How Google, Sequoia are supporting growth plans of women-led startups

A slew of accelerator programmes are reaching out to a segment that has been attracting a tiny share of the funds raised by the entire Indian startup ecosystem

Indian startups had a record year in 2021, having collectively raised the highest amount ever, of $42 billion. But if one were to ask what percentage of these funds were raised by startups led by women founders, the answer would be abysmal.

According to studies, the share of women-led startups in fundraise would be just about six per cent. And if one removes the number of women-founded businesses with a male co-founder, then the number falls even further to 1.5 per cent. Here's another one: India is the third largest startup ecosystem, with over 100 unicorns. However, a mere 15 per cent of these billion-dollar enterprises have one or more women founders.

Globally, too, women entrepreneurs have had to fight for a seat at the table. According to a recent report by Pitchbook, in 2021 VC deal activity for US-based female founded companies was already on a par with the annual funds raised in 2019 and 2020, which was $2 billion. But despite this, when compared to the overall funds raised, the numbers remained very small.

In India founders such as Falguni Nayyar of Nykaa, Ghazal Alagh of Mamaearth, Upasna Taku of Mobikwik, Ruchi Kalra of OfBusiness, Mabel Chacko of Open's journey as successful women entrepreneurs who will perhaps inspire more to come forward.

To reduce this gap further, players like Google, Sequoia, Accenture among others have started accelerator programmes focused on women-founded businesses.

For instance, Google today announced the launch of the Google for Startups Accelerator programme for women-led startups. This is the first time that the tech giant is announcing a women-founder focused programme in India.

The programme will have two cohorts for this year and each cohort will support 20 women founders. The application for the first cohort for this programme will begins today and Google will select 20 women-led startups for the programme.

The sector-agnostic programme will focus on the early stage to a series A startup.

One of the reasons for starting a women-founder focused by Google was the absolute abysmal percentage of funding going to these startups.

Aditya Swamy, director, Google Play partnerships stresses the need to support women led businesses simply because they are 50 per cent of the population. “If we are not thinking of products that are solving for 50 per cent of the society then how can we create products that can benefit all,” he added.

Recent history is replete with examples where the male experience has been used as a stand-in for the universal --automobiles, PPE kits, smartphones--with sobering implications on health, safety and overall helpfulness for women users.

While fundraising is a challenge, Google in few of its discussions and surveys with women founders also found that networking, hiring or access to accelerator programmes or even having a community to which they can connect to. “In one of the surveys, almost 48 per cent of women said that they need access to a better mentor and we want to solve this. Importantly, there's nothing like having a peer group that allows you to connect and grow,” said Paul Ravindranathan G, programme manager, developer relations and head of Google Accelerator at Google India. 

Ravindranathan added that the biggest challenge seems to be finding the right talent as many men are not too keen to work with women founders.

Accenture earlier this month also announced that it will be supporting five women founders in India for the 2022 edition of the Women Founders Program. Launched in early February this year and anchored by Accenture Open Innovation, it aims to help address the diversity gap by providing funding to women-founded deep tech and enterprise SaaS startups.

The programme saw applications from over 100 early-stage, women-led technology startups across the country which were evaluated based on their product differentiation, disrupt-ability quotient, leveraging of deep technologies, commercial viability and founder profile.

The cohort includes Kausambi Manjita (Co-Founder & CEO, Mason), Chandralika Hazarika (Co-Founder & Managing Director, Bigthinx), Ketaki Ogale (Co-Founder, BHyve) Nida Sahar Rafee (Founder & CEO, Nife) and Sharmila Saha (Co-Founder & Head of Engineering, Doppelio). The identified women founders will benefit from the equity-free grant of $60,000. The programme will not only connect them to Accenture leaders, experts and ecosystem partners but also offer access to tech expertise, global and Indian clientele, mentorship, industry and investor communities and new markets.

“To help accelerate the advancement of women as leaders and founders in the tech ecosystem, Accenture launched the Women Founders Program, a first-of-its-kind initiative by Accenture in India, on February 9, 2022. Anchored by Accenture Open Innovation, the programmewomen-founded Deep Tech & Enterprise SaaS startups,” said the company in a statement.

In 2021 Kalaari Capital launched CXXO initiative that supports women founder-led startups. The fund house also dedicated $10 million to support between eight to 10 digital startups founded by women.

So have these made any improvement? It seems to be making an impact. For instance, Google for Startups India, which closed its sixth cohort in January this year had 35 per cent women-led startups. Compare this to when the programme was launched in India in 2015, when the tech giant would receive just 6-7 per cent of applications from women led founders.

Google under its Accelerator programme so far has had six cohorts, which has had over 100 companies who went on to raise over $2 billion and created 12,000 jobs. Swamy also added that one in every 10 companies from Google’s accelerator programme has raised $100 million.

Sequoia, last year, launched Sequoia Spark, an equity free programme focused on women led business in India and South East Asia. The fellowship will cover the early cost of starting up and offer access to monthly mentorship sessions, select Surge sessions, and receive hands-on support from Sequoia India portfolio specialists, across hiring, legal, finance, product, technology, and marketing.