Breaking Barriers: Women Founders Account For Nearly 18% Of Unicorn Startups In India

In India's startup ecosystem, women entrepreneurs are breaking barriers and making strides, with a recent report revealing that they now account for almost one-fifth of all unicorn startups in India. Discover more about this encouraging trend and the women-led startups driving innovation and growth in the Indian business landscape.

India has a dynamic ecosystem with over 28,000 active technology startups, yet just 18% of them are women founders or co-founders. 

According to a joint study by TiE Delhi-NCR, Zinnov, Google, NetApp, and Indian Angel Network, one of the key obstacles preventing women from starting up is conventional stereotypes and views prevalent in India. This report reveals women's growing impact on India's Unicorn Ecosystem"

The report also outlines the key barriers that women and women founders face on their entrepreneurial path, as well as the crucial measures that all players in the startup ecosystem must do to encourage more women to start up in India.

A comparison of female-founded vs male-founded firms

According to the study, the success of startups founded by men and women is comparable across several parameters. Women-led unicorns create jobs and income at a comparable pace to men-led unicorns. Women entrepreneurs have comparable success rates to males, with 7 out of 1000 women-founded startups reaching the late stage, compared to 8 out of 1000 male-founded startups. This equivalence applies to the usage of DeepTech as well: 8% of female-founded startups utilise DeepTech, whereas a somewhat greater number of male-founded startups employ these technologies (11%). In essence, female-founded firms have the same chances of success as male-founded startups.

Despite comparable data, success, and strong entrepreneurial ambition, socio-cultural hurdles limit the rise of women founders. Furthermore, their underrepresentation in technology and business domains prevents them from entering the startup ecosystem. Despite the fact that women founders have demonstrated their worth by successfully developing billion-dollar enterprises, B2B and DeepTech startups, steep hurdles remain. As a result, the study not only shows the talents of women founders but also brings attention to the barriers that the ecosystem must overcome in order to achieve gender equity.

According to the study, the entrepreneurial intent of the Indian workforce, including women, is high at 76%. Nevertheless, gender norms make entrepreneurship a less appealing professional path for women. Also, the funding amounts raised by women founders are lower than those raised by male founders. This is due to the fact that women entrepreneurs appear to be more cautious of investors than male founders. Add to that the reality that women-founded startups take longer to secure Series A funding, and you have a trifecta of obstacles preventing women from actively pursuing entrepreneurship.

The report proposes a two-pronged method to bridge the gap between women's entrepreneurial desire and their actual startup and growth. First, discover the underlying reasons, and then take decisive measures that result in actual, quantifiable results. The report highlights six key areas for action and discusses how to handle each of them, with examples of successful implementation from the beginning to the end of a woman founder's entrepreneurial career.

Sequoia's 'She Builds' series, which combines with NatGeo India to feature successful women founders as role models, hopes to inspire more women to explore entrepreneurship. Another example is the WEE Foundation's initiatives, which demonstrate their strategy to discover and support outstanding women from scientific backgrounds to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.

Accelerator programmes such as Google for Startups and NetApp Excellerator have been essential in helping women founders expand their startups in the later phases of their journeys by providing focused mentorship, market access, and networks. SheCapital's Diversity and Inclusion fund and Encubay's Angel Investing Network both give money for women founders. When asked about the importance of this study in the ecosystem, Atit Danak, Partner at Zinnov, stated, "Women founders have proven their ability to successfully build startups, with over USD 30 billion in the total valuation of unicorns and 800+ B2B businesses that they've built. However, despite their success, women founders still face challenges and biases in the Indian startup ecosystem. Addressing these challenges is critical to unlocking the potential of 10X women entrepreneurs and bridging the existing gap. With buy-in and collaboration from the larger ecosystem, equity is possible."

Important News and Blog Tags for Readers

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