Elevate WomEN Acceleration Program

Women-owned businesses are in minority in India. The hurdles faced by women who have embraced entrepreneurship are vast and often different from those experienced by their male counterparts. A survey says that in India around 42% of the women in tech feel that their voices and contributions to tech are unappreciated in the workplace which is twice the global average. India stood 52nd rank among 58 countries for providing a congenial environment for women entrepreneurs (Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs, 2019).

Karnataka has always been a supporting ecosystem that has facilitated the growth of innovation and entrepreneurship. Promoting women entrepreneurship is one of the priority areas of GoK.

Objectives:
The following are the broad objectives of the program:

1.  To nurture and grow early-stage women entrepreneurs in Karnataka.
2.  To accelerate the growth stage women entrepreneurs to scale up their ventures.
3.  To make startup ecosystem in Karnataka more inclusive.
4.  To create a virtual network of women entrepreneurs in Karnataka aimed at improving the ecosystem
5.  Help women founders in developing MVP,fundraising,global connections, branding, Pitching Sessions and making them investment ready.

Structure of Elevate WomEN:
Acceleration Program: This dedicated program will aim to accelerate existing startups that are at the growth and scale up stage. This would be a 6-month long program for selected 10- 15 startups.