream of becoming an Olympic athlete. Stories like hers reflect the larger mission of building a movement where women support, trust, and uplift one another — through mobility.

About Fery Rides:

Fery Rides is a Gurugram-based mobility platform and India’s first to be built by women, for women. It offers safe and reliable rides operated only by trained and background-verified women drivers, called Sister Partners. By serving both commuters and earners, Fery creates independence, dignity, and trusted connectivity for women. With features like real-time tracking, SOS alerts, and WhatsApp support, it is redefining how women move through cities.

About IAN Group:

IAN Group is the country’s single largest seed and early-stage investment platform, comprising IAN Angel Fund, BioAngels, IAN Fund I, and IAN Alpha Fund — enabling entrepreneurs to raise from ₹50 lakhs to ₹50 crores. The platform brings capital, mentoring from successful entrepreneurs, and global market access. It is sector-agnostic and has funded innovative start-ups across 19 sectors in India and 7 other countries, expanding the global footprint of Indian companies. IAN has been listed by Forbes as one of the iconic business and economic events of Independent India over 75 years, alongside LIC, NASSCOM, RBI, and Naukri.com.

IIMA’s CIIE.CO Partners Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) To Launches Swanari Techsprint 2023 Supporting Financial Solutions for Women-owned MSMEs

Launches Swanari Techsprint 2023

The initiative Swanari Techsprint aims to support SMEs/MSMEs building gender transformative financial solutions, and making a positive impact on the financial inclusion landscape

IIMA’s CIIE.CO has joined hands with the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) to launch Swanari Techsprint 2023 - an initiative of RBIH - focuses on advancing ‘End to End Digital Straight Through Process (STP) Lending Solutions for Micro to Medium-sized Women-owned Enterprises’, empowering them to access the financial resources they need to flourish. This edition of Swanari Techsprint will aim to address the large credit gap faced by women owned MSMEs.

The Swanari Techsprint 2023 winners will have an opportunity to do a paid Proof of Concept (POC) with one of India’s leading financial institutions HDFC Bank, and pitch for fast track pre-seed investment at CIIE.CO. Selected startups will also gain access to CIIE.CO's extensive mentoring and networking opportunities, providing them with a strong foundation for growth and success.

Commenting on the partnership, Supriya Sharma from CIIE.CO expressed, "Swanari Techsprint 2023 aligns with our focus on financial inclusion, especially women’s financial inclusion. Women entrepreneurs own and lead less than 20% of the MSMEs in India. Among several other factors, access to capital is a huge barrier for women looking to set up and grow their businesses. We are thrilled to collaborate with RBIH to help address this massive need. We are sure that this will go a long way in supporting early stage startups that are committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of women entrepreneurs."

The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub recognises the significance of ensuring women's financial inclusion as a driving force behind economic growth. RBIH's Swanari Program taps into technology and innovation to enable 'Frictionless Finance for Every Woman in India.' RBIH works closely with the ecosystem through its various programs to help build solutions to specific problem statements. The current edition of TechSprint focuses on narrowing the gender gap by fostering innovative digital STP lending solutions tailored for women entrepreneurs. By extending chosen startups the opportunity to tap into its extensive resources and networks, RBIH aspires to drive impactful change in the financial ecosystem.

Applications for Swanari Techsprint 2023 are now open, and interested startups are invited to apply by 11th September 2023. More about this initiative here.

Built at IIM Ahmedabad, CIIE.CO is the country’s leading entrepreneurship centre and early stage technology investing platform. CIIE.CO backs fearless entrepreneurs building disruptive solutions and stands with the startups at their risky early stages, when they need most support while there is hardly any available. Through the continuum of incubation, acceleration, capital and insights – CIIE.CO offers everything it takes for these driven entrepreneurs to make a superlative impact. CIIE.CO is a Centre of Excellence backed by the Government of India’s DST. Over the last 20 years, CIIE.CO has made equity investments in more than 350 startups, accelerated over 1500 and mentored over 5000 startups over the last 20 years.

The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) – a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) – is an organisation that enables frictionless finance to a billion Indians. RBIH functions as a focal platform, bringing together members of financial, technological and academic institutions, to promote and accelerate innovation across the financial sector. With a robust ecosystem that enables the exchange of ideas, research and development of prototypes, RBIH aims to not only strengthen the Indian financial system but also keep India at the forefront of global financial innovation.

Cisco and Villgro Launch Accelerator Program ‘TVARAN’ to Support Upcoming Women-led Climate Solution Startups in India

Winners will get up to 1 crore financial support, and access to Villgro & CISCO’s network of technology, industry and business experts and investors

Villgro and CISCO India Cash Grant Program have jointly announced the launch of TVARAN, an initiative that will support the growth of India's women-led social enterprises in climate action. One of its kind in design, the program aims to expand the market presence of women-led start-ups innovating in renewable energy, water and waste management and climate-smart agriculture.

According to the World Economic Forum (source), women are more affected by climate change than men, and yet greentech is currently a male-dominated field. Moreover, it is well documented that the participation of women in climate response actions leads to better outcomes overall. However, one of the largely unaddressed challenges for women entrepreneurs remains access to markets. TVARAN aims to overcome this problem, through a focused market-entry and market expansion program to help five of the country’s upcoming women-led climate solutions.

“Powering an inclusive future for all is CISCO’s purpose. Through our partnership with Villgro, we are announcing our commitment to supporting women entrepreneurs driving climate resilience through their business. We are excited at this unique opportunity and look forward to staying closely engaged with the startups,” Harish Krishnan, Managing Director & Chief Policy Officer, CISCO India & SAARC said.

The 6-month targeted acceleration is a high-engagement initiative that is designed to finance and implement the go-to-market strategies of women entrepreneurs. Through the acceleration program, Villgro and CISCO will deploy support mechanisms in the form of financial support of INR 1 crore (up to INR 20 Lakhs per start-up), as well as support the capacity building, business planning, mentorship and peer learning, focussed towards the implementation of go-to-market strategies.

Jenaan Lilani Bhargava, Chief Operating Officer, Villgro Innovations Foundation said, “Villgro's work with women entrepreneurs has had a steadfast focus on market access enablement. That is where we believe ecosystem support is yet inadequate, and where Villgro can add the most value. TVARAN has been born out of this belief, with the objective of increasing the market presence of women-led solutions to climate change. We are grateful to have found a committed partner in CISCO towards this mission.”

Call for applications is now open for TVARAN. Start-ups in the climate action sector that are founded/co-founded by women with at least 50% shareholding, playing an active decision making role are eligible to apply.

To participate in the program, visit: https://villgro.org/current-programs/#cause-1

About Villgro

Villgro is India's foremost and one of the world's largest social enterprise incubators. Established in 2001, Villgro’s mission is to make innovative, impactful businesses succeed in Health, Agribusiness, and Climate Action. Since 2001, Villgro has supported 340 social enterprises that have raised over INR 4.28 billion in investments, created 5646 jobs and impacted over 20.8 million lives. Villgro was awarded the Top Incubator Award by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (GoI) in 2020 and the DivHERsity awards in 2022.

About CISCO

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in technology that powers the Internet. Cisco inspires new possibilities by reimagining your applications, securing your data, transforming your infrastructure, and empowering your teams for a global and inclusive future. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on Twitter. The India Cash Grant program uses innovation to identify new ways to solve challenges and partners with civil society agencies and key stakeholders to collaborate effectively. Our partners help create technology-based solutions that improve lives and enable an inclusive future for all. Reflecting Cisco’s global CSR efforts, our purpose in India goes beyond profits to benefit our employees, communities, and the planet. You can learn more via this link: https://www.cisco.com/c/en_in/about/csr/india-cash-grants.html

15 Women-led Startups Pitched to 11 Investors in 3rd Edn. of TiE Women Pitch Competition

Santhoshi Sushma of Autocracy Machinery seen pitching at TiE Investor Connect at Bisness Women Expo

TiE Hyderabad organised the TiE Women Pitch Competition - 2022, an initiative by TiE Global to Embrace, Engage and Empower women entrepreneurs across the globe. It was held on Saturday at the Hitex Women in Business Expo 2022. TiE Hyderabad also successfully conducted the TiE Investor Connect - Women Special Edition!

