PC: Entrepreneur
In partnership with Encubay and VAIA Climate, Prosus has launched Tech FoundHER Challenge in India, a precursor to bridge the funding gap for women startups in tech ecosystem. This is an attempt to offer a much needed launch pad for female entrepreneurs to access capital, mentorship and global networks and to address the persistent inequities with respect to venture capital funding.
As of now, Prosus has invested nearly $9 billion to India and has backed companies including Swiggy, Meesho, Captain Fresh, PharmEasy across several sectors including fintech, food delivery and e-commerce. The FoundHER Challenge was launched in line with Prosus’s purpose to encourage innovation and support businesses with economic and social impact. Currently, recent market research indicates that less than 5% of the global venture capital funding is going to women led startups. The stark disparity clearly highlights the innovation required to make the change; that is why the Tech FoundHER Challenge exists as a means to catalyzing change through equity free funding and resources.
Basically, this challenge allows women-led tech startups to put forth their applications until April 4, 2025 on the given conditions. Based on scalability, innovation and potential of social impact, from the pool of applicants, we will shortlist 30 innovative founders. Then these already selected entrepreneurs will also have another opportunity to compete further, and the top six founders will be invited here for an in person session in May 25, 2025 in Bangalore. The final pitches will get assessed by an esteemed panel of judges, comprising of industry leaders like Avaana Capital’s founding partner Anjali Bansal, Archana Jahagirdar, Ronak Sandil, Apurva Dixit, Prosus Ventures CEO Martin Tschopp and Priyanka Chopra.
Founded by Encubay, a network of over 10,000 stakeholders globally, comprising founders, investors, corporates, and ecosystem partners, Empower Female Entrepreneurs is an effort to support women entrepreneurs. The FoundHER Challenge is perfectly aligned with the objectives of the organization in terms of what building knowledge networks is about, what access to capital means and what creating tangible opportunities for women in business stands for. VAIA Climate, an independent investment advisory firm, also contributes to this effort by partnering with the firm to support sustainable innovation and the firm’s strategic growth.
The Prosus Tech FoundHER Challenge will also contribute to narrowing the equity gap and create an environment that fosters and nurtures diversity and inclusion in the tech sector to encourage a new generation of women-led enterprises in India. In the end, this is a good attempt at making funding more equitable, and celebrating innovation from women entrepreneurs, promising a future that is bright for tech in India.
