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MOVING THE NEEDLE
The Women
Entrepreneurship Platform
MVING
THE NEEDLE
March 2021 MOVING THE NEEDLE
The Women Entrepreneurship Platform
Creating an Enabling Environment
for Women-Led Enterprises In the preparation of the report, valuable contributions have been made by the International Innovation
Corps team. This paper includes contributions by Ankan De, Sumita Soni and Sabyasachi Upadhyay
from the NITI Aayog WEP team. Special mention is warranted for Mansha Siraj and Deepika Raman.
Others who have contributed towards this paper include Sanjana Mohanty and Siddhant Sawhney.
This paper reflects the design, development and on-ground implementation of the Women
Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP), which was launched in 2018. WEP has been supported in its various
endeavours by partners who have bolstered its mission to create an enabling environment for India’s
women entrepreneurs.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The role of entrepreneurship in the context of people’s lives and the economic
progress of the nation has never been more important. McKinsey’s Gender
Parity Report 2018 noted that if India is able to address gender inequality
– we could add about $770 Billion to the GDP or about 18% more than the
usual scenario
1
. Women’s labour force participation has been 18.6% for rural
and urban India for the period 2018-2019 as was noted as per the latest
PLFS survey
2
. This gap highlights that there is much work to be done with
respect to supporting women, to help improve their labour force participation.
Entrepreneurship provides a key pathway for achieving this. With the right
kind of support, entrepreneurial activities undertaken by women can not only help them improve
their lives and enhance their agency, but also has the potential to have a cumulative positive impact
on India’s economy. A robust support ecosystem is necessary to help women entrepreneurs realise
their aspirations.
The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) is one of the flagship initiatives of NITI Aayog that
was conceived by the CEO, Shri. Amitabh Kant, at the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2017.
Through WEP, NITI Aayog has been actively working towards developing a conducive entrepreneurial
ecosystem necