IT IS SAID that no society can progress without the active participation of women in all spheres of life. While the number of women employed in the IT industry in India has seen a rapid increase in recent years, there is a biting absence of the fairer sex in the country’s startup scene. “Industry estimates by Zinnov-Nasscom point to 25,000-27,000 tech startups having been set up across India in the last decade alone. As this momentum continues to pick up pace, it is essential that women — who currently make up less than 18% of the country’s startup leaders and founders — have an equitable opportunity to leverage digital to achieve their ambitions, and contribute to India’s aspirations of a truly digitally empowered economy,” said Paul Ravindranath, program manager, Google for Startups Accelerator India.

The Google For Startups Accelerator — India Women Founders is looking to make that happen. It is a three-month programme designed to enable women entrepreneurs who are using technology to solve complex problems and are making a positive impact on society. The programme includes mentorship, workshops, access to resources and networks for startups from across sectors, including but not limited to healthcare, education, finance, and e-commerce. Recently, the first cohort of the Accelerator successfully concluded, with 20 women startup leaders.

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FE spoke to some of these on how the programme has been a game-changer in their entrepreneurial journeys.

Brown Living Founder & CEO: Chaitsi Ahuja

* What’s the startup about: A marketplace for sustainable and plastic-free products across fashion, home decor, lifestyle, food, kitchen essentials and other categories. “We are the only platform that provides 100% biodegradable and plastic-free packaging. Our team curated a variety of everyday-use products that are earth-friendly, for our eco-conscious consumers, with a single goal to leave this Earth better than we found it,” says Ahuja.

* Achievements so far: Currently, Brown Living has over 65,000 earth-friendly and sustainable products from over 400 sellers across the country. The platform is not category-specific and caters to over 200 categories from travel to home & living, fashion, personal care, pet care, and much more. “We follow a proprietary framework that we call ‘The Brown Lens’ as the basis of the product selection and curation process. Through our consciously curated lists of highly-vetted makers and their products, we aim to build a community that then promotes a waste-free and plastic-free lifestyle to their peers and social circles,” Ahuja says.

Recounting her experience with the Accelerator, Ahuja says, “It’s been an exhilarating journey to work alongside the best minds in tech in the world. The mentor conversations and expert sessions have helped me reimagine the future of sustainable consumption. Climate action is a pressing issue on a global scale and we must find solutions that can be scaled.”

Tradyl Founder: Shweta Agrawal

* What’s the startup about: Tradyl is an e-commerce platform for businesses and individuals across the world to quickly and reliably source products directly from Indian SME manufacturers. “You can call it the AliExpress of India,” says Agrawal. According to this former Flipkart executive, smaller retailers search online for reliable suppliers and products for their business. However, it is difficult to find affordable and ready-to-ship products except from China and when they do, they face many quality and timeline-related issues. India has 20 million SME manufacturers, but less than 1% of them export – they find exports too complex and have no easy channels to reach a global audience.

* Achievements so far: Tradyl’s focus is to simplify sourcing for international retailers to buy from Indian SME manufacturers. The startup offers a ready range of 30,000+ products across the fashion and home categories. It has brought together 150+ suppliers from key manufac-turing hubs in Tamil Nadu, Delhi NCR, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and many more on its platform.’

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On the assistance from Google for Startups Accelerator programme, Agrawal says, “We got access to mentorship and an opportunity to engage with mentors from Google and also subject experts from the industry. Discussions with them gave structure to our own thoughts and we could prioritise our action areas.”

MeMeraki Founder & CEO: Yosha Gupta

* What’s the startup about: MeMeraki.com has created a ‘culture-tech’ D2C platform enabling traditional rural artisans from the remotest corners to be digital creators in the creator economy with content (online art & craft masterclasses, live classes) enabling commerce (DIY traditional art and craft kits, artworks marketplace). “At MeMeraki.com, we want to create a distinct voice for traditional artists across all the 3,000+ arts and crafts of India online by enabling them to be digital creators,” says Gupta.

* Achievements so far: MeMeraki has worked with over 250 master artisans and in the last three years these new income streams through online workshops, masterclasses as well as retailing of their work online have led to significant income uplift and new livelihoods for them, on an average an income uplift of 30% and for some artists and artisans even doubling their income. Gupta says, “Our work has also helped drive conversations and awareness about artisanship, some of our videos have garnered more than 3 million views creating awareness and generating demand for our artisans’ work.”

On the help from the Accelerator, Gupta says, “The Google programme really helped us prioritise our product roadmap and strategies over the last three months with deep discussions and insights with the right set of mentors, access to people who have built startups from the ground up and understand working with resource constraints of startups. The entire community really primes you for success and is your biggest cheerleader.”