TiE Investor Connect is a platform that enables curated start-ups to present their business venture to top Indian PE/VC/Seed/Angel funds across the industry. This was the first session of TiE Hyderabad Investor Connect -2022 with a new approach and vibrancy and focused on Women Entrepreneurs. 15 Startups led/Co-led by Women Entrepreneurs, from the Early & Revenue stage from various sectors pitched to 11 Investors.

Out of the 80 applications received from women-led start-ups, a panel of the Investor Committee curated and lined up 15 Women Entrepreneurs from various sectors who presented their ventures to 11 Investors. For deeper dialogue, investors have shown interest in at least 10 startups and will further engage with them one on one. Sectors represented were Manufacturing, Technology, Education, Fashion, Food, Health & Wellness.

Dr. Varsha Prabala of 365veda seen pitching at TiE Investor Connect at Bisness Women Expo

Srusthi of B Arm seen pitching at TiE Investor Connect at Bisness Women Expo

The startups selected for the pitches include: 365veda (365 Wellness and HealthTech Pvt Ltd) represented by Dr Varsha Prabala; Autocracy Machinery Private Limited by Santhoshi Sushma Buddhiraju; B Arm by Srusthi; Eat Confetti by Niharika Gollapalli; Innomet Advanced Materials Pvt Ltd by Saritha Chilakapati; Involute training by Bala Mukkamala; Kriyo by Sucharitha Dasireddy; Snackerstreet Pvt. ltd by Divya Medar; Nextgen Property Adviser Private Limited by Anju Yadav; Nutrizzo Naturals Industries Pvt Ltd by Sindhu Saithi; Rev Your Soul by Sandhya Nagavarpu; Six Yards Plus by Mrinalini Shastry; Starbuzz (Krisattva Pvt Ltd) by Krishna Priya; WhatIsMyGoal by Humera Nishat.

The investors who these start-ups pitched include---Murali Krishna Gunturu from Inflexor Fund; Rathnakar Samvedam from Hyderabad Angels; Abhiram Katta from Endiya Partners; Srikant Tanikella from Pavestone; Shyam Penumaka from Dallas Venture Capital Prashanth Menon from Stratcap Advisory; Dr Ramakrishna Nalluri from Smileline Dental; Gaurav Mathur from Arteans; Ms Ravuri Lakshmi Reshma from Meenakshi group; Chandran Krishnan from Chennai Angels and Zaran Bhagwagar from Anthill Ventures

$1 Bn VC Fund for To Support 1000 Women-led/focused Startups

Ankita Vashishta, a venture capital investor, entrepreneur who is best known as founder of first women entrepreneurship VC funds - Saha Fund and StrongHer Ventures, is launching a $1 billion venture capital fund to support 1,000 women-led or women-focused start-ups in India and overseas in the next 5-years, reported The Hindu.

StrongHer Ventures has floated a $100 million venture fund for funding women startups. The VC firm will then launch another $350 million fund next year, while four more funds will be ready for launches in a phased manner thereafter.

The fund will invest in women-led or women-focussed startups in fintech, future of work, healthcare, consumer, and Web 3.0 that comprises crypto (NXT), metaverse, blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc.

Citing Ankita, the report further said that the new funds will cover women entrepreneurs across Europe, Latin America, MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) regions - mostly untapped markets from where a lot of women are beginning to participate in businesses

In a statement to The Hindu, Ankita Vashistha, said -"We will be a billion-dollar venture fund platform in the next five years, the largest in the world for women. Our plan is to launch at least five more venture funds focused on diverse domains to support the growth of the female economy in multiple geographies."

Saha Fund has invested in women-led startups of varied domains including Fitternity - a fitness discovery and booking platform, which got acquired by Cure.fit; GoCoop - a global handloom/Handicraft online marketplace; Shoptimize and My Ally, which was acquired by HR tech company Phenom People.

Post the success of Saha Fund, StrongHer Ventures is the second global women-focused tech fund launched by Ankita Vashistha, investing in women led/focused technology companies. StrongHer focuses on pre-seed and early stage tech-driven companies in the areas of fintech, future of work, healthcare and consumer.

Women-led Telangana Startups Shine at EXPO2020 India Pavilion

(From L-R) Ms Vijayadurga Ms Deepti Nathala Mr Sripal Reddy & Ms Shivani Sodagum at India Pavilion, Expo 2020 Dubai

Women-led Startups from Telangana are leading the way in attracting investors to the state’s startup ecosystem at the engagements associated with the ongoing Telangana week at EXPO2020 India Pavilion in Dubai.

These engagements are part of the ‘India Innovation Hub’ window that has been created at the India Pavilion.

All the women entrepreneurs would be visiting In5 at Dubai which is an enabling platform for entrepreneurs and startups, wherein they will attend sessions on pitching and market access with leading industry leaders.

They will also be meeting the sectoral experts and will have a networking session with local women leaders from Encubay, Dubai.

The Telangana Government-run WE-HUB focuses entirely on ensuring that the startups sustain and grow extensively by working with them through a 1-1 high touch model. These startups are guided with interventions needed in organizational management, financial re-modelling, and financial linkages.

The India Innovation Hub is a project at the Indian Pavilion at the World Expo 2020 wherein the pavilion is showcasing the top 500 most-reputed startups from India. it is a platform to showcase their innovations at the world stage. The project is working under the guidance of Consul General of India in Dubai Dr Aman Puri, and with the support of Indian Diaspora and Prominent Investor Institutions.

Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary of ITE&C Department said, “WE-HUB has been working extensively in terms of enabling market access, credit facilitation to women entrepreneurs. World Expo 2020 offers a rich opportunity to women-led startups to explore the international market there."

The women-led startup business leaders from the state, showcasing their innovation during the Telangana week (November 9-11), include Founder and CEO of Architude, VijayadurgaKoppisetti, who is an Architect, and is associated with the construction industry for past 14 years. “I strongly believe technology has a great potential to overcome the challenges against sustainability. Therefore, Architude has been started to commit to the sustainable development of the construction industry. Through the Expo 2020, I am hoping to develop a better network and learn about the market here,” said Ms. Vijayadurga.

Ms. Deepthi Nathalais another entrepreneur in the list, who graduated from IIT Madras in 2007. After working in Middle East, USA, South Asia for 13 years, she began her entrepreneurship journey by founding HECOLL. Eco-friendly and sustainable, HECOLL fabric is the world's first 3-in-1 fabric which blocks 99% UV rays, filters 95% pollution and kills Viruses & Bacteria upon contact.

Hilo Design is also part of the visiting startups delegation. A direct-to-consumer brand started by sibling entrepreneurs Ms MounaGummadi and Mr. SahithGummadi — it is a fashion tech startup that lets you discover your style and delivers personalized clothing. Ms. MounaGummadi said, "Through the startup events planned in Dubai as part of the Expo 2020, we are hoping to network and grow further."

Ms. NagaMallikaValluru and Mr. Siddhartha Malempati are the founding members of Radius EduTech, a company that is working on the idea of providing simulation boards for schools. Their Web platform allows users to pay, use, and host events, at any scale. The users can do branding, conduct business, and integrate it to their own platforms. With this, many of the listed companies in India trust the company’s OCTA Live platform for their Annual General shareholder meetings. “In the last 16 months, OCTA has hosted more than 834 AGMs of Top 400 listed companies of India. Along with this, the team has also launched Radius Exam platform that is now used for 1st round screening of thousands of prospective applicants to corporate interviews,” said Ms NagaMallika.

