Sequoia India partners with Niti Aayog's WEP to promote women' entrepreneurship

Sequoia India announced that Sequoia Spark, its programme for women entrepreneurs in India and Southeast Asia, and Niti Aayog's Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) are collaborating on a year-long partnership to promote women entrepreneurship in India.

In this partnership, Sequoia India will mentor a cohort of aspiring women founders to help them with domain knowledge and skills needed for scaling up and setting their businesses.

Anna Roy, Senior Advisor, Niti Aayog, said, "WEP and Sequoia India’s Spark programme are collaborating to level the playing field, helping women founders on their enterprise building journeys by launching a new capacity-building programme to impart sound financial knowledge and develop fundraising skills. The programme is designed to look at challenges from their lens and aims to materially help them accelerate the growth of their business."

It will host webinars, be open to the larger WEP community on topics of fundraising, go-to-market, product-market fit, and attracting the key talent in early stages. Also, in leveraging the power of storytelling to create strong brands. These sessions will be tailored to address the needs and challenges that are unique to female founders.

ALSO READ

Sequoia Capital India announces fourth cohort of 17 early-stage startups under Surge programme

“While India’s startup ecosystem is a large and vibrant one, it is far from being a diverse one. There are huge gaps and lack of opportunities faced by women entrepreneurs — especially when it comes to accessibility to network, mentorship, and fundraising. We share a common vision and goal with NITI Aayog’s WEP - to close this gap and work towards more diversity in the startup ecosystem. With this partnership, the Sequoia India team aims to equipping women entrepreneurs with deep functional expertise across some core areas of company-building, ensuring they get access to much-needed skills for scaling their ideas into enduring businesses,” said Shweta Rajpal Kohli, Head - Public Policy, Sequoia Capital India LLP.

According to a survey conducted by Sequoia India with women founders in India and Southeast Asia, close to 66 percent of the founders surveyed said they wanted access to mentorship sessions with investors and business leaders.

With this in mind, Sequoia India will offer monthly office hours, curated around specific sectors and problem statements, to the 25 women entrepreneurs who will be part of the first cohort.