How women are closing the startup gender gap | India News

No male co-founder, no funding. Female entrepreneurs have long complained about how hard it is to raise money, but things are finally looking up in India. Following the success of founders like Nykaa’s Falguni Nayar, Mamaearth’s Ghazal Alagh and Sugar’s Vineeta Singh who went on to take their startups to unicorn status, more women — both salaried professionals and homemakers — are starting their own ventures and getting funded too.

As per the Women in Startup Ecosystem Report (WISER) released in October, the share of female-led startups in India has risen to 18% of the overall startup ecosystem in 2022, from 10% in 2017. The startup landscape too underwent an expansion in this period, going from 6,000 startups to 80,000 last year. Of the unicorns in this period, 17% were led by women.