BharatPe Group, Women Entrepreneurship Platform join hands to foster women entrepreneurship in India

BharatPe Group has announced a partnership with Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) with the objective of enabling women entrepreneurs across India in their journeys of self-reliance and business growth.

The partnership aims to build a robust ecosystem that brings together women entrepreneurs from different parts of India and equips them with the required domain knowledge along with the financial and technical know-how needed to meet their business goals. The core focus will be facilitating the development of a first-of-its-kind aggregator platform that gives access to peer support, mentorship, networking channels, and a wide range of learning resources.

Launched under BharatPe Cares, a corporate social responsibility initiative by BharatPe Group, this partnership aligns with the group’s purpose to empower lives through inclusive, innovative, and reliable fintech solutions. This specific initiative rests under the CSR programme of PAYBACK, a BharatPe company. 

According to the sixth economic census by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, women comprise only 13.76% of the total entrepreneurs in India (8.05 million of the total 58.5 million entrepreneurs). The figure indicates that women entrepreneurs must be empowered so they can follow their dreams.

The partnership aims to address the constraining barriers faced by women entrepreneurs and facilitate a level playing field so women enjoy equal opportunities for growth.

Nalin Negi, CFO and interim CEO, BharatPe, said that India is a startup and unicorn hub, but the share of women entrepreneurs in the country still remains low.

“There is huge untapped potential for unlocking entrepreneurship among women in India. WEP has an impeccable body of work towards driving women entrepreneurship in the country, and we are proud to partner with them on our shared vision of enabling women entrepreneurs to catalyse the growth of their businesses,” he said.

Negi added that the homegrown fintech’s regular engagement with women solopreneurs and small business owners had helped them understand their challenges – the most important being lack of access to financial know-how, networking channels, mentorship and fundraising opportunities.

As per an industry report, women entrepreneurs in India can generate 150-170 million jobs by 2030, which is more than 25% of the new jobs required for the entire working-age population.

“Thus, driving women entrepreneurship will boost the economy through job creation, and is critical to making India a $5 trillion economy. Our partnership with WEP is aimed at facilitating the development of plug-and-play digital infrastructure to address existing gaps and aid the growth of women entrepreneurs,” he said.

Commenting on the partnership, Anna Roy, Mission Director, WEP, said the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India is thriving but women-led businesses still need a lot of support to help scale businesses, more so due to social biases.

“Women entrepreneurs across the country face an unfair disadvantage due to exclusion from networking channels and mentorship opportunities. WEP aims to provide a continuum of support by leveraging the network of various stakeholders who are part of the ecosystem,” she said.

WEP, ideated and incubated in NITI Aayog, aggregates resources and services for women entrepreneurs, providing them with personalised information and services to assist their entrepreneurial journeys. The idea is to connect all stakeholders seamlessly across the board, overcome information asymmetry, and empower women by giving them the right information at the right time.

“With the partnership with BharatPe Group, WEP adds another important stakeholder to this vast and growing network of partner organisations to help level the playing field for women entrepreneurs and expand the funnel to get more women to start their own enterprises,” Roy said.

BharatPe will also facilitate the development of learning sources curated around specific sectors to support capability development and equip women entrepreneurs with the required domain knowledge to scale their businesses.