91Springboard, one of India's leading coworking communities, in partnership with Google for Startups (GfS), concluded the first cohort of their 'Level Up' programme. The initiative is a nationwide virtual accelerator program that enables women entrepreneurs to take their startups to the next level. 183 women founders were vetted and selected to receive mentorship from the best in the business. 71 mentors provided masterclasses, peer meetups, tools and expertise for three months to build and scale their businesses. With the startup culture percolating into deeper pockets of the country, cohort 1 included women entrepreneurs from cities, such as Chandigarh, Surat, Indore, Pune and others in addition to the top metro cities.
Cohort 1, formed in August 2022, received more than 360 applications. The peer meetups were held at 91Springboard hubs in Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune and Mumbai.
The entrepreneurs were given insights and guidance from accomplished mentors from Google and other leading corporations. The mentors acted as sounding boards, and worked with the women founders on their challenges and to work out strategies to scale their business from X to 10X. Through the course of the program 200+ hours were spent on mentoring the founders with 12+ hours in formal networking.
With the positive response received for Cohort 1 which concluded on February 25, Cohort 2 of the Level Up program will commence in March and continue till July 2023. Women entrepreneurs wishing to participate in the 'Level Up' program can register here: Cohort II Application form
Anand Vemuri, CEO, 91Springboard, said, "Lately, we have witnessed a surge of women entrepreneurs becoming self-reliant and independent. It is great that our government is supporting them and we at 91Springboard are doing our bit. 91Springboard believes in nurturing growth through learning opportunities. This collaboration with GfS for Level Up will boost the confidence of the founders and assist them in their journey."
Nicole Yap, Partnership Manager, Google for Startups, added, "It is our abiding belief at Google that to build universally relevant and helpful solutions, the companies and ecosystems building this have to be fully inclusive and diverse. Women founders still comprise a very small fraction of the overall pie and we think programs that facilitate and enable this representation are very timely and highly important. We are pleased to collaborate with 91Springboard for this."
Women entrepreneurs have been integral to the Indian economy's transformational journey. While there was slow momentum in terms of women founders initially, India has witnessed an upsurge in women establishing successful businesses over the last couple of years. Therefore, supporting them leads to a better and more dynamic entrepreneurship environment, creates jobs and imparts new perspectives to businesses.
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( With inputs from ANI )
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