The three-month programme included curriculum and engagement opportunities addressing areas like access to networks, capital, hiring challenges and mentorship.
Started last year, the programme is aimed at helping startups begin, build and grow.
According to a Zinnov-Nasscom study, between 25,000 and 27,000 tech startups had been set up in India in the last decade, but women currently make up less than 18% of the startup leaders and founders.
Srishty Jain of startup CoLLearn, one of the 20 founders who participated in the programme, said: “Our vision changed. We started thinking beyond India and about how to cater to global citizens. It has also given us an approach for structured thinking for product launches, scaling up, digital marketing, all of which have helped us as a team and set the course for our next phase of growth.”
Another participant, Aakanksha Varude of OPOD Audio, said the programme “enabled us to go down to our roots, straight to fixing the leaks in our pipeline”.
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The inaugural cohort points to the potential of a community of peers who experience shared challenges, Paul Ravindranath, programme manager of the Google for Startups Accelerator India, said in a blog. “Not only have the women founders struck collaborations amongst themselves, several have become each other’s customers,” he said.“We are looking forward to opening up applications for the next cohort,” he said.
