WE HUB, India’s first and only state-led incubator by the Government of Telangana to foster and promote women entrepreneurship to start-up, scale-up and accelerate with global market access, celebrated its third anniversary today. The event took place at WE HUB Headquarters, in the presence of Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary to the Government of Telangana, IT E & C department and various other dignitaries.
WE HUB has entered partnership with Flipkart, to reinforce the WE HUB’s vital role in enabling women entrepreneurs. WE HUB has also announced its partnership with Women in Data Science and IFMR – LEADS, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and AgHub of Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University (PJTSAU).
Commemorating the occasion, WE HUB launched ‘The Pink Book- The Women Entrepreneurship Guide to Telangana’ One of the major impediments to enhancing the participation of women in the Workforce is the Lack of Information to aspiring women entrepreneurs. The Guide is a compendium of the State’s policies that are aimed at unveiling a plethora of opportunities available for women. This is not just an account of the strength of the business ecosystem in the state, but also an assurance that the Government stands committed to creating an environment to foster women entrepreneurs. With this guide, the Government of Telangana, welcomes all the aspiring women entrepreneurs across the globe to set up their Enterprises in the state, and WE HUB will stand as the pillar to enable the same.
Since 2018, WE HUB has helped contribute immensely to the Indian innovation ecosystem for providing institutional support to women-led startups. In the last three years, WE HUB has 54 partners on-board, raised 53.2 crore of funding, and engaged with 4527 women-led entities, to build a culture of innovation and create impact in the ecosystem.
Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB said, “Good policies are always made but the challenge lies in dissemination of the policies to every corner. It has been three years since the inception of WE HUB and we have worked with 4527 Women Entrepreneurs with Government Departments such as DPIIT, DST, SERP, MEPMA, TRICOR and International entities such as GIZ, Australian High Commission, and UK High Commission. There is still a lot more to be done in terms of enabling Market Access, Credit Facilitation to Women Entrepreneurs, Research & Advocacy on the policy front for Women Entrepreneurship in our country. And I strongly believe the Partnerships that are announced today will go a long way in addressing this.”
Shri Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary for IT E & C said, ‘Faster economic growth with strong focus on inclusiveness is the fundamental tenet of the State government of Telangana and its focus would continue to be on reaching out benefits to hitherto neglected sections of the society. Through the projects implemented by WE HUB in these three years; partnerships announced today, and the launch of pink book, I believe this is a milestone in the history of Economic Enablement of women in our state and our country.’
WE HUB along with Flipkart will kick off Samarth program in Telangana State because of their partnership. The MoU was inked between was inked by Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB, and Mr. Rajneesh Kumar, SVP & Chief Corporate Affairs Officer. The partnership brings the artisans, weavers, and handicraft producers onto e-commerce. Together they aim to provide the community with opportunities that will help them attain financial independence. The artisans and weavers will benefit in the form of seamless onboarding, free cataloguing, and market access, which will create avenues to increase business and trade support. Further, eligible entities and artisans/weavers will receive time-bound incubation support. This will be an opportunity for Telangana startups to leverage the partnership with Flipkart and expand their markets in India.
Mr. Rajneesh Kumar, SVP & Chief Corporate Affairs Officer said, “As a homegrown company, it is our constant endeavour to democratize e-commerce using technology and bring positive impact in the lives of MSMEs, smaller businesses, artisans, weavers, and handicraft makers of our country. Flipkart Samarth was launched with this aim and we are proud of the success the program has witnessed in helping skilled communities to break entry barriers and join Flipkart’s marketplace. Through our partnership with WE HUB, Government of Telangana, we will be extending this support to local entrepreneurs from the state and create avenues for their business and trade inclusion opportunities. The partnership will help create more local jobs across the ecosystem. We deeply appreciate the State’s leadership support to the industry and look forward to making a continued economic impact.’’
WE HUB and LEAD have partnered to work together to harness actionable insights through a granular understanding of the support mechanisms and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in Telangana. The outcomes from the research engagement are envisioned to be subsequently incorporated into an overarching policy for women entrepreneurs. WE HUB will also act as a knowledge partner to offer technical guidance and support in the programs implemented by LEAD.
Sharon Buteau, Executive Director, LEAD at Krea University said, “We are pleased to join hands with the Government of Telangana and its pioneering initiative WE HUB, in the journey to create a more enabling ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in the country. We look forward to leveraging LEAD’s extensive on-ground research and implementation experience, particularly under initiatives such as STREE, and WE HUB’s incubation and entrepreneurship development programs to conduct joint research and policy engagements. These initiatives will focus on documenting learnings and identifying case studies and success stories that can help scale our efforts.”
FICCI and WE HUB aims to influence the lives of at least 100,000 women by 2022 with special focus on enhancing entrepreneurial and decision-making skills of women through various offerings. These include: Training for Workplace inclusion, Corporate Boards, Digital Financial Literacy, Mentorship, Enterprise development, Legal Empowerment of women at grassroot level etc.
Dr. Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo and President of FICCI mentioned ‘Congratulations to WE HUB, on finishing 3 years. WE HUB has not just become an accelerator for women entrepreneurs but has become a centre of excellence for all aspects, for policy, innovation, role modelling and a support system all women led entities. Through Greater 50 percentage an initiative of FICCI and Flo. We are looking at empowering women in marginalized segment, human resources, corporates, leadership, entrepreneurship segment to create women friendly environments. Through the partnership with WE HUB, we will together be developing knowledge papers, entrepreneurship development programs, Train the trainer, mentorship program.’
WE HUB and AgHub got into a partnership to work towards establishment of Women Led Enterprises in Agri Sector in the State of Telangana. The Three pillars of engagement are Agri tech Startups, Agri based Enterprises in Tier 2 and Tier 3 regions and Women in Agri based Livelihood/Sustenance Incomes.
Dr. Praveen Velchala, Vice Chancellor, PJTSAU mentioned “AgHub partners with WE HUB today on the eve of International Women’s day. We wish to create a vibrant pool of women led tech startups as well as rural enterprises in the areas of food and Agriculture. This partnership would create a strong forte for supporting women entrepreneurs and startups dedicating their efforts in Food and Agricultural systems in this State of Telangana in particular and across the ecosystem PAN India.”
As a strong supporter of Girls in Steam, WE Hub has partnered with Women in Data Science, Stanford University to run a program together for all the young girls across India interested in pursuing career in Data Science.
Margot Gerritson, Co-Director of WiDS and Senior Associate Dean, Stanford University said,’’ We are excited to be partnering with WE HUB, Government of Telangana. Together we hope to inspire and educate women and young girls who are interested in the field of Data Science as Data driven data is impacting lives. We are amazed by the work of WE HUB and are looking forward to the 8-week program.