Lets fund women who need Funding !  

The empoWer initiative recognizes women entrepreneurs and awards the most deserving one with seed fund, mentoring and excellent networking.

What is empoWer ?

empoWer is a wonderful initiative to encourage and equip women entrepreneurs operating in the tech space .It’s a first of its kind program for women entrepreneurs. Powered by Zone Startups India, the accelerator program shortlists 15 women entrepreneurs and helps them scale their business to new heights. The shortlisted entrepreneurs receive tremendous support in terms of mentoring and are given valuable networking opportunities .

Launched in 2016, Zone Startups India disbursed over INR 67 Lakhs in grants to top the top 6 cohort members. Their first cohort was immensely successful with a tremendous impact of 8 entrepreneurs going onto cumulatively raise in excess of INR 150 Crores.

This year too, Zone STARTUPS is all set to empoWer a new set of rising women stars! We are raising INR 10 L to fund the cash prize for the 1 undisputed winner among 15 finalists and we need your help. Please fund this campaign and help us get to our crowdfunding goal.

empoWer 2017 was launched in September 2016, amidst a day-long conference, with senior women leaders from the industry.

Zone STARTUPS understands and recognizes the importance of the right mentoring and bankable social networks for all the rising women entrepreneurs. However, to take their tech ventures forward, most women entrepreneurs are in need of seed funding in order to bring their ideas to life and scale their ventures to the next level. These being the reasons, the cash prize plays a major role in accelerating the growth of the following shortlisted women entrepreneurs.

2017 Cohort  : One of the following would be receiving the crowdfunded money

empoWer 2017’s applications exceeded way beyond their expectations and they received 376 applications on a whole. Out of these 376, the following 15 have been selected.

The cohort ange across technology themes such as IOT, Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning; and industries such as healthcare, smart cities and enterprise solutions.

• Riot Solutions Inc., monitoring baby sleep patterns
• REVOL Inc., smart wallets
• TekUncorked, Light IOT Framework
• WOWLET, the wow toilet experience
• Tapu Sustainable Solutions, waterless urinals
• ICONICbot / Morph.ai / Bizlem, all leveraging chatbot technologies
• Cygen / PregBuddy / Periwinkle / Tactopus, all revolutionizing healthcare and accessibility
• Bitgram Technologies / Faasthelp / The Friday Code, all solving big enterprise use cases

Many renowned industry experts and influencers like Avani Davda, MD - Godrej Nature's Basket, Paula Mariwala (MD, SeedFund), Vidya Laxman ( Director - Technology, TESCO), Sunita Singh ( ED, Wadhwani . Foundation), Dr. Anita Gupta ( Associate Director, NSTDEB, DST), Deepali Naair ( CMO, IIFL) are on board to mentor these entrepreneurs.

Impact  : Success stories from 2017

Below are the stories of 2 women entrepreneurs who benefitted from the empoWer initiative last year.

Suhani Mohan, Founder, Saral Design

Saral Designs is a product driven start-up with the mission of solving critical problems in the field of menstruation, hygiene and sanitation. They aim to provide every girl with high quality hygiene solutions, to help her embrace womanhood with dignity.

Suhani won Equity-free seed funding of INR 10 Lakhs from sponsor partners through empoWer. 

Pre empoWer:

• Received Seed Funding from Powai Lake Ventures - INR 95 Lakhs
• Won the Acumen Fellowship, Indiafrica Young Visionary Award.
• Coverage in Economic Times, Business Standard, Tech In Asia, YourStory & VCCircle 

Post empoWer:

• Raised a bridge round from existing investors
• Won a grant of INR 5 Lakhs
• Won the Anita Borg Institute’s Women Entrepreneur Quest & got a visit to silicon valley for 2 weeks as a part of the quest
• Coverage in Outlook Business and TOI

  PIC: Suhani Mohan, spreading smiles every day

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sanskriti Dawle, Founder, Project Mudra  

projectmudra is a start-up by alumni of BITS Pilani to put Braille within reach of all visually impaired people.

Won Tech Grant by GIZ of INR 7 Lakhs worth of services from professional organisations of choice through empoWer

Pre empoWer:

• 100% bootstrapped business with around INR 5 Lakhs investment
• Project Mudra won the GTRS award by UK Trade & Investment
• Also awarded the 'Best Social Innovation' by InTech50

Post empoWer

• Raised INR 1.3 Cr from angel investors
• Was a part of Sandbox Startups 500K Biz Launchpad by the Deshpande Foundation
• Participant in Conquest 2016, an international startup conclave organised by BITS Pilani the Mass Challenge UK Dell Startup Challenge

PIC: Sanskriti Dawle, brightening lives of the visually impaired 

These overwhelming achievements and the acceleration of Suhani and Sanskriti’s efforts are not just inspiring, but also validate the pressing need for such initiatives in the country.

However, the empoWer initiative needs your backing to raise INR 10 Lakhs, to be able to raise funds for the seed fund for the winner!

You can be a part of the change you always wished to see.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

empoWer : Key takeaways of the Program 

• Equity Free Seed Fund of INR 10 Lakhs for top 3 women entrepreneurs from each track
• One entrepreneur gets to soft land at DMZ, Toronto for a 1-week program
• Exclusive Media and PR Coverage
• Access to Amazon Launchpad program for free marketing and branding on Amazon website for one physical good entrepreneur
• Seed Fund between INR 25-50 Lakhs by Social Alpha, an initiative by Tata Trust to eligible entrepreneurs.
• One selected entrepreneur from the cohort will get an opportunity to travel to Québec, Canada for a week-long mentorship and business development program to explore business opportunities.

Supporting Partners for empoWer 2017 are  

About Zone Startups India 

Zone Startups India is the international footprint of the Toronto-based Ryerson Futures Inc., an early technology accelerator and seed stage investment fund. In India, they’ve set up a joint venture with the Bombay Stock Exchange; and are the only independent accelerator in India to be supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Zone Startups India has been operating in India for 3 yrs now, during which their portfolio has grown to comprise 120 startups that have been through their flagship accelerator - Zone Startups India; and have impacted over 150 startups indirectly. 30 of their startups have raised in excess of $11.5 Mn, cumulatively, and created over 600 net new knowledge economy jobs.