Telangana sets up first govt-backed VC fund for women entrepreneurs

Telangana government has announced the setting up of India’s first government-backed venture fund to support women startups, which concluded the three-day Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) at Hyderabad.

NITI Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant also announced that the Atal Innovation Mission of the government of India would partner with the state government for these initiatives.
The fund will have an initial corpus of Rs 15 crore, which will invest in women-founded startups ranging from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 1 crore in each venture, reported ET.

Also, women entrepreneurs will get one-fourth share in 25 percent of the total procurements made by the government from the private sector, mostly SMEs, announced the Telangana industries and information technology minister KT Rama Rao.

Rao said Telangana will also be setting up the country’s first incubator for women entrepreneurs 'WE-Hub or Women Entrepreneurs Hub', an exclusive incubator for women entrepreneurs, which he hoped would become a role model for rest of the country.

WE-Hub would be modelled on the lines of Hyderabad-based T-Hub, the country's largest technology incubator.

Also Read: Boeing, T-Hub launch ‘HorizonX India Innovation Challenge 1.0’ for startups at GES 2017

Of late, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Tourism and Hospitality Sector Skill Council (THSC) signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbnb, the world’s leading community-driven hospitality company. The partnership aims to create 50,000 hospitality entrepreneurs in India including 15,000 women.

Amazon India had also announced the launch of ‘The Saheli Store’ on its platform, which is a dedicated store for women entrepreneurs of the country, to encourage female entrepreneurship in India.