Women founders are over-mentored but under-funded, and this needs to change, say women leaders

Women founders in India are offered endless advice and networking opportunities but they struggle to secure the actual investment needed to scale, and this needs to change, said women leaders at a panel discussion at SheSparks 2026, YourStory’s flagship summit celebrating women.

Many women entrepreneurs are over-mentored and under-funded, and it's time to move beyond the warmth of sisterhood towards the reality of capital access, they reiterated.

Recent data indicates that for every Rs 100 raised by founders coming from the country’s most powerful startup networks, only Rs 4 goes to women founders. This imbalance exists despite the fact that women tend to build more capital-efficient businesses.

Aishwarya Malhi, Co-founder, Rebalance, an accelerator for startups and an angel community, said this shows a significant market inefficiency. She suggested that venture capitalists should track these gaps because inefficiencies often provide the best financial returns.

Reflecting on her years of working with female entrepreneurs, Malhi highlighted a common frustration regarding the kind of support women receive. She noted that many founders already possess the necessary skills and only require the door to be opened.

“I’ve met women where they needed no guidance to raise capital. They just needed the right kind of access. And I usually talk about this a lot where I say that women are over-mentored and under-funded. Sometimes they just come to us and say, ‘Listen, we just need the capital.'"

To understand the present, one must look at the growth of the Indian market over the years.

Sunali Rohra, Senior EVP & Head – Government & Institutional Business, Startups & Gig Banking, HDFC Bank, pointed out that the investment landscape has transformed significantly over the last two decades. In 2006, private capital in India stood at approximately $6.4 billion, but that figure grew to a staggering $44 billion by 2025.

In the past, starting a business was seen as a risky or even “brave” move, whereas today it is a career path that parents actively encourage. Despite this growth, social conditioning remains a hurdle.

Rohra highlighted that the way children are raised at home often dictates their future confidence. She believes the responsibility to change society lies with women themselves, particularly in how they raise their sons and daughters as equals.

“If you are always underestimating and undermining yourself, which is how we condition women in our society, most often, you will always feel yourself smaller, you will always say 'I have less'. But if you condition yourself and say 'I’m just as good', you will compete with every cell in your body and you will win,” Rohra explained.

Meanwhile, structural support is also evolving. The Government of India recently upgraded credit guarantee schemes for startups, which are expected to increase bank participation in lending.

Banks like HDFC act as a “magnet” for startups by offering debt and grants through programmes, said Rohra. These institutions focus on unit economics to ensure sustainability. For instance, Rohra noted that around 40% of the 1,600 startups applying for HDFC Tech Innovators programme had at least one woman founder.

Today women are breaking into sectors that were once considered male bastions. There is a noticeable rise in female founders building in aerospace, defence, and deeptech. For example, Malhi highlighted a programme aimed at female founders, noting that 85% of its portfolio consists of women, and 40% of that is in deeptech.

However, there is some amount of familiarity bias, wherein investors fund those who are similar to themselves. This must be acknowledged, said Malhi.

“To completely discount that there is no underlying familiarity bias is not right. It exists and sometimes it’s not conscious, and maybe these are just things you have to navigate through,” she explained.

As the ecosystem matures, new entry points for capital are emerging through CXOs and first-time investors who can provide early-stage funding with cheques as small as Rs 5 lakh. By focusing on “warm introductions” and direct access to the cap table, the industry can finally move from talk to action.

“It’s also about the agency women have to have. They must believe in their own agency to be able to sit at the cap tables and decide,” said Rohra.