UN Women Showcase Asia-Pacific Care Industry Startups in Online Demo Day

Meet the most promising startups that are transforming care work into inclusive opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region

The UN Women Care Accelerator programme concluded with an online demo day, showcasing 13 Asia-Pacific startups with a focus on developing solutions for the Care-Economy. For more information about the startups, visit careaccelrator.seedstars.com.

Women in the Asia-Pacific are seen as the center of the family, responsible for taking care of the household and taking on a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work responsibilities. Research shows that unpaid care also emerges as a critical reason why women do not participate in paid work. This is especially prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region, which is the only region globally in which women’s participation in the labour force has been declining the past 10 years.

The accelerator aimed to identify and support entrepreneurs who are creating innovative solutions that help to make care services more accessible, affordable and increase the quality of child and elderly care services provided. In turn, these solutions have the potential to create decent work opportunities for caregivers and provide an opportunity for many women and their families to have a caregiving solution allowing them to fully take part in the workforce.

The UN Women Care Accelerator provided enterprises with a 4-month intensive training programme to build more sustainable and gender-inclusive business strategies. At the demo day, all participating startups had the opportunity to present their business strategies to potential investors and care ecosystem stakeholders such as mentors, investors, speakers, NGOs and international organizations.

“The Care Accelerator has really opened our eyes to the possibilities that ‘Care Entrepreneurship’ can offer to create decent employment opportunities and also improve affordability, access and quality of care services. However it will require strong collaboration with policymakers and corporates alike to create an inclusive care economy.” said Katja Freiwald Regional Programme Manager WeEmpowerAsia UN Women.

The demo day is the official culmination of the UN Women Care Accelerator program, presented by UN Women, WeEmpowerAsia, European Union, Bopinc and co-organized by Seedstars, where each startup got to pitch their product and share their progress. After the pitching, all the companies also participated in 1:1 meetings with investors and partners.

Demo day featured the following startups from the UN Women Care Accelerator programme:

• LoveCare saves clients time by matching them with the perfect carer that fits their needs and preferences in less than 5 minutes.
• Kiddocare gives the tools to millions of freelance caregivers and nurses throughout Asia to better care for their clients while helping them grow their businesses through technology.
• Pillar Health develops highly scalable tools that help independent care providers work more efficiently and operate their care services more effectively.
• Nannyz matches nannies and babysitters with families in the area.
• Kiidu is a care platform to find the most suitable nannies and caregivers in Thailand.
• Aseana Caregivers connects parents with trained, vetted and certified Malaysian babysitters, for personalized on-demand childcare.
• Carer provides caregivers the most comprehensive in-home nursing help and guidance.
• Ayat Care facilitates empowerment without boundaries by providing care and coaching exactly where it is needed and beneficial.
• Bihani Social Venture provides age inclusive services with a focus on mental and physical well-being for older people in Nepal.
• Mobiva empowers older people to live independently longer, healthier and safer while providing peace of mind to their families.
• JobNukkad is an online portal in India that helps families connect with caregivers in their locality without paying commission to an agency: it is cheap and fast.
• TiTLi unlocks livelihood opportunities for millions of women by helping them become skilled early childhood educators and caregivers.
• Angels & I provides a proprietary educational curriculum and certification for nannies to take care and educate children at home.

"We’ve been working with the founders on a weekly basis for the past four months and it’s so rewarding to see this clear business growth as well as their progress in becoming more gender inclusive, as reflected in their pitches. A special thank you goes to our mentors, who have been supporting the founders through this intense, but extremely valuable journey," said Seedstars Acceleration Program Manager Eugenia Schevchenko.

After two pitching sessions the jury, consisting of: Christina Teo, Chief Builder at she1K; Konstantin Hapkemeyer, Investment Manager Africa & Asia at Seedstars; Katja Freiwald Regional Programme Manager at WeEmpowerAsia; and Paul Ark, Partner & Head of ESG at Gobi Partners, decided on two grant winners. Kiddocare and Lovecare will receive USD 5,000 each to support the building of a more inclusive care industry in Asia-Pacific. The grant was provided by WeEmpowerAsia and Seedstars.

In case you missed the demo day and want to see the pitches or request a meeting with one of the founders, visit careaccelrator.seedstars.com.

WeEmpowerAsia is a UN Women programme funded by and in partnership with the European Union that seeks to increase the number of women who lead and participate in business in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. For more information, visit http://weempowerasia.org.

UN Women is a global champion for gender equality, working to develop and uphold standards and create an environment in which every woman and girl can exercise her human rights and live up to her full potential. UN Women is a trusted partner of advocates and decision-makers from all walks of life, and it is a leader in the effort to achieve gender equality.

The European Union is made up of 27 Member States that have decided to gradually link together their know-how, resources and destinies. Together, during a 50-year period of enlargement, they have built a zone of stability, democracy and sustainable development while maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedoms.

Seedstars is a private company based in Switzerland with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The group’s activities cover emerging ecosystems in more than 90 cities through a variety of initiatives: the FTxSDG Challenge, previously known as the Seedstars World Competition, the largest entrepreneurship competition in emerging markets; Seedstars programmes designed to support entrepreneurs in varying stages of growth via training, education, mentoring and access to resources; Seedstars 01 talent incubator providing digital skills and startup-based immersive education for the next generation of changemakers; Seedspace coworking spaces and hubs located in 15 countries; and Seedstars International, a global venture capital fund for seed stage startups. For more information, visit www.seedstars.com.

4 Hyderabad Startups Clinch Top Honours at the TiE Women - Regional Finals

• Sapien Biosciences declared the winner of the Regional Finals, now stand a chance to win an equity-free fund of $100,000 at the TiE Global Final Pitching Competition later this year
• Dibbu Solutions, Luxpack, Hemis, adjudged runners up and provided bootcamp opportunity and access to multiple mentorship programs 

Four start-ups from Hyderabad with innovative offerings for the healthcare and lifestyle sector walked away with top honours at the TiE Woman Regional Finals, virtually hosted by TiE Hyderabad on Monday.  One winner and 3 runners up were declared in a competition that witnessed over 16 women-led startups battle for top honours.

The winner of the Regional Finals Sapien Biosciences, co-founded by Dr. Jugnu Jain got the top prize for her biobank multi-disease screening solution idea. The first runner up position went to washable and reusable face mask and headgear creator Dibbu Solutions. Silpa Reddy founded Luxpack bagged the second runners up spot while Hemis, founded by Prashansa Shahani took away the 3^rd runners-up spot.

Dr. Jugnu, the winner took away a fully paid Boot Camp organised by empoWer (a tech accelerator exclusively for women entrepreneurs) and would be representing Hyderabad at the TiE Global Competition to be held in December 2020 where she could stand a chance to win an equity-free fund of $100,000 for her business pitch.

The winners were adjudged by an eminent jury panel comprising Lakshmi Nambiar (Anthill Ventures), Ranjan Chak (Oak Investment Partners) and Jay Krishnan (Mantra Capital) evaluated the business pitches put forward by the companies based on their strength of ideas, global scalability, and presentation.

TiE Women Winners List

Winner: Sapien Biosciences, co-founded by Dr Jugnu Jain, was declared the winner of the Regional Finals. The firm is a biobank and has a diverse sample collection across cancers, rare disorders, cardiovascular conditions, type 2 diabetes to name a few.

Runner up 1: Dibbu Solutions, represented by Deepthi Nathala, was adjudged the first runner up for their product Hecoll, a washable and reusable face mask and headgear that protects humans from airborne viruses. 

Runners Up 2: Silpa Lingareddy- founded Luxpack was announced as the second runner up for their business of manufacturing a rigid box company that promises to deliver an unparalleled luxury packaging experience.

Runners Up 3: Hemis, founded by Prashansa Shahani, was named the third runners up, A one-of-its-kind movement sees a range of possibilities using Hemp to create a wide range of sustainable products across several categories including apparel, footwear, accessories, stationery, home furnishing, wellness, and nutrition.

The three-runner ups will be eligible to attend the fully paid boot camp by empoWer and have an opportunity to be incubated at the technology business incubator SRiX besides access to a six-month-long mentorship at T-Hub in addition to the Mentor Advisor programme offered by TiE Hyderabad among other membership benefits. 

Each of the startups supported by 39 charter members from TiE Hyderabad were mentored for over 188 mentor hours through a massive exercise to embrace, engage and empower Women Founders, reflecting TiE organisation’s unflinching commitment in fostering women entrepreneurship.

“It’s an honour to be part of an event ideated by personalities who’ve set an example for several women entrepreneurs. India needs to go a long way in addressing the gender gap and involving women in economic activity can show tremendous impact in our growth,” said Nara Brahmani, Executive Director, Heritage Foods, a keynote speaker at the event.

“Our aim at TiE Women has always been to reach out to women entrepreneurs on a large scale and ensure job creation. The access that the forum has given for its applicants to investors and mentors alike, ensures a great opportunity to learn,” Hemalatha Annamalai, Chair, TiE Women Global and founder of Ampere Vehicles added.

“I am glad to see tremendous progress made by TiE Women. This is a great platform for women entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and leverage TiE Hyderabad mentorship opportunities, and gain access to the investor community. Women-led firms have consistently generated great revenue and have proved worthy of all the trust and investors who’ve believed in them,” stated, Sridhar Pinnapureddy, President, TiE Hyderabad (also Chairman and Managing Director of Ctrls). 

TiE Women chapter Lead and board member Rashida Adenwala (Founder R&A Associates), members from the Delhi and Amaravati chapters of the TiE played an integral part in the seamless organisation of the event.

The jury evaluating the business pitches through the Finals had generous words to share about the participants. “Scalability and a co-differentiator in business plans are significant to march ahead and I would want budding entrepreneurs to establish that before investing money in their products and entering the market,” shared Lakshmi Nambiar (Anthill Ventures).

Jay Krishnan (Mantra Capital) stated, “The fact that a lot of women are committed to chasing their entrepreneurial dreams, braving all such roadblocks and challenges, is wonderful to hear. The Indian startup ecosystem is only getting better with time, startups need to look at it as an opportunity to pivot your model.” 

Ranjan Chak (Oak Investment Partners) “They have surprised us with the level of insight in their well-fleshed out ideas. It’s encouraging to see their preparedness and for someone who has been in the startup sector for two decades now, I can assure you that the scope and innovation in these ideas are among the best I’ve seen in a long time,” he said. 

About TiE Women (Hyderabad): This is a flagship initiative launched by TiE Global in November 2019 after its successful program The All India Roadshow on Women's Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship (AIRSWEEE) & now in its expanded format is dedicated to Embrace, Engage and Empower women entrepreneurs across the globe. The program is aligned with TiE’s pillars of mentoring, education, and networking focused on fostering women entrepreneurs. This sector-agnostic program is specially created around supporting women entrepreneurs, irrespective of the size of their enterprises, origin, standing, or background. More importantly, give them a safe space to thrive in this growing economy.

HerHQ Media, India’s 1st Ad Revenue Generation platform for Women-Centric Startups Launched; Ties up with IncNut Digital’s 24 Mn Women Community

IncNut Digital, a globally renowned media and commerce company, appoints HerHQ Media as its exclusive sales partner for India region.

Over the years we are witnessing constant evolution in consumption and purchase behaviours; one such is, women’s strong voice, influence and participation in decision making, more than ever before. Women drive 80% of consumer purchases through a combination of buying power and influence. They are the gateway to the people in their households as well in their social and business networks.

Smart and agile companies have realised this shift and are endorsing women communities as an integral part of their messaging. While women-centric innovation in products and services is on the rise, still, potential of such platforms continues to be underserved. HerHQ Media is on a mission to create an assemblage of engaged and heterogenous women communities/cohorts for brands to leverage at scale. HerHQ’s aim is to reach~100 million audiences by aggregating platforms catering to women across life-stages.

Speaking on the association, Meera Chopra, Founder, HerHQ Media said, “We are excited to partner with IncNut Digital to represent their expansive reach of 24 million women communities across MomJunction, Stylecraze and The Bridal Box. With common goals and shared values, together we look forward to achieving new milestones”.

“Brands will find immense value in this partnership for a variety of reasons - HerHQ Media is a first-of-its-kind women focussed monetisation network that plays the role of a unifier by aggregating platforms, and provides a single window for brands to advertise. Today, brands are super engaged with their audiences and require targeted media plans and that is why a one-size-fit-all strategy may not be relevant, all the time. HerHQ Media’s heterogeneous platform enables brands to connect with women audiences.”

Chaitanya Nallan, CEO, IncNut Digital said, “IncNut Digital’s women centric communities, from Stylecraze (India’s largest beauty & wellness community) to MomJunction (India’s biggest parenting community) have been an integral part of a woman’s journey and have assisted them in making informed decisions across some of their  significant life stages. With growing participation of women in the economy there has been an explosive increase in consumption by women. We are excited to partner with HerHQ Media which brings in the right expertise and experience in leveraging this trend and positioning us optimally for this inflection point in our economy.” 

Natasha Garyali, VP, IncNut Digital said, “We see women of today as a powerful, dominant voice when it comes to consumption as well as making purchase decisions. This trend will stimulate extraordinary growth in the economy as well for the businesses that serve women. With our partnership with Meera and her unique team at HerHQ Media we hope we can broaden the gender lens to view the role of women in the wider ecosystem  as  major growth drivers.”

HerHQ Media Networks  launched in June, 2020 and is headquartered in Delhi, India; HerHQ’s  mission is to help women entrepreneurs and women centric product platforms to develop a robust and sustainable revenue model by offering customised engagement solutions to brands targeting women. For this, HerHQ Media provides an array of solutions, such as - Brand boxes, Advertorial, Influencer marketing, Content partnership, Product review, Native advertising and Social amplification. HerHQ Media is currently building tools that will give brands more comprehensive insights into women cohorts and help them fine tune media and messaging.

Please find link to the upcoming website

 www.herhqmedia.com

About the Founder:

The founder of HerHQ Media Networks, Meera Chopra is a Senior Global Executive in Media and Entertainment. Meera has over two decades of diversified experience in India, Middle east and South East Asia markets  scaling companies from zero to one. She has specialised in Brand Marketing from the University of Pennsylvania and has worked across businesses such as Times Group, Verizon, Viu, Komli.

9 Startups Graduate From Zone Startups India’s empoWer Accelerator Program

• empoWer, India’s first tech accelerator for women entrepreneurs, hosted a Demo Day for its 4th Edition with a cohort of 9 startups 


• The 2019 cohort presented their startup pitches to an audience and jury consisting of investors, corporates, entrepreneurs, government partners and industry experts


• Top 3 startups received a total cash grant of INR 37.5 Lakhs


• One startup was selected for a one-week market access to Quebec.

Zone Startups India hosted the demo day of the 4th cohort of empoWer accelerator program, at the BSE International Convention Centre. The 4-week accelerator program culminated in top 9 women entrepreneurs from the cohort presenting their startups, with over 50+ leading industry players, successful entrepreneurs, top corporate professionals, delegates from the government, and prolific investors in attendance.

The 4th Edition of empoWer was launched on June 21, 2019, inviting applications from technology-led women-owned businesses in enterprise tech, social impact and consumer tech. This 2019 edition is sponsored by BSE CSR Integrated Foundation and launched in partnership with the Québec Government. Post the program announcement, roadshows were held across 4 cities in India with the final launch in Mumbai to pool in the best technology startups from diverse sectors.The roadshows attracted a total of 150+ attendees. With 270+ applicants received for the program, top 14 startups were selected for empoWer bootcamp. 

The 3-day bootcamp took place in September 2019, with focus on designing business model, pitch coaching sessions and peer to peer knowledge sharing. 9 women founders from the bootcamp were on-boarded as a part of the 4-week accelerator program.

