A study conducted by McKinsey Global Institute reports that the Indian economy has the potential to grow between 20 to 60 percent by 2025 if women were to participate equally as men. Estimates show this could add a whopping 2.9 trillion dollars to the economy.
Such enormous targets would require support and encouragement for women entrepreneurs in India. In 2017, only 2 percent of total startup funding went to a woman founder. To bridge the gap and promote the entry of women leaders in businesses in India, YES BANK launched YES Essence Plus in collaboration with SHEROES. It is a 10-week accelerator program for early-stage women entrepreneurs. .
The accelerator program has been launched under YES Essence, banking products and solutions for women across professional segments – homemakers, salaried, entrepreneurs, senior citizens. YES Essence offers holistic banking solutions such as reward points, preferential pricing on loans, high withdrawal and shopping limits on debit cards to its women customers.
The accelerator program is one-of-a-kind for women entrepreneurs where they get access to learning from the best of the industry leaders. Startups get an opportunity to attend online sessions by experts on topics like costing, legalities, term sheets, HR, design thinking etc. At the end of the program, they also get a chance to pitch their ideas to the VC.
A look at the 10 startups to be mentored under YES Essence Plus:
Aviotron Automations
Aviotron Automations is an edtech startup focused on providing experiential training to K-12 students in the domains of space, transportation, drone, design and meteorology. Students get an experiential kit for hands-on training in building models like rockets, drones, satellites etc. The objective is to make them future-ready to acquire significant roles in the STEM industry. Four engineers, namely, Neha Chauhan, Ch Vaishnav, Ashish Kumawat, and Nitin Choyal lead the business at Aviotron Automations.
eGyanamTech
Founded by Rashmi Chandra, Mritytunjay Saxena, and Sudeep Saxena, eGyanamTech is a cybersecurity startup. The organisation uses aggregation, automation and AI to offer solutions to fix critical cybersecurity issues and improve the existing cybersecurity infrastructure.
InstaFitness
Founded by fitness enthusiast couple Rekha and Sourabh, InstaFitness offers solutions to manage lifestyle diseases with a holistic approach. The focus is on nutrition, mental health, weight management and self-reliance. Started in 2017, more than 12,000 members have already benefited from its health program.
Karpine Blockchain
Digital financial transactions require a lot of data to be verified for authenticity. Karpine Blockchain offers smart solutions to verify data using blockchain as a service.
KoSolve
This product allows you to play games during your work. Sounds fun, right? KoSolve has built a product that offers a gamified platform for collaborative problem solving and innovation for the enterprise. You can answer a question, engage in discussions and earn reward points. Founded in 2018 by Shweta Sharma and Ishwar Jha, the startup has already attracted clients like IndusInd Bank, Aditya Birla Group, to name a few.
LitmusEye
Founded in 2020 by Manasa Nadipally, Nikhil Sharma and Snehil Singh,Bengaluru-based LitmusEye offers AI-automated invoice audit tools for overworked finance teams and automated data entry tools with higher accuracy.
Paramotor Digital Technology
Providing smart banking solutions to the underbanked, this fintech startup has already established its base of 39,000 SME customers across 600 cities. Paramotor is also launching a new product called bankifyU to bridge the gap between SMEs and banks. Sonia Asher and Rahul Das are founding members of the company while Tushar Das works as a mentor and advisor.
Ewaste social
This is a one-of-a-kind startup offering solutions to dispose of electronic waste. As the third largest producer of e-waste in the world, India’s e-waste disposal solutions to businesses will help reduce carbon footprint to a great extent. Iram M and Aditya Mehra founded the company in 2019.
SafeQU
SafeQU is a digital space for local sellers to set up their shop and consumers to shop from. A seller can set up their shop in less than 20 seconds and get started with an online business. The startup was founded in 2020 by Akkshatta Nigam and Sunil Mishra.
Bunko Junko
Founded by Bhavini Parekh in 2018, this startup upcycles the scrap from textile mills and converts it into wearable clothing for women. .
Breaking free from conventional beliefs, women entrepreneurs in India have expanded their business horizons beyond fashion and are now building, growing and scaling in industries like edtech, fintech, blockchain, AI etc.
With the successful completion of the accelerator program, selected women entrepreneurs now get access to insights by industry leaders which will help them sail through the challenging landscape of the startup ecosystem. Apart from interaction with the leaders and online training sessions, there is more in store for these startups.
YES Essence Plus is offering discounts on advanced technology business solutions like Zoho, Google Cloud, Cleartax etc. Moreover, entrepreneurs will also have access to specially-curated banking solutions to take their business to the next level.
