Hyderabad | 16th January 2021: 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 its partnership with i-Hub, Government of Gujarat, to encourage and support startups in raising capital. The MoU was inked between Shri Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, (Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology Department, Government of Telangana and Ms. Anju Sharma, IAS, Principal Secretary (Higher & Technical Education, Education Department Government of Gujarat)
The virtual launch today was hosted in the presence of Shri Kalvakuntala Taraka Rama Rao, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister (IT E&C, MA &UD, and Industries & Commerce Departments), Shri Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Hon’ble Minister (Cabinet Minister for Education, Government of Gujarat), Smt. Vibhavariben Dave, Hon’ble Minister of State (Women and Child Welfare, Education (Primary& Higher) & Pilgrimage, Government of Gujarat), Shri Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, (Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology Department, Government of Telangana), Ms. Anju Sharma, IAS, Principal Secretary (Higher & Technical Education, Education Department Government of Gujarat) , Mr. Nagarajan, IAS, and Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WE HUB, a Government of Telangana initiative.
The partnership will initiate pre-incubation program for 240 aspiring women entrepreneurs in the EdTech, MedTech and Fintech sectors in the states of Telangana and Gujarat. Post 3 months of pre-incubation program and after rigorous interventions a total of 20 entrepreneurs will be selected for the final virtual/physical co-incubation program. This co-incubation brings in the startups the opportunity to scale up to viable enterprises and receive solid scale-up and rapid growth mentorship from the leaders at i-Hub and WE HUB. The startups will also have Government supported exposure visits across Telangana and Gujarat.
Shri Kalvakuntala Taraka Rama Rao, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister (IT E&C, MA &UD, and Industries & Commerce Departments) said, “When we announced the formation of WE HUB in November 2017, little did people understand the vision of this initiative and the impact it would create. In the last two years, WE Hub has pushed the narrative of democratising entrepreneurship by breaking the barriers that exist for Women Entrepreneurs through its work. We are happy that WE HUB has now become the best practice model for many states Governments in India. Through this partnership we would like to create roadmap of how Women Entrepreneurship can be scaled, supported & sustained not just in India but across the world. I wish this collaboration the best & pledge our support for an Atma Nirbhar Bharat where Entrepreneurship is based on competence & not gender.”
Shri Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, (Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology Department, Government of Telangana) said, “In the first of its kind effort for Women Entrepreneurship by WE HUB, the collaboration is bringing two governments- the Government of Gujarat and Telangana government together with the focus on enabling women entrepreneurs in the focus sectors. To enable and promote women entrepreneurs, this partnership will also engage in Preincubation, incubation, policy, and stake holder consultation across the country. We are looking forward to ensuring that this collaboration yields the best practise model for scaling Women Entrepreneurship in India with WE HUB’s 3 years of learning.”
Anju Sharma, IAS, Principal Secretary (Higher & Technical Education, Education Department Government of Gujarat & Chairperson i-Hub) said, “This is a very significant day for WE HUB and i-Hub, as two states have joined hands to work towards promoting women entrepreneurship in the country. We will achieve better results with this collaboration, as our Prime Minister rightly says, progress is achieved when everyone collaborates. Through this program, WE Start, we will enable women entrepreneurs to transfer and gain knowledge from each other as well as from WE HUB and i-Hub. The aim of this partnership is to benefit women entrepreneurs from across the country and not just from Gujarat and Telangana.”
Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WE HUB said, “We are glad to collaborate with i-Hub to promote Women Entrepreneurship across Telangana and Gujarat. through this collaboration, we are going to equip i-Hub with the learnings, knowledge & ecosystem we have developed in the past 3 years working with over 3400 Women Entrepreneurs,11 startup programs, incubating 148 startups and creating over 300 jobs. When i-Hub connected with us during the launch of WE Start to scale the Women Entrepreneurs of Gujarat, we were thrilled to collaborate on Incubation, knowledge sharing, curriculum development, program creation for aspiring & existing entrepreneurs. To yield the lead desired benefits of making India the Women Entrepreneurship capital of the world, ecosystems must collaborate, and this is the first step towards making the vision a reality.”
The commencement of the programs is scheduled for the first week of February 2021.
Additional Information:
Key Highlights of the MOU:
- To enable all the support mechanism required to promote women entrepreneurs, this partnership will also engage in the following programs:
- Start-up collaborations including start-up exchange programs for Women Entrepreneurs from Both states to understand, collaborate and explore each other’s markets.
- Pre-Incubation cohorts across Women Entrepreneurs from Gujarat and Telangana
- Policy & Stake holder consultation to strengthen the policy framework to support Women Entrepreneurs across scale, stage & sector in both the states.
- Creating case studies & white papers to showcase & highlight the outcomes of the i-Hub & WE HUB collaboration and complementary efforts to support Women Led start-ups to the Govt. Of India.
- Create best practise models for incubators & government led initiatives to follow to increase the participation of Women in the Economies of both states.
- Entrepreneurial Development, stakeholder engagements will also be facilitated between both the states.
WE HUB and i-Hub will also collaborate for discussions around policy framework and case studies to enable gender inclusion. These will enable young women and girls to be a part of the economic workforce and thrive in the ecosystem.