Women Entrepreneurship in India: How women-led startups bridge the gender funding gap?
women entrepreneurs and in one such pitching, the investor asked us what about the kids? In a humorous way, we answered that we do not believe in child labor." The mom-at-work sighed with the rigid thoughts of a male-dominating society after confronting the patriarchal mindset of investors. She said, ‘such a question may never be posed to male entrepreneurs’. “These are some of the instances of the biasedness that we see in the ecosystem.
As mentioned, I have already worked in the executive business, so the investment cycle was much easier for Afthonia," Tanul Mishra told Livemint. While the scenario was completely different in other countries. Tarul compared India's fundraising situation with the United Kingdom, China, and the United States where women do not experience a gender funding gap. She told us, “When I looked at other ecosystems like US, UK, and China, they had a very structured support system to help startups in the form of incubators and accelerators.
This motivated me to set up Afthonia, a structured ecosystem for startups to grow." The idea of Afthonia is to focus on fintech (a combination of money and technology), influenced by the fact that this is a complex sector with far-reaching repercussions, she added. According to government data, India ranks 57 out of 65 on the MasterCard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, which gauges how women in business are progressing globally, and only one in five of the country's businesses are led by women. However, unequal success to capital is a key barrier for women entrepreneurs. When women entrepreneurs do approach potential investors for financing, they are more likely to be rejected.
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