It makes me proud to know that 1 out of 13 unicorns across the globe were born in India in 2021.The same year saw the rise of 46 unicorns (startups valued at $1 billion or more) where 13 unicorns were founded by female entrepreneurs as per the Orios Venture Partner’s India Unicorn Report. Two-thirds had founders from IITs, IIMs or ISB.
On the other hand, the research by Institute of Social Studies Trust shows the percentage of self-employed women in the country went down, as the percentage of salaried women drastically went up in a span of six years. An alarming fact of the research reveals that women make up for only 13.76 percent of entrepreneurs in India while they own 20.37 percent of MSMEs.
As per a survey by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, women entrepreneurs in India appear to have felt the strongest pandemic impacts of the countries in this region, with two thirds of women attributing recent business closures. These women appeared to face the most difficulty in accessing business financing compared to their male peers.
Unfortunately, women appear to have a harder time translating high intentions into new businesses. This is because of very conservative systems of gender beliefs and restrictions on women. Despite all the shortcomings and limitation women are finding ways to start and grow promising companies.
