• 100 Women Entrepreneurs and Ideas selected for Incubation at IIMB
• 7 Women Entrepreneurs from IIMU
• Chosen from India’s first customized online and classroom startup program for women, supported by Goldman Sachs and the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India
• To receive a fellowship of INR 30,000 per month along with a prototype development fund to help kick-start ventures
• Top ten female entrepreneurs to also be provided with the opportunity to go on a startup study trip to Israel

NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) announced the selection of 100 women entrepreneurs-in-the-making and their ideas for incubation. The women selected were graduates from the 2018 class of the nationwide ‘Women Startup Program (WSP)’, which is supported by Goldman Sachs, a global investment bank and active investor in India, and the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India (GOI).  IIM Udaipur was one of the partner incubation centers in this program.

WSP is a first-of-its kind customized online and classroom-training program designed to enable aspiring Indian women entrepreneurs to systematically identify and test their business ideas. A one of its kind program, it provides in-depth training to nurture and augment managerial and entrepreneurial skills of female entrepreneurs through mentorship from industry veterans, incubation at leading institutes and financial support.

Following the successful 2016 pilot of the WSP in Bangalore, which saw participation from 1,700 women, the 2018 class of the WSP saw over 6,000 women register from across the country in partnerships with leading academic institutes that included, IIM Visakhapatnam, IIM Indore, IIM Nagpur, IIM Sirmaur, IIM Udaipur, IIE Guwahati and CIIE Ahmedabad.

7 proud Women Entrepreneurs from IIM Udaipur

(First row L-R) Miky Dhamanda, Shilpi Dua and Aayushi Chaturvedi

(Second row L-R) Nita Jain, Rekha Kumawat,Tanvi Jadhwani and Disha Rathore

WSP class of 2018 was made up of diverse participants across ages 20 to 50 years; academic backgrounds spanning from higher secondary degrees to PhDs and MBBS and diverse professions from women who are on a career break to doctors and engineers. Geographically, the women reside all across India, including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana.

At IIM Udaipur, the Women Start-up Program 2018, done in partnership with IIM Bangalore, was seen as a means to help the participants who had applied themselves to the rigor of a thorough screening process to the classroom course – the Management Development Program for Women Entrepreneurs.  “At IIM Udaipur, we are committed in this journey to enable current and aspiring women entrepreneurs to identify viable business opportunities and to develop feasible and sustainable plans,” Umamaheshvaram Mandi (Mahesh), CEO, IIM Udaipur Incubation Centre.

“This is one of the largest women startup program in India and we thank our partner academic institutes for joining us in this endeavour. Our pilot WSP showed that in addition to the financial support provided, entrepreneurs need mentoring and networking support. At IIMB, we leveraged our existing mentor pool as well as our large alumni base. Given the importance of nurturing women entrepreneurship, we have begun documenting our experiences for the creation of a manual. We are thankful to DST for inspiring us to think beyond Bangalore for supporting the nationwide roll out of the programme and Goldman Sachs for supporting us from the beginning of WSP and, more importantly, for giving us the freedom to experiment to improve the success rate of women startups,” said Prof. Suresh Bhagavatula, Faculty in Entrepreneurship and Chairperson of NSRCEL at IIM Bangalore.

Department of Science & Technology provided support to host and organize roadshows, events and workshops. Dr. Anita Gupta, Scientist – G /Adviser and Associate Head – National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), DST, said: “Developing a new class of 100 women entrepreneurs, under the Women Startup Program, will go a long way in empowering women for entrepreneurship and contributing towards nation-building.”

Goldman Sachs has been a key and founding partner of the Women Startup Programme since its launch in 2016. “Our firm believes investing in women is an investment in the long-term health of our families and communities. The innovative business ideas developed by this year’s graduates, who come from diverse walks of life, reflects the sustainable economic and entrepreneurial potential of our country,” said Sonjoy Chatterjee, Chairman and Co-CEO of Goldman Sachs (India).

The selected 100 women entrepreneurs will receive a fellowship of INR 30,000 per month in addition to a prototype development fund to help kick-start their ventures from the DST, GOI. From that group, ten women identified to have the best ideas will also be provided with an opportunity to go on a startup study trip to Israel. This year’s incubation class addresses a variety of sectors across society and industry, including construction, e-commerce and retail, education, healthcare and wellness, finance and manufacturing.