The sectors ranged across logistics, healthcare, AgriTech, capacity building, virtual reality, FinTech, IoT, interior design, and crowdfunding. empoWer accelerator program took on a fresh approach this year by providing sector-specific connects locally with mentors, investors and corporates. They were also hosted for one-on-one meetings in Mumbai with the legal firm, Lexstart, and Finance & Accounting firm, Savage & Palmer. One-on-one investor meets were facilitated with Artha Fund Ventures, BayTree and Unicorn Ventures.

Says Hemant Gupta, MD, Zone Startups India – “This is the 4th edition of empoWer and we have leveraged the learnings from the past 3 editions to make it more impactful. We have a tight cohort of 9 startups that have undergone two rounds of screening. Rather than calling the startups to Mumbai multiple times, we have moved to a localised model of support, providing the startups the support/mentorship/connects they need in their cities’ of operation. However, the core of the program stays the same, we will be supporting and tracking these startups even after the Demo day and providing them the support they need to scale and succeed”.

The opening fireside chat at the empoWer Demo Day was delivered by Dharti Desai, Vice President - TiE New York and Vice-Chair TiE International Women and was moderated by Harshit Desai, Head - customer experience, strategic initiatives and digital, Aditya Birla Capital, with a focus on how startups can scale their startups to a global level with the role that communication plays in its success.

The fireside chat was followed by a high-profile panel discussion moderated by Rashmi Bansal, author, entrepreneur and a youth expert. The panelists included Akshay Soni, Managing Director - N/Core, Sharda Agarwal, co-Founder - Sepalika and Marketgate and Functional Nutrition Therapy Practitioner from the Nutrition Therapy Association, Hariharan Mahadevan, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategic Projects, Analytics, MIS and CSR at ICICI Securities, and Prachi Jain, Director at Achieving Women Entrepreneurs Funds. The talk addressed one of the major pain points in the ecosystem for women entrepreneurs i.e. Funding challenges.

Akshay Soni, Dharti Desai, Hariharan Mahadevan, Prachi Jain and Sharda Agarwal donned the jury hat to judge the 9 startups from the 2019 cohort that presented their startups. Pratyusha Pareddy, Co-founder of Nemo.Care, emerged as the winner of the empoWer cash grant of INR 18 lakhs. Nupur Gupta, Co-founder of NIRA and Monika Shukla, Co-founder of LetsEndorse, were announced as the first and second runner-ups respectively, with a cash grant of INR 12 lakhs for the 1st runner-up and INR 7.5 Lakhs for the 2nd runner-up. The cash grants were supported by BSE CSR Integrated Foundation.

Based on the international scalability potential, NemoCare was offered a one-week market access trip to Montreal by Government of Quebec, tentatively scheduled for May 2020.

Francis Paradis, Consul & Director of the Quebec Government Office in Mumbai shared a few words about the startup selection for the market access trip with empoWer. He says, “Use of smart technology in neonatal care helps to nurture a healthy generation. Who else but a woman can understand it better! Hence, Nemocare was an obvious choice of Quebec government as we give priority to diversity, women empowerment, health care and AI. We are delighted to see all these points converge in the winner of empower 2019 cohort who will be eligible for a Quebec market access trip in 2020."

The program participants had great things to share about empoWer. “empoWer is the push and conviction that every entrepreneur needs in their journey. The accelerator program opens doors to numerous industry experts relevant to your line of business. BECKFriends.com benefitted from the connects made with blockchain experts and international delegates for market access. And while the program ends, the network remains to be reached out for any advice or access needs. This has been a truly empowering and enriching 4 weeks!”, says Shikha Pandey Co-Founder, BECKFriends.com.

empoWer now has a cumulative cohort size of 79 women entrepreneurs, built over 4 cohorts. The empoWer cohort will receive year-long post-program support.

How 50 Cities Scored on Supporting Women Entrepreneurs from 2017 to 2019

At the 10th annual Dell Women Entrepreneur Network Summit, Dell Technologies announced findings of the 2019 Women Entrepreneur Cities (WE Cities) Index, ranking 50 global cities on their ability to foster growth for women entrepreneurs. Building on annual research since 2010, Dell Technologies ranks cities based on the impact of local policies, programs and characteristics in addition to national laws and customs to help improve support for women entrepreneurs and the overall economy.

Building on 10 years of research on women entrepreneurs, Dell Technologies partnered with IHS Markit to research and rank 50 cities on five important characteristics, including access to: Capital, Technology, Talent, Culture and Markets. These pillars were organized into two groups — operating environment and enabling environment. The overall rating is based on 71 indicators; 45 of which have a gender-based component. Individual indicators were weighted based on four criteria: relevance, quality of underlying data, uniqueness in the index and gender component.



All 50 cities made progress since 2017, however some cities made bigger strides than others and the race to the top inevitably left some cities behind. Highlights include:

• The San Francisco Bay Area out ranked New York for the No. 1 spot this year, largely in part because the Bay Area is one of the best places for women to gain access to capital. It also moved from 6th place to 2nd place in Culture, illustrating that the number of role models and public dialogue around eliminating the ‘bro culture’ is making an impact.


• Out of a total of 100 possible points, the No. 1 ranked San Francisco Bay Area scored only 63.7. That’s evidence that there is still much work to do to level the field for women – and validates the need for this kind of research and outreach to policymakers to move the needle for female founders.


• Lack of funding, high-cost of living, and the lack government led policies that support women entrepreneurs were among the barriers, globally.


• Thirty out of 50 cities improved on more than half of their indicators, with Latin America and Europe seeing the highest percentage of their cities move up.


• The most-improved cities represent nearly every region, which indicates how broad-based the improvements have been around the world.


• Mexico City had the greatest improvement ranking No. 45 in 2017, moving up to No. 29 this year. In particular, the city increased women in education, at top business schools and in its legislature, and also increased corporate vendor procurement programs and access to capital for women entrepreneurs via crowdfunding campaigns.

"When we invest in women, we invest in the future; communities prosper, economies thrive and the next generation leads with purpose,” said Karen Quintos, EVP and chief customer officer at Dell Technologies. “By arming city leaders and policymakers with actionable, data-driven research on the landscape for women entrepreneurs, we can collectively accelerate the success of women-owned businesses by removing financial, cultural and political barriers."

Advocating for Women Entrepreneurs

The 2017 to 2019 WE Cities Index results highlight the successes and challenges that each city faces, and where cities can learn best practices from one another. These key learnings, if supported by local governments, can add up to big changes for women-owned businesses, globally.

Based on the findings and comparison between the 2017-2019 indices, Dell Technologies has developed a set of WE Cities Policy Recommendations focused on three areas, including:

• Access to and the development of financial and human capital.


• Private and public sectors role in increasing access to local and global networks and markets.


• How government and business leaders can help women entrepreneurs thrive in the changing-face of technology.

“When more women work, economies grow. Technology is helping to drive this progress as a gender-neutral enabler, and helps create a level playing field,” said Amit Midha, president of Asia Pacific & Japan, Global Digital Cities at Dell Technologies. “Whilst all cities in the Index have improved, the crucial factor is the consistency of this improvement across the different factors that impact women entrepreneurs’ success. The WE Cities Index helps Dell Technologies get closer to our customers and understand the landscape in each city so we are better able to help women entrepreneurs scale their businesses.”

“Our mission is to empower women across the globe by removing barriers to entrepreneurship, accelerating positive change that allows them to thrive. Building on 10 years of research on women entrepreneurs, Dell Technologies is committed to help power the success of entrepreneurs by developing technology solutions that enable human potential. Through the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), Dell Technologies supports and nurtures a community of female entrepreneurs by providing access to technology, networks and capital”, says Sheenam Ohrie, VP Dell Digital and APJ CIO Leader, Dell Technologies. “While all the 50 cities have made progress since 2017, Bangalore and Delhi from India have made the most improvement in the Capital and Culture barriers in the list of top 50 WE (Women Entrepreneurs) cities.”

