Women representation in the Indian start-up ecosystem is improving even as the Government has eased norms to encourage entrepreneurship.

In 2018, about 25 per cent of the total start-ups that were founded either had a solo woman as founder or more than one woman as co-founders, according to data collated by BusinessLine from various sources.

As per data provided by start-up research and analytics platform Tracxn, 27 tech companies were founded in 2018. Of this seven had at least one woman as a co-founder. In 2017, 53 companies were founded of which only 10, had female co-founders, which is 18 per cent. This, however, is a huge improvement over 2016, where a mere 9 per cent of the start-ups had women as co-founders.

Tracxn, co-founded by a woman- Neha Singh, provided data for all the start-ups that were founded and funded in 2018 and 2017.

While earlier women entrepreneurs focused on consumer and retail segments, in the last two years the trend has been changing with women spearheading segments such as fintech, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, health-tech, ed-tech and insure-tech, the data showed.

Experts believe that women entrepreneurs have also started becoming more prominent in the innovation economy even as start-ups have been a major agenda for Narendra Modi-led NDA government. The government’s start-up India programme launched in 2016, picked up pace in 2017 with more focus on women entrepreneurs. In 2018, start-up India officially launched a ranking of States and union territories on the basis of their initiatives that nurtured more woman founders at the local level.

Besides several accelerators and incubators launched by corporates, banks and venture capital firms are starting specific programmes dedicated to support women entrepreneurs.

However, this is not enough feel a few entrepreneurs.

“Resources, technology and infrastructure continue to come in the way of women entrepreneurs, especially in rural and semi-urban areas. I believe better infrastructure and safer public transport facilities can definitely create a more conducive environment for women,” said Swati Bhargava, Co-founder of Cashkaro.com.

She also added that social barriers and norms also get in the way when women step out to start a venture. “Some are not even permitted to go out of the house and work. Although the status quo is changing rapidly, there is still a long way to go before we achieve gender equality in the truest sense,” Bhargava feels.

Recently, in a bid to resolve gender disparity in the start-up space, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has proposed that one-third of the Centre’s Fund of Funds disbursal will go to women-led start-ups.

The department will also encourage other government departments in ensuring that support allocating separate funds for women-led start-ups. The DPIIT is also mulling ensuring one-third of women participation across the events it hosts.

“Half would be ideal, but it would be good to start with one-third participation from women,” said DPITT’s secretary Ramesh Abhishek at an event recently.

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