Bhavya Purana Hosadurgam, founder of momSAURUS and one of the 100 selected entrepreneurs, said: “I have benefited immensely from this programme. It has provided me with access to the tools, processes and mentorship necessary to translate my concept into a working idea.  It has also given me courage and inspiration by connecting me to like-minded women so that we can share our passions and dreams. At momSAURUS, we are working to disrupt and enhance the way parents and their young children perceive mealtimes and food.”

The WSP 2018 Programme Structure

The programme targeted women entrepreneurs in the ideation stage of their ventures or first-time entrepreneurs. Stage 1: A Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) was held on the IIMBx platform for six weeks in January focusing on entrepreneurship, including the fundamentals of making a business model followed by a week of customer validation. A total of 6,136 women signed up for the MOOC, 1,067 completed the course, making the completion rate 17 percent, which is well above the global average of 6-8 percent, according to HarvardX and MITx.

Stage 2: In April, 287 participants were shortlisted for the first boot camp after submitting a business model and video pitch for their venture vetted by partner academic institutions based on geography.

Stage 3: In May, 100 female entrepreneurs and ideas were chosen for a second boot camp at IIMB’s NSRCEL, which addressed concepts in entrepreneurship, design thinking, compliance, idea articulation, basics of finance, leveraging networks, mentor interaction and provide feedback sessions. Opportunities to network with successful women entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, IIMB students and Goldman Sachs professionals were provided.

PROGRAM SUPPORT

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals. Goldman Sachs has been serving Indian clients since the early 1990s and established an onshore presence in India in December 2006 following a ten-year joint venture.

Today, it serves leading corporate and institutional clients through corporate finance (investment banking), equity sales and trading and fixed income securities businesses, as well as providing macro-economic and investment research. Goldman Sachs is also an active investor in India, deploying more than $3.4 billion in capital since 2006.

In 2004, Goldman Sachs opened its office in Bengaluru. Today, as an integral part of the firm’s global activities, the Bengaluru office with more than 5,000 professionals is the firm’s second largest office in the world. In 2014, the firm broke ground on a new campus in Bengaluru and will invest approximately INR 1,200 crore ($200 million) on the construction and the completion of a state-of-the-art complex, which is expected to open in 2019.

Since 2008, Goldman Sachs has committed in excess of $1.6 billion to philanthropic initiatives, globally to academic partners and non-profit organizations, including in India. As part of the firm’s “Community TeamWorks” initiative, Goldman Sachs engages extensively with local non-governmental organizations around the world. To date, since 2005, Goldman Sachs in India has partnered with more than 100 non-profit organizations to engage in approximately 1,900 community building initiatives.

 About Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women

Since 2008, the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women initiative has helped foster economic growth by providing women entrepreneurs in 56 countries with business education and access to capital. The initiative is now expanding to reach up to 100,000 women through a first-of-its-kind global finance facility launched in partnership with International Finance Corporation to increase access to capital for women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. Since 2008, over 1,300 women entrepreneurs have graduated from 10,000 Women in 13 cities in India.

 Department of Science and Technology, Government of India

Department of Science and Technology (DST) is a department within the Ministry of Science and Technology in India. It was established in May 1971 to promote new areas of science and technology and to play the role of a nodal department for organising, coordinating and promoting Scientific and Technological activities in the country. It gives funds to various approved scientific projects in India. It also supports various researchers in India to attend conferences abroad and to go for experimental works. Read more at: http://www.dst.gov.in/

Department of Science and Technology has been supporting NSRCEL in various programs, including:

1. DST-Seed Support Scheme through which ventures under NSRCEL are provided funding support
2. India Innovation Design Contest, which targets engineering students from tier-2 and tier-3 cities and nurtures their business ideas.

IIMB & NSRCEL

Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) builds leaders and entrepreneurs through transformative and innovative education. An EQUIS accredited business school, IIMB is an acknowledged hub of academic activity in India and across the globe.

NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) incubates start-ups and provides free mentoring for budding entrepreneurs. NSRCEL currently incubates 18 start-ups – perhaps the largest number for an incubation centre in an academic institution. Through its rapidly growing open mentoring initiatives, it is conservatively estimated that NSRCEL may have directly impacted in excess of 10,000 entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs or other participants in the ecosystem since it was established in 2000. For more on IIMB and NSRCEL, www.iimb.ac.in.