Women have come across a long way from their kitchen to the founder of an organization. They have vanquished all the thorns in their way and extracted rose from it. Women have endured a long period of sufferings, denial, and violence but nothing could dominate them from flying high up. Women entrepreneurs have to overcome a wide variety of obstacles such as conscious or unconscious gender bias, smaller networks in comparison to men, or even personal insecurities and poor confidence that plague women to a lesser extent. Standing on the threshold of 21st century, women have made up around 67% of the work force. The increasing presence of women as entrepreneurs has led to significant business and economic growth in the country. The new decade is being the prime witness of such remarkable achievements of women. The percentage of startups established in emerging locations rose from 34% in 2021 to 39% in 2022.

"The girl who wakes up every day with a dream will transform into a woman with strong vision."

India continues to play a dominant role taking the third spot in the global startup sector with at least 25,000-27,000 active tech startups. More recently, women have made progress in creating a solid foundation for more females to join the workforce.

Contribution of Government towards Uplifting the Women’s Status
Starting a venture is not an easy task as it seems, it needs a pool of capital, planning, idea of the market, technical knowledge to bring the whole thought into action. Indian government is contributing to the upliftment of the women by conducting workshops, incubator programs. President Droupadi Murmu, in October 2022, had inaugurated ‘herSTART’, a platform to encourage women entrepreneurs. The government of India has also introduced a monthly allowance of ₹20,000 for up to one year for women-led startups. Startup India is a platform through which government initiatives are reachable for us.

“Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world” -Hillary Clinton
The whole scenario of Indian startup ecosystem is going through a massive shift. Entering of women in the ecosystem has significantly fostered the growth of the country from the grass-root level. In India, Bengaluru is becoming the focal point of women-led startups, with 1,783 ventures, followed by Mumbai (1,480) and Delhi (1,195). Noida, Kolkata and Ahmedabad are also making notable contributions, ranking eighth, ninth and tenth, respectively, showcasing the geographic distribution of women entrepreneurs in India. Karnataka government started to provide a grant-in-aid of Rs.50 lakh to encourage women innovators in need of early-stage funding, which has drastically magnified the number. The Silicon Valley of India has attracted the whole country by the slew of initiatives from incubation programs, grants and fellowships offered to women-founded startups.

The progress of a nation will be blocked, if all the doors are locked for women!!

Here in this article I will be throwing light on those Top 5 Bangalore-based women startups that are holding up the spirit of entrepreneurship and encouraging the women of India.

STREE - Celebrating Women
Women based startup from Bangalore which started its journey in 2020, when the whole world was trapped by giant pandemic. In order to support women to confront hard challenges, Vandana Sharma & Diksha Singh (Co-Founders) started this initiative. They aim to develop a business and technical bridge for women solopreneurs beginning with a marketplace of live classes where women teachers can create and sell their live sessions across categories and users can learn via live sessions by women coaches. Their mission is to create opportunity of financial freedom for millions of urban and rural women. They want to promote entrepreneurship and financial freedom in women which casts multi-generational benefits for economy and society. Their focus is to create a sense of self-identity for women, so that, they can never be denied by anyone in the society.

Voonik
India’s fastest growing Fashion Shopping App for women where you can buy fashion that suits your body, personality, lifestyle, and budget preferences. This Bangalore based company was started in 2013 by Sujayath Ali (Founder) & Navaneetha Krishnan (Co-Founder). The company had raised $5 million Series A round of funding from Sequoia India in 2015 followed by Series B round $20 million and $6 million from RB Investments in 2017. They received investment from various companies and VCs like Kunal Shah from Cred, Times Internet, Sequoia Capital, Innoven Capital, and RB Investments Pte Ltd. Voonik was incubated by Microsoft Ventures and it has been featured in Forbes - Top 20 startups to watch out for in 2016.

The Leaf
This startup offers creative solutions for companies in social media, digital marketing, branding, design and video. It was founded by Aditi Nayarin in 2019. The company primarily caters to the digital market and work within the intersection of branding, video, digital marketing, UI/UX design and development. They help the brands solve problems by seeing the world through their unique creative filter. Their unique touch of website design will make your brand eye-catching in this vast social media.

Daily Rounds Inc
This Bangalore based startup was started in 2014, and gradually became one of the largest networks Medical Doctors. Nimmi Cheran is the director and Co-founder of this company. This is a healthcare focused edtech platform, a team of doctors and coders, where nearly 400 doctors join daily. Nimmi has managed to provide over 1,00,000 medical practitioners with accurate and quality content that doctors have come to trust. Now it has a vast network of 300,000+ Doctors. After operating for five years, the Accel and Kae Capital-backed company was acquired by Japanese healthtech firm M3 in 2019. Nimmi believes that the revolution of health technology and digital transformation has immensely contributed to the success of this company. The company primarily makes revenue from subscriptions through its online learning platform Marrow. The quality content on medical education has increased the subscription rate of this platform. The platform is currently used by over 6 lakh medical students in India to prepare for medical competitive exam NEET PG.

Dil Foods
This is a virtual platform which creates brands, menus, pricing and packaging, establishes efficient processes, and collaborates with local restaurants possessing suitable infrastructure to handle orders. This company was founded by Arpita Aditi, who is the current CEO of this company. Very recently they have raised $2 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by V-cube Ventures and Mount Judi Ventures. Dil Foods also ensures the entire supply chain is managed to maintain quality and consistency across its outlets. Dil foods focus on the authentic homely food and regional cuisines, which are meant to be consumed on a daily basis. The company selects restaurant partners based on their level of underutilization which can be small, medium, or even national chains. If the restaurants reach out to them for additional income, the company helps to grow more in the market. Presently, its products are sold through Swiggy and Zomato.

Women are holding up the baton of success unleashing their potential!!

Last Note
With a vision to promote the sustainable development of women entrepreneurs for balanced growth in the country, we need to stretch our hands to those talented women out there whose raw and unpolished talents are hiding behind the shadow and bring them in the limelight. Nevertheless, today women are doing wonders entering to the business world, as they have stronger determination, different perspective and expert skill. Research shows that women excel in a variety of skills that are necessary in the workplace. Skills and qualities like task management, communication, patience and empathy are vital to succeed in a work environment, and women tend to excel in encouraging others to talk through problems, stay organized, remain patient and be understanding. Therefore, these days more number of women led startups are springing up in the market which are excelling within a short span because women tend to be more risk-averse and strategic than men. Only they need a push and support which will encourage them throughout their journey.

So, all the women out there don’t hide your skills, don’t feel what people are saying, or what they are thinking, just be yourself and live your dreams!!