JULY 20214The most basic requirement for founding a startup is `an idea'. Once this seed is planted, the rest of the journey begins. The journey of establishing a startup is a rather difficult one, the route to making it successful is even tougher. In an ideal world, this endeavor would be gender agnostic. However, we do not live in Utopia and the harsh reality is that entrepreneurship is more conducive to men than to women. Founding and running a business was long thought to be a male bastion. Women have traditionally found themselves severely underrepresented in the startup ecosystem. A Bain & Company report recently found that of the total enterprises present in India, women owned only about 20 percent of them. When looked at as an absolute figure, it might seem dismal. However, with context from the percentage of enterprises owned by women in the last decade, it appears to be a win. The figure shows a six percent increase from 14 percent in the last decade. At this point it might be pertinent for us to take a deep and hard look at why women entrepreneurs still form a minority in the Indian landscape. Neither is there a dearth of idea, nor is there a lack of effort & hard work. It all boils down to an amalgamation of structural, cultural and financial roadblocks that are holding women back when it comes to starting their own startups. It all starts very early in life, with inadequate educational opportunities, lack of support in the STEM field and inadequate digital infrastructure to restricted access to business know-how. Culturally also women are still looked at as the primary caregivers who must shoulder the larger responsibility of running a household. In spite of these challenges, an increasing number of women are now becoming entrepreneurs. However, a major factor in making a successful startup, ie: capital still remains hard to raise for women. While ideas are said to be gender agnostic, there has been observed a skew in numbers in terms of women led startups. But in this segment as well there have been blowing winds of change. Not only do we have women centric incubators and venture capital funds rising up, the representation of women in the VC and investment landscape is also on an upswing. Case in point is the third week of May, 2021 that saw four women led startups receiving funding. SparkStudio, an edtech startup; BlissClub, an active-wear D2C brand; High-Street Essentials, an e-commerce firm; and LocoBuzz, a customer experience startup have received funding from a host of VCs. This bodes well for women in the Indian startup eco-system looking to raise funding in the days to come. It also puts a hopeful spin on the future of women entrepreneurship in India and its implication on the Indian economy. It is estimated that if the opportunity of women entrepreneurship is completely met, it can lead to the creation of about 30 million women-owned enterprises and generate approximately 150 to 170 million new jobs.So, let us do our bit in helping these women write their success stories. Rachita SharmaSpecial EditorWomen Entrepreneurs On the Rise: Onwards & Upwards EDITOR'S NOTE Vol 7 · Issue 9 - 1 · July - 2021 Publisher Alok Chaturvedi Special Editor Rachita Sharma Editorial Team Aparna Roy Likhith Aradhya Monica Pallavi J Sigma Mohanty Sales & Marketing Mishal Dsouza Tapas Mallick Editorial Queries startupcity@siliconindia.com To subscribe Visit: www.siliconindia.com/subscribe/ Cover price is Rs. 150 per issue.Printed and Published By Alok Chaturvedi on behalf of Siliconmedia Technologies Pvt Ltd and Printed at Precision Fototype Services at Sri Sabari Shopping Complex, 24 Residency Road Bangalore-560025 and Published At No. 124, 2nd Floor, Surya Chambers, Old Airport Road, Murugeshpalya, Bangalore-560017. Editor Alok ChaturvediCopyright © 2021 SiliconMedia Technologies Pvt Ltd, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photography or illustrations without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations. Views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the magazine and accordingly, no liability is assumed by the publisher.sales@startupcity.comGroup Art Director Ashok KumarCirculation Manager Magendran PerumalVisualisers Mohana Krishnan Siva SankarGM Sales & Marketing Virupakshi Pattarsiliconindia
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