India | 9th November 2020: WE HUB, India’s first state-led incubator to foster and promote women entrepreneurship to start-up, scale-up and accelerate with global market access, today announced that it has released a revolving fund for women-led businesses incubated at WE HUB.
The vision behind creating this fund was to financially enable women across the spectrum, in view of the repercussions of the pandemic. Mr. A. MuraliKrishna Reddy, Chairman, MAK Group of Companies, supported the mission of WE HUB with a revolving fund to reach the most deserving small business entrepreneurs in India.
The first tranche of the fund was disbursed to five entrepreneurs incubated at WE HUB from nutraceuticals, manufacturing, and food processing sectors. These entrepreneurs were shortlisted out of 30 women entrepreneurs, based on the scale of impact of the pandemic on their business, their current financial standing and projected financial growth of their enterprises.
The inflow of capital through such financial instruments has the potential to improve efficacy of philanthropy and government spending. WE Hub as a catalyst, will provide the needed support to the entrepreneurs and in light of COVID-19 on small and medium businesses (SMBs), it is recommended that private investors reconsider their strategies to support women led SMBs.
WE HUB has worked with the beneficiaries to set milestones for their business enterprises. Their progress along with their financial standing will be mapped and shared with all stake holders involved, every quarter.
Names of the women entrepreneurs selected that have been granted the fund:
- G. Kalpana: Handles a nutraceutical business
- R. Radhika: Handles a textile business
- A. Rajeshwari: Handles a food processing business
- S. Kavya: Handles an Agri-based business
- T. Savitri- Handles a food processing business
Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WE HUB, said, “Amid pandemic, WE HUB has been adapting to these crucial times and exploring new ways to support and sustain the businesses of the start-ups. We are looking forward to connecting with corporates and CSR, who would like to support its start-ups’’
A. Murali Krishna Reddy, Chairman, MAK Group said ‘’I envision this fund will be used for meeting urgent working capital requirements and the procurement of machinery by the women entrepreneurs. I am positive that the handholding mechanism of WE HUB through this initiative of the revolving fund will go a long way in supporting women entrepreneurs’’
