WE HUB, an exclusive incubator for women entrepreneurs, has set up a revolving fund to support the businesses backed by it.

“The idea is to financially enable women entrepreneurs that run small businesses let navigate the difficult phase as the pandemic impacts their businesses,” Deepthi Ravula, Chief Executive Officer of WE HUB, said.

The revolving fund is set up with the support of A. Murali Krishna Reddy, Chairman of MAK Group of Companies.

The first tranche of the fund was disbursed to five entrepreneurs at the incubators representing nutraceuticals, manufacturing and food processing sectors.

The beneficiaries with the sectors that they represent in brackets: G. Kalpana (nutraceuticals); R. Radhika (textiles); A. Rajeshwari and T. Savitri (food processing); and S. Kavya (agri business).

The incubator, however, has not disclosed the size of the fund. The beneficiaries would return the money in a year after passing through the rough phase in their journey. The money thus returned would be disbursed to the next set of entrepreneurs.

“These entrepreneurs were shortlisted out of the 30 women entrepreneurs, based on the scale of impact of the pandemic on their business, their current financial standing and projected financial growth of their enterprises,” she said.

“We are working with the beneficiaries the beneficiaries to set milestones for their business enterprises. Their progress along with their financial standing will be mapped and shared with all stake holders involved, every quarter,” she said.

Appealing to the private sector to chip in to help the struggling startups, Deepthi said the incubator would connect such startups with corporates and those who were running corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

A. Murali Krishna Reddy said the fund would help the women entrepreneurs meet urgent working capital requirements and procurement of machinery.

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