Finding those Founders: Startups Show Dearth of Women Leaders
The Economic Times [
Delhi
]
Bengaluru
,
Jaipur
,
Chandigarh
,
Kochi
,
Mumbai
Mar 8, 2022 | Page No.: 14 | Position: Bottom Left | Source: Apoorva Mittal, Sneha Shah | Sq Cm: 688 | AVE: 1406377 | PR Value: 7031885
Record : 1 / 1
View Text
Merge JPEG
JPEG
Tiff
Word Doc
PDF
1
All Text
Finding those Founders Startups Show Dearth of Women Leaders Despite India s rich entrepreneurship ecosystem there is only a single woman CEO among the 80 unicorns today and very few at other decision-making posts GRAPHICS Figures At A Glance TOP CHALLENGES 297female founders Lack of collateral are running 285 tech and financial autonomy limits startups in India as of funding access to external capital June 2020 Smaller networks Experts say they tend to have smaller Onlyli ALof - networks than their male of venture-backed startups counterparts in India and 20 in ASEAN have at least one female Lack of women in decision making founder as of 2020 roles Less than 10 of PE VC Sequoia India quoting professionals in emerging markets Tracxn and Crunchbase such as India are women Between January 2018 Lack of support for women-led and June 2020 startups at the growth stage While startups with at least one India has seen multiple woman founder received accelerators at early stage there only 5 77 of the total are no exclusive initiatives funding While female-led startups received only supporting women founders at 1 43 of the total funding the growth stage Sources MAKERS India State of Sources ET research Google and Bain Women in Tech Entrepreneurship Company Women Entrepreneurship in India in India Sequoia Capital India report 2019 IFC 2019 report ilure due to cultural upbringing has seen more deals from women BETTER STEPS Apoorva Mittal Sneha Shah top the list Further workforce founders over the last decade Founders told ET the most chal- participation of women is among Multiple women-focussed early- lenging misconception and barri- Mumbai In startup boardrooms the lowest in India and had furt- stage initiatives are also bringing er involves tackling assumptions full of young upstarts women her taken a hit due to Covid-19 in more female founders Sequoia around women s role at home and continue to be a rare species Less than 10 of private equity Spark a Sequoia Capital initiati- as a birth giver Women should The corporate world may have and VC professionals in emerging ve that gives an equity-free grant not be penalised for time taken made great strides in breaking markets such as India are women of 100 000 to women founders away or fall behind on rewards the proverbial glass ceiling and according to a 2019 International was launched last year It is back- and promotions they say help women assume decision-ma- Finance Corporation report Sin- ing 15 startups Early-stage VC Women entrepreneur capabili- king roles at large enterprises ce any deal flow is generated to fund Kalaari Capital has laun- ties are usually questioned based but when it comes to founding the- one s own network having a ma- ched CXXO setting aside 10 mil- on personal life decisions of get- ir own companies the examples le-dominated investment team lion Rs 74 crore annually to in- ting married or starting a family seem few and far between impacts the deal pipeline says Ro- vest in startups that have women however men aren t asked such Very rarely is there a woman opa Kudva managing partner founders as key decision-makers questions but the basic fact is decision maker There are women Omidyar Network India Last month Accenture laun- that the journey of establishing a associates and juniors but If we want to see more female ched a Women Founders Program company and making it as an ent- they re not sitting at the decision- founders we need to also have mo- repreneur is the same regardless making seat and unless there s re women in leadership and board of gender says Priyanka Gill co- another woman who s talking to advisory roles especially in star- THINK AGAIN founder The Good Glamm Group me and working with me it s hard tups They in turn need to levera- So first and foremost this men- right says Bhavna Suresh cofo- ge their positions and networks to Women entrepreneur tality needs to change and wo- under and CEO of 10club a direct- help other women succeed says men need to be looked at with a ne- to-consumer D2C brand aggre- Sakshi Chopra managing direc- capabilities are usually utral stance without any biases gator which raised 40 million in tor Sequoia India questioned based on attached says Singh of Sugar seed funding last year Cosmetics Scores of other women foun- MILES COVERED personal life decisions ders investors and opinion ma- To be sure things have changed kers also told ET that change will over the last decade in India for early-stage women- not matter until the number of According to a Makers India re- led Indian startups in the busi- women in boardrooms increases port the number of women entre- ness-to-business B2B deep tech Voices Lack of representation for wo- preneurs in the technology sector and enterprise Software as a Ser- RUH1 RANJAN SUKLA men in top roles at startups and has grown 11 times since 2010 vice or SaaS domain Lead growth mkts CHANDRA venture capital firms is one of the I ve always felt very strongly The single biggest challenge delivery ATCI and Senior managing most pervasive problems Indian about building something for wo- that came through was lack of ac- lead inclusion director startups are facing they say men by women and that is what cess - to the right mentorship diversity licensing GE India is among the most well- led to Sugar Cosmetics being a community and role models in Accenture India funded startup ecosystems in the women-dominated workplace the early days of their journey world Yet among more than 80 says founder Vineeta Singh Our This can lead to them taking long- The onus is on organisations to The big message that the pan- unicorns in India today Falguni workforce features over 70 wo- er to navigate the 0 to 1 stage build comprehensive strategies demic has delivered is that Nayar founder of omnichannel men in addition to them holding a which in turn delays and often de- and remove barriers for the business can be done remote- beauty retailer Nykaa is the only majority of the top management ters their ability to raise the first professional growth of women ly Complex commercial nego- woman chief executive officer roles in the company rounds of capital says Chopra of which will help to bring women tiations conflict resolution Women-led startups are at the VCs and startups have also beco- Sequoia India bottom of the funding pyramid me more conscious of gender and Despite increased number of ac- back to work and keep them in high-value sales deals and Only 1 43 has received any racial diversity and are closely celerators at early stages there is the workforce The need of the high decibel marketing cam- funds between January 2018 and monitoring the representation of a complete absence of women-fo- hour is having holistic policy in- paigns do not need us to hop June 2020 according to a 2020 re- women at startups cussed funds at the growth stage itiatives expansion of on a plane and go to the cus- port by Makers India If there s any place where we I think it needs to go a little be- mentoring programmes and tomer s office That has con- Women founders face a lot of will see more diversity and the yond that We now need to start se- continuous learning interven- siderably opened up what barriers Lack of access to capi- gap closing it is the startup eco- eing women in proper P L profit tions for women employees were once considered tal a smaller network compared system says Anisha Singh fo- and loss business decision ma- so that they do not drop out of male-dominated areas sales to male peers subtle and blatant unding partner SheCapital a wo- king roles and it has started to the workforce for example for women gender bias heightened fear of fa- men-focused venture fund which happen says Suresh of 10club