Key players including businesses, talent, investors, the government, and foreign organisations are all actively involved in the success of Indian startups, and entrepreneurship has therefore become a movement in India. This trend is confirmed by the growth in micro VCs, the amount of money raised by existing funds, FDI inflows, as well as a significant shift in the emphasis of businesses toward innovation. Although the entrepreneurial movement is gender-neutral, women founders nonetheless experience unique challenges when developing, launching, and growing firms in India. These obstacles not only include societal ones but also discourage women from selecting entrepreneurship as a job. As a result, only about 5% of women today pursue entrepreneurship as a vocation. Inadequate access to relevant networks and communities puts women-entrepreneurs at a distinct disadvantage compared to their male counterparts.
However, despite the fact that female founders and investors have historically been underrepresented in the Indian startup ecosystem, with a total of 14% according to the broadest criteria (including SMBs, for example), their companies have demonstrated a 35% higher ROI. When hiring for leadership positions, they employed 2.5 times as many women. Building an atmosphere that is supportive of women entrepreneurs would help women-led enterprises flourish in India. Women entrepreneurs have tremendous potential.
Role of women entrepreneurs in Indian economy
Compared to a few decades ago, women entrepreneurs are now starting to receive a lot more relevance and attention. According to a McKinsey report, simply levelling the playing field for women entrepreneurs could add $1 trillion to the Indian ecosystem and economy. This corresponds to a rise in value of more than $20 trillion on a worldwide scale. In fact, 50% of our economy will be exploited by women-led and -focused firms as a talent pool and a consumer market. This will significantly affect our GDP and economic expansion. Furthermore, increasing women’s equality can, according to a McKinsey quotation, add nearly $12 trillion to the global GDP by 2025 if all ecosystem and economic stakeholders cooperate.
Growth of women-led entrepreneurship in India
In the coming years, a number of substantial changes are anticipated in the startup ecosystem as a whole. This trend will only continue as there will be an increase in the number of women in leadership positions, female-led and -focused businesses, inclusive work environments, more women on boards, and technology acting as a fundamental and essential facilitator of the service and product. Since its inception, five major metro areas have mostly been responsible for the startup ecosystem’s growth. India’s largest market, the Tier 2+ cities, may now be tapped into by giving women-led/focused enterprises in India a ground-up, extensive, and long-term foundation thanks to rising vernacular technology, greater internet and cell penetration, and other technological advancements.
Overall impact of women led businesses
1) More entrepreneurs joining the ecosystem,
2) Leveraging the current innovation “whitespaces” that are primarily visible to women, and
3) The emergence of more women in leadership and investor roles will increase the number of jobs available to women.
Women-led entrepreneurship is still in its first phase in the ecosystem, and it can be anticipated that it will take one entrepreneurship cycle to truly transform the sector from the ground up (first-time founders exiting their businesses and becoming investors in the next gen of first-time founders).
