After building a women-focused community for over six years, SHEROES is all set to launch a neo banking platform for women entrepreneurs. According to two Entrackr sources, it has been running a pilot during the pandemic and ‘SHEROES Money’ will be available for all in a few weeks from now.
The platform is being positioned as a mahila bank (bank for women) and will offer third party savings, loans, insurance and investments products. “It has already partnered with various financial institutions including banks,” said one of the sources on condition of anonymity.
SHEROES Money appears to be a meaningful product addition since the company already has a strong community built across women in tier II, III and IV cities.
“SHEROES is looking to enable access to credit to its user base and also offer other financial and insurance products. It appears to be a smart move and eventually can open up a stable revenue channel for SHEROES in a long haul,” said another person requesting anonymity.
SHEROES provides business ideas and opportunities to women through buying and selling products and services, finding work and seeking advice. It claims to be one of the largest employment generators for women in the country. According to its website, it has a cumulative reach of 22 million women in India.
Women usually rely on male family members for financial support in India, even when they have a bank account. This forces a large chunk of women entrepreneurs (homepreneurs) to borrow informally from friends and family.
SHEROES has also been looking for a chief technology and product officer. Entrackr has independently verified the job postings made by the company recently.
SHEROES’ foray into neo banking is coming at a time when the company has sailed through a rough patch. While the platform had seen a surge in usage during the peak Covid-19 months, it was forced to downsize its workforce to conserve resources. In the past, the company had raised funds from Quintillion Media, HR Fund, Leo Capital, Anand Chandrasekaran and Paytm’s founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
