28 women entrepreneurs from Delhi, Agra and Gurugram empowered through 91Springboard and Google for Startups ‘Level Up’ program
Delhi, March 2023: 91Springboard, one of India’s leading coworking communities in partnership with Google for Startups (GfS) selected 28 women entrepreneurs from Delhi (18), Agra(2), and Gurugram(8) for the first Cohort of their ‘Level Up’ program. This is a countrywide virtual accelerator program that allows women entrepreneurs to fund their startups and grow their businesses. These women entrepreneurs run tech businesses in the fields of retail, apparel, pet care, healthcare, and other industries. They have had the benefit of receiving guidance and mentorship from some of the best industry experts, which will help them scale up their businesses and establish their brands as prominent players in the Indian startup ecosystem.
The ‘Level Up Program’ is aimed at offering insights and guidance from accomplished mentors from Google and other leading corporations to women-led startups. 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. 71 mentors provided masterclasses, peer meetups, tools, and expertise for three months to build and scale their businesses. Cohort 1 was started in August 2022 when 183 women entrepreneurs were shortlisted from over 366 applications and will conclude now on February 25. Through the course of the program, 200+ hours were spent on mentoring the founders with 12+ hours in formal networking. The peer meetups were held at 91 Springboard hubs across India.
Anand Vemuri, the 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. We have received an overwhelming response from tier I as well as from tier II cities which is a step closer to bridging the gap for our women founders and their vision for a smarter living.”
Nicole Yap, Partnership Manager, at 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. Through our programs, we wish to reach larger audiences and enhance homegrown businesses.”
Owing to the positive response received for Cohort 1, 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.
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.