Zone Startups India partners with Startup India to launch online incubation programme for women entrepreneurs

Zone Startups India (ZSI), along with Startup India, has launched a Virtual Incubation Programme for Women Entrepreneurs (VIP-WE).

This 10-week programme supports early-stage tech startups founded by women. The programme will be delivered online.

VIP-WE will select 20 early-stage technology-based startups whose products and services are ready to scale and requires handholding. There will be an intensive period of curated learning and development, and will be free of cost for all incubatees. 

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Hemant Gupta, Managing Director, Zone Startups India, said,

“Entrepreneurship is a long and often lonely journey, and we want to be by the partners to give the support required. We have built a strong supportive network of mentors, coaches, corporates, and investors for our startups. Promoting women entrepreneurship has always been our focus and we have been running the hugely successful ‘empoWer’ programme for women entrepreneurs for the last four years."

The programme will include 80 hours of workshops and has a unique curriculum developed by Zone Startups India, which includes management techniques, business and revenue model validation, and investor pitch training. 

The programme will kick-off with 100 Open Startups as the Global Strategic Partner, with access to their extensive global ecosystem. Cisco Webex will serve as the Technology Partner, along with a host of investors joining in such and several Business Support Services Partners in a collaborative effort to boost women entrepreneurship in India. And the programme will end with a virtual Demo Day, where the startups will get a chance to pitch to a panel of angel/early-stage investors, accelerators as well as corporates.

Varad Rajan Krishna, Founder and CEO, 100 Open Startups, said, “Under the present circumstances, the virtual or digital incubation and mentorship programme is the best option. Women entrepreneurs face a lot of challenges worldwide. The reason 100 Open Startups partnered with Zone Startup India as their Global Strategic Partner is that women entrepreneurs worldwide and in India can add value and can also learn from each other. We would like to bring more visibility for the founders through various global events and initiatives thereby creating more opportunities for business and investments.”