“The 2019 Dell WE Cities report is unique from other bodies of research in that it not only ranks 50 global cities on their ability to foster women entrepreneurs, it shows how the cities have improved from their 2017 benchmark,” said Karen Campbell, Consulting Associate Director, IHS Markit. “This year we can see some patterns emerging. Ranked cities have collectively made the most improvement in the Capital and Culture pillars, which shows the importance of measuring not just the operating environment but also enabling environment for women entrepreneurs. This data-driven approach shows where women entrepreneurs still face barriers in scaling their business.”

WE Cities

Dell Technologies partnered with IHS Markit — a leading source of insight and analytics that shape today’s business landscape — to launch this first-of-its-kind, global research that will measure a city’s ability to attract and support high-potential women entrepreneurs.

Research for WE Cities began during the 2016 DWEN Research Symposium chaired by Dr. David Ricketts from the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard. The research symposium brought together 40 global thought leaders, women entrepreneurs, academics and media to develop insights for the model. Key takeaways from the conversations at the Symposium included:

• Access to capital is still the No. 1 challenge that women entrepreneurs face, although the numbers are showing a slight improvement


• Creating robust ecosystems with incubators, accelerators and mentors makes a world of difference for entrepreneurs — it’s all about the network


• Cultural norms and their policy implications put serious binds on female entrepreneurs


• Talent, both in terms of the entrepreneurs’ own talent, including education and experience, and having access to a skilled staff also resonated as highly important

The successful pilot of the 2016 Index led to the scaling for the 2017 Index to include 50 cities and the re-measuring and ranking for 2019.

About the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network

As the visionary outcome of a true entrepreneur, Dell Technologies is committed to help power the success of entrepreneurs by developing technology solutions that enable human potential. Through the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network, Dell Technologies supports and nurtures a community of female entrepreneurs by providing access to technology, networks and capital. Learn more here.

About the Annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network Summit

Dell Technologies is excited to host the 10th annual Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) Summit in Singapore from July 14-16, 2019. Over 150 female founders, CEOs, dignitaries, Dell Technologies leaders and more will convene to connect and discuss today’s pressing topics. Through inspiring keynotes, informative panels and innovative workshops, the 2019 DWEN Summit will be the go-to resource for support and solutions that facilitate entrepreneurship. It is Dell Technologies’ mission to bring vital knowledge and tailored technology for women-led companies small and large.

8 Women-led Energy Startups Receive Seed Fund of upto $10,000 each through POWERED Accelerator Demo

POWERED Accelerator hosted a grand demo day for its second cohort at The LaLit Ashok, Bangalore on the occasion of International Women's Day, 2019. As part of the programme’s second cohort, 8 startups are set to receive a seed fund of up-to $10,000 each.

POWERED Accelerator is a first-of-its-kind entrepreneurship programme, globally, focusing on women-led businesses in the energy value chain, set up as a joint initiative of Shell Foundation (a UK based charity) the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), Government of India’s Department for Science and Technology (DST), operated by Zone Startups.

The Demo Day witnessed key stakeholders of the industry including corporates, investors, and industry experts exploring synergies with the cohort.

Keynote speakers at the event comprised of Starlene Sharma, Cleantech Women Innovation Network; Huda Jaffer, Selco Foundation; Dr. T.V. Ramachandra, Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc Bangalore who emphasized on the role of women entrepreneurs in the sector and the impact it has on overall development goals in the long run.

The startups were selected through a competitive process and evaluated on multiple criteria with the final course of evaluations being conducted as part of the Demo Day by a jury comprising of the following:

• Navin Honagudi, Partner, Kae Capital


• Ananth Aravamudan, Energy Expert, Villgro


• Sajju Jain, Founder Impact + Efficacy Global CXO Network


• Leena Thomas, Founder, Global Business Inroad


• Emmanuel Murray, Senior Advisor, Caspian Impact Investments


• Nagaraja Rao, Head of Investment Facilitation, PFAN Investments


• Ashwin Raguraman, Ffounding Partner, Bharat Innovation Fund


• Anuradha Bhavnani, Ex-Director, Shell Foundation


• Nikhil John, Portfolio Manager, Social Alpha

The startups selected for the seed fund are as follows:

REVY Environmental Solutions which has developed a cost effective and indigenous process of making Anaerobic Granulated Sludge optimized to enable quick start-up and easy operation of UASB in wastewater treatment. The system generates biogas which can be commercialized.

Cydee Technologies Pvt. Ltd., which is developing unique streetlights to help public and private sectors reduce the number of light poles by 60%, saving 60% material, manufacturing, deployment and maintenance cost along with 30% eExtra eEnergy sSaving compared to conventional LED sStreetlights.

Pushan Renewable Energy Pvt. Ltd.  which is a social enterprise that brings solar power to people’s homes and raises awareness on benefits of energy availability and how solar power can meet people’s energy demands. They develop local entrepreneurs and put special emphasis on the energy needs of women at home. They also provide innovative solar powered systems for income generation of rural Indian women.

Durga Energy which is a private limited solar module manufacturing company established through investments from four Cluster Level Federations. It is a first-of-its-kind solar module manufacturing company that is managed and operated by local tribal women who underwent rigorous training in technology and operations.

FinEffi Energy Solutions which aims to save energy in the residential and commercial sector and make the end user aware of their energy consumption, using Internet of OThings (IOT) devices and data analytics.

GTarang Energy Solutions which is developing devices to convert waste energy from day to day activities at individual and industrial setups into useful energy. Their current product is a belt to convert waste thermal energy in various processing industries into electricity.

DD Bio Solution Technology Pvt Ltd which produces green energy from agro waste providing livelihood for rural women & an optimized supply chain of agro waste utilization. It has developed prototypes for eight products in line for commercialization. The three mMain products of the company are smokeless combustion chamber, pellet machine, and bio pellets with stoves catering to rural households.

Prakriti Biotechnologies which covert organic waste into energy by using membrane based modular solutions. They provide a turnkey solution to purify bBiogas to Bio-CNG (vehicular fuel and PNG) and industrial carbon dioxide.

“The POWERED Accelerator is a critical part of the POWERED programme, a joint partnership between DFID India and Shell Foundation. Through the POWERED Accelerator we aim to support women entrepreneurs working on solutions in the energy sector. We have been delighted to see how many women are building new energy businesses and breaking barriers. Zone Startups has been instrumental in providing early-stage funding, business support and mentoring. We believe all the businesses have a huge potential to create impact and become role models for future leaders in the energy sector,” said Heidi Hafes, Market Development Manager, Shell Foundation.

“This pioneering entrepreneurship programme is strengthening the ecosystem for women’s active and substantive participation across the energy value chain.  We look forward to seeing these businesses and, with them, the POWERED network grows to continue to support innovation in the sector.” said, Adritha Subbiah, Energy and Green Growth Analyst, DFID India, British High Commission.

The objective of the programme is to support selected ventures to expand their innovative and consumer-responsive services, products and financing by taking them through an accelerator programme that includes validation, peer network, mentorship, industry connects, and access to investors.  Blackforest Solutions GmBH, HDFC Bank, Microsoft Corporation, and L&T Public Charitable Trust are partners for the programme and supporting the cohort by providing infrastructure and mentoring support and exploring suitable synergies with them. We have engaged 20 women energy entrepreneurs and leaders till now and will continue to support them for the next one to two years to scale up their startups.

"POWERED Accelerator program has helped me immensely and changed the way I used to look at myself. It has created a great passion in me to get more and more out of my business. My team can feel this difference. It has helped in understanding the expectations of investors and opened up avenues to approach them.", said Bhavana Chittawar, FinEffi Solutions.

In Slew of Incentives for Women-led Startups, Kerala Announces Free Incubation, ₹5 Lakh Marketing Endorsement

In a bid to strengthen women entrepreneurship and promote women founded startups, the state government of Kerala has announced a slew of attractive incentives to encourage women-led companies, which currently account for 13% of the start-ups in Kerala.

