startups

Poor tech infra holding Indian entrepreneurs back: Facebook – Business Standard


Four out of every five women from metros as well as smaller towns in are eager to start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs, but lack of networks and are holding them back in their tracks, a top has stressed.

in 2017 introduced a programme for women-founded companies — — to support them with access to community, tools, mentorship and resources to succeed in building a in technology.


The programme has now expanded to 87 cities in the country with 596 women led tech across agritech, edutech, gaming and other verticals in just two years since its launch.

“If we go back three years, the number of women founded startups in the ecosystem were about nine per cent and today it has grown to 14 per cent.

“Even the money that was raised by women entrepreneurs and their has increased from 3.5 per cent to 5.4 per cent now,” Satyajeet Singh, of Platform Partnerships, South Asia, told IANS.

is the third largest market globally and with its initiatives like SheLeads Tech, Code for the Next Billion, Innovation Hub and more, Facebook has come to discover that the phenomenon is rapidly expanding to smaller cities.

“We have coming from Dehradun, Hubli, Nasik and other smaller cities. The widespread start-ups phenomenon is very much present in tier two and three towns,” Singh said.

Supported by 30 women mentors, Facebook’s initiative aims to provide a platform to women entrepreneurs across all tech-related sectors like agritech, healthtech, (AI), (ML), gaming, beauty, sanitation, water harvesting and more.

The has especially seen a massive inclination from Indian women entrepreneurs, according to Facebook.

“Facebook’s is a very close community that has helped me stay connected with what all is happening in the start-up world across the country,” said Sai Gole, of Pune-based start-up, LeanAgri, that designs for unorganised sectors and underserved communities like farmers in India.

“Facebook’s training and mentoring sessions have helped us understand consumer psychology and ways to target campaigns in the market.”

The believes that for start-ups to flourish in India, entrepreneurs in smaller towns must get access to metro-level infrastructure and learning from established people and companies, who are willing to mentor and give back to the community.

Encouraged by the positive response that the has received through its start-up boosting initiatives in India, the company now plans to double its efforts in helping students in technology related fields to escalate the country’s businesses and

“We not only have to invest in start-ups today, we also have to start investing in start-ups for tomorrow, like tech students. We have to make sure that we are inspiring them to start up and create more jobs rather than looking for one,” Singh added.

(can be contacted at radhika.p@ians.in)

–IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)





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