The state government has issued a notification endorsing the proposals submitted by its nodal agency for technical entrepreneurship, the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), in this regard. The proposals, to be implemented under the "Youth Entrepreneurship Development Programme" (YEDP), was submitted by KSUM CEO Saji Gopinath.\

Two cohorts of 10 startups exclusively for women shall be taken as part of this scheme.

Incentives announced for Women-led startups -

1. Free 3-months pre-incubation support, including mentorship and technical help,



2. KSUM to bear the registration cost and travel expenses of women founders who have a valid start-up product to exhibit in national and international exhibitions (upto 4-times in the start-up life cycle, subject to review)



3. KSUM to endorse marketing activities for up to Rs 5 lakh per start-up per year for two years.




4. The moratorium (a temporary prohibition) on the seed funding support scheme of the KSUM will be extended to two years from one year.


5. Technology transfer support for women-led startups with a ceiling of Rs 10 lakh

Other highlights of the initiative include fast track soft loan against purchase order, fast track soft loan as advance for projects received from the Government departments. About 10% seats will be earmarked for women in International Exposure Programmes.

In India, the participation of women in the Indian funded startup ecosystem stands at 22%, largely mirroring trends in the West.

However, women constitute around 14% of the total entrepreneurship i.e. 8.05 million out of the total 58.5 million entrepreneurs, said the 6th Economic Census released last December. Out of total women entrepreneurs, 2.76 million women constituting 13.3% of women entrepreneurs work in agriculture sector whereas 5.29 million women constituting more than 65% work in non-agriculture sector. The average employment in women-owned enterprises is meager 1.67.

Recently, in an event in Kerala, Satyajeet Singh, a top Facebook official in India said that lack of networks and accessible technological infrastructure are holding India's women entrepreneurs back in their tracks despite of the fat that 4 out of every 5 women from metros as well as smaller towns in India are eager to start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs.

Earlier this year, KSUM partnered with Unity Technologies, a San Francisco, California-based game development company, to launch a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and gaming, in order to help the startup culture boom in the gaming and AR/VR sectors.

In March, Kerala, with support from Indian space agency ISRO, had launched Space Technology Application Development Ecosystem (STADE) in Trivandrum, which is aimed as a facilitation centre for companies and startups that are into space data analytics and development of space-tech technologies and components.

18 Tech Women Entrepreneurs Bag Funding from empoWer

Zone Startups
India hosted the demo day of the 3^rd cohort of empoWer accelerator
program, on 29th March 2019 at the BSE International Convention Centre. The
demo day was attended by over 100 guests, that largely included the investor
community, industry leaders and large corporations. The grand Demo Day followed
a 6-month accelerator program, which connected these entrepreneurs to over 90+
mentors, including industry leaders and subject matter experts.

The 3^rd cohort of empoWer was
launched in September 2018, with a focus on technology-led women-owned
businesses in enterprise tech and social tech. 15 women founders were
on-boarded as a part of the 2 parallel tracks. 
This edition of empoWer is in partnership with Indian Clearing Corporation
Limited (ICCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of BSE Ltd. (BSE), as the lead
Industry Sponsor and Department of Science and Technology (GoI), Government of
Quebec, Concordia University, La Coop fédérée, Caisse de dépôt et placement du
Québec and Amazon Launchpad,  as
Supporting Partners.

The launch was a part of a full-day
conference that was presided by 25+ women leaders from the industry. This was
followed by multi-city roadshows at Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Pune, and
an online application campaign that brought in 285 applications from diverse
domains – ranging across financial services, media, smart cities, healthcare,
education, agriculture and retail to name a few. The program focused on technology areas such as Deep Tech, Artificial Intelligence,
Machine Learning, Enterprise Mobility, Search & Feedback Engines,
Enterprise Software; making it is a very interesting mix of tech applications.

Says Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director
(India), Zone Startups – “This was a new experience for us, to manage 2
parallel cohorts under empoWer. The nature of startups is to be iterative, and
we at Zone Startups India consider ourselves to be one. After the first 2
cohorts, we realized the need to split up enterprise tech and social tech as
separate themes; as the nature of support and program required is different.
One the feedback we got over the past 2 years, was a request from entrepreneurs
who missed out due to smaller cohort size, asking if we would think of
expanding the same. This year, with the funding availability it gave us the
bandwidth to so. We are extremely delighted by the composition of the cohorts
and the kind of companies that are being built. We look forward to greater
success with empoWer and enabling more women entrepreneurs in India”.

The opening Keynote at the empoWer Demo
Day was delivered by Apurva Purohit, President - Jagran Prakashan Ltd., and she
touched upon an empowering message to our women leading the way in today’s
startup ecosystem

The keynote address was followed by a high
profile panel discussion on whether gender inclusion is the key to boosting
innovation in entrepreneurial ecosystem. The panel was made up of
representatives from a diverse background, and comprised of Deepali Naair,
Director - Marketing (India & South Asia), IBM, Anjalli Ravi Kumar, Social
Mission Director, Unilever and Shweta 
Aprameya, Co-founder HAPPY & Founder AU
Welfare Foundation. The session was moderated by Kritika Saxena, Chief
of Bureau- Mumbai and South, CNBC-TV18.

After much deliberation, the jury of
investors and tech leaders awarded the top 18 women-led startups with an equity
free seed funding of INR 5 lakhs each, based on the strength of their business
model, their team, their market viability and their products/services. The seed
funds were supported by BSE CSR Foundation.

The grantees were:

- A. Soumya Rao, Founder,  UpSoil Technologies

- Gayatri Mathkar, Co-founder, Skygge

- Gitanjali Banerjee, Founder, Fertility
Dost

- Kajal Gohil, Co-founder, ARKidzoo

- Manasi Kulkarni, Co-founder, Innoweave
Biocare

- Poonam Choudhary, Co-founder, Vendaxo

- Poonam Gupta, Founder, WeeSure

- Prajakta Kuwalekar, Founder,
EngenderedCo

- Pritha Datta, Founder, Econolytics

- Richa Sethi, Co-founder, GetLitt!

- Ridhima Gauba, Co-founder - Interview
Air

- Romita Ghosh, Founder, MedSamaan

- Sailaja Nori, COO, Traxion LLP

- Shilpa Malik, Founder, Bioscan Research

- Sonam Motwani, Founder, Karkhana.io

- Sridevi Arunprakash, Co-founder, GUVI

- Surabhi Srivastava, Co-founder,
Innovision Tech

- Vartika Manasvi, Founder, StackRaft

The grant awards were followed by several
category takeaways by the partners.

2. Based on the international scalability
potential, seven startups were offered a 1-week market access trip to Montreal
by Government of Quebec:

- Kajal Gohil, Co-founder, ARKidzoo

- Keerti Singh, Co-founder, Hitwicket

- Poonam Choudhary, Co-founder, Vendaxo

- Poonam Gupta, Founder, WeeSure

- Prajakta Kuwalekar, Founder,
EngenderedCo

- Pritha Datta, Founder, Econolytics

- Shilpa Malik, Founder, Bioscan Research

Dominic Marcotte, Consul, and Director of
the Quebec Government Office in Mumbai is very happy with this partnership. He
says, “It is a matter of great pride for the Government of Quebec to support
the empoWer program. Our partnership with Zone Startups India has flourished in
the second year with more partners from Quebec supporting the market access
trip. As a part of its international policy, Quebec supports diversity and
minorities. We believe that enabling women to become successful entrepreneurs
is the best means of empowerment.”

Sravani Chandramukhi Cheemala, Co-founder,
Mirsae was offered to join the Amazon Launchpad Program.

The program received amazing
positive feedback from its participants. “Being a part of empoWer has been an
extremely enriching experience. As an entrepreneur, you are always looking to
meet people who can mentor, partner, share and do business with. In these 4
months of being associated with empoWer, I was able to meet a variety of such
people that have helped me and my business grow.”, says Pritha Datta,
Founder,  Econolytics.

empoWer now has a cumulative cohort size of 65 women
entrepreneurs, built over 3 cohorts. From the first 2 cohorts, a cumulative of
INR 60 Crores has been raised by Founders, and there have been 3 solid
acquisitions. empoWer is at the forefront of being the go-to platform for women
entrepreneurs that are looking to accelerate their ventures, and Zone Startups
India is gung-ho about launching newer initiatives under this banner.

10 Women Founded Tech Startups Awarded by DST, Govt of India and AnitaB.org

The AnitaB.org India, a nonprofit organization focused on the advancement of women announced the Top 10 winners of the 8th edition of the Women Entrepreneur Quest (WEQ) 2018. WEQ is a unique contest for technology startups founded by women. All the Top 10 winners received an all-expenses-paid experiential learning visit to the Silicon Valley, US.

The WEQ 2018 finale was held during AnitaB.org’s flagship conference in Bangalore, the Grace Hopper Celebration India 2018 (GHCI 18), the largest conference for women technologists in Asia. More than 5000 women from across the world attended the conference. The conference is being held from November 14-16, 2018 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC).

The Top 10 winners were selected from 266 applications received from across India. The applicants were evaluated on their product/solutions and business model.

#	Name	Designation	Startup	City
1	Anushka Shetty	Founder	Plop chat	Bangalore
2	Kalyani Khona	Founder & CEO	Inclov	Delhi
3	Neha Satak	Founder & CEO	Astrome	Bangalore
4	Pallavi Gupta	Founder	Espresso Labs	Delhi
5	Radhika Patil	Founder & CEO	Cradlewise	Bangalore
6	Shampa Choudhury	Founder & CEO	Citility	Bangalore
7	Shruthi Reddy	Founder & CEO	Anthyesti	Kolkata
8	Surabhi Das	Founder & Chief Legal Officer	Ziroh Labs	Bangalore
9	Suruchi Rao	Founder	Ossus Biorenewables	Bangalore
10	Tarusha Mittal	Founder & COO	Ethx.co	Delhi

WEQ 2018 is sponsored by the AnitaB.org India and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. The Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) also plays an integral role in supporting and organizing WEQ 2018. The joint partnership has existed since 2014 and is strongly committed to supporting the Government of India’s policies and programs, promoting entrepreneurship among women in India.

“WEQ has always had the ambitious objective to identify and reward strong women founders with technology startups. Over the years we have seen tremendous growth in the quality and number of women entrepreneurs, with the potential to build successful businesses. Among the past WEQ winners 75% of the startups have witnessed significant growth in their operations and customer base. Each WEQ 2018 winner is highly talented and we are sure the experience and exposure in Silicon Valley will significantly add to the growth of their startup,” said Geetha Kannan, Managing Director, AnitaB.org India.

Dr. Anita Gupta, Scientist G/Adviser and Associate Head-Innovation and Entrepreneurship, DST, Government of India said, “Government, Industry and Academia partnership is key to catapulting economic development. The Government of India has instituted policy measures to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, especially among women. The government aims to bring women to the forefront of India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing access to finance, networks, markets and learning. Our association with AnitaB.org is part of that continued exercise."

Dr. Rajiv Tayal , Executive Director, Indo-U.S Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) said, “Startups need the knowledge and capability in every aspect that is vital to the business. The WEQ initiative is one such platform which goes beyond borders in helping women entrepreneurs get a holistic learning that will help them grow their business. IUSSTF is rightly positioned to leverage its vast network in India and United States to support the top winners of WEQ Contest to go that extra mile by providing unique exposure to the globally recognized Silicon Valley Ecosystem."

6 Women-Led Energy-Linked Startups from POWERED Accelerator to Receive $10K Seed Fund

POWERED Accelerator, a first-of-its-kind entrepreneurship programme, globally, focusing on women-led businesses in the energy value chain, has announced a seed funding of $10,000 for 6 of the shortlisted startups from its first cohort of 10 startups.

The six women led startups selected for the seed fund are:

Cellerite Systems - A startup developing an innovative Electric Vehicle charger that focuses on reducing the charging time of the vehicle, thereby increasing the travel range of these vehicles.

Loans4SME - An alternative lending platform that connects energy businesses with debt providers.

HoneyComb Inventions - A startup that aims at enhancing the duration of power back up supplies of healthcare facilities.

Kumudini Enterprises - A startup completely run by women, providing energy services and devices in rural communities, with a special focus on Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). 

Upcycler’s Lab - A startup that makes sustainability-based learning tools for children above the age of five. They aim to create awareness and educate children on the need for sustainability in accordance with UN SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production.

Taru Naturals - A network that connects farmer communities with clean technology and renewable energy.

POWERED Accelerator recently showcased their first cohort of women-led start-ups and their innovative technology solutions to an audience of investors, corporates, multilaterals, government representatives, and CSR heads at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on September 6^th, 2018. The cohort includes a diverse set of 10 start-ups, with technology applications addressing issues across mobility, energy access, energy finance, sustainability awareness, healthcare, and food security.

The accelerator programme was launched in April this year by UK government's Department for International Development (DFID) India and Shell Foundation in partnership with Zone Startups India.

Jan Thompson, British Deputy High Commissioner, inaugurated the day with a special keynote. In her keynote, she highlighted that as partners, DFID believes that the provision of affordable, reliable modern energy products and services to women provides a huge opportunity to unlock the potential to improve the lives of their families for generations.

An esteemed panel of jury and the audience present assessed the cohort pitches on the day as part of the seed fund evaluation process.  They evaluated the cohort on Transformative concept and technology, scalability potential, entrepreneur/team strength, role of seed fund in start-up’s growth journey and communication skills. The jury included

• Anita Gupta, Scientist G, and Associate Head, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, DST, Govt. of India;


• Sam Parker, Global Director, Shell Foundation;


• Anna French, Deputy Head, DFID India, and Team Leader Urban, Energy and Green Growth Team;


• Suhela Khan, Program Coordinator, UN Women India;


• Vikas Bali, CEO, Intellecap;


• Shailesh Vikram Singh, Managing Partner, Massive Fund;


• Digvijay Singh, COO, Indian Angel Network;


• Jarnail Singh, India Director, The Climate Group;


• Sai Krishna, CEO, NSFI India;


• Pankaj Agarwal, Founding Angel, CIO Angel Network.

Deepak Goel, Business Development Advisor from Shell Foundation said, “Shell Foundation is excited to see the first POWERED Accelerator cohort of 10 passionate and talented women entrepreneurs. These women are leading the way in access to energy in India with high impact businesses which have huge potential to scale."

The objective of the programme is to support selected ventures expand their innovative and consumer-responsive services, products and financing by taking them through an accelerator programme that includes validation, peer network, mentorship, industry connects, and access to investors.  HDFC Bank, Microsoft Corporation and L&T Public Charitable Trust are  partners for the programme and supporting the cohort by providing infrastructure and mentoring support and exploring suitable synergies with them.

Srujana Raghupatruni, the founder of Cellerite, a company aiming to increase electric vehicle adoption, said, “Getting to be a part of the first cohort of POWERED Accelerator is a pleasant feeling, to know there are like-minded peers and to meet awesome mentors. It feels great to be part of this ecosystem, that wasn't available before; unlike in the case of tech startups, which have many such avenues."

Ajay Ramasubramaniam, Director of Zone Startups India thinks "POWERED adds a great deal to the portfolio of work being done by Zone Startups India, with women entrepreneurs. Also, given the theme of energy, it adds a new dimension to our expertise of working with startups; which otherwise has been largely in the tech domain. We have been super impressed with the cohort, and their overall participation in the programme, and see this as a starting point of building a strong ecosystem of energy sector entrepreneurs in India."

The programme is now accepting applications for its second accelerator cohort and for the one-week residential boot camp meant for idea stage solutions. More details can be found on powered.org.in/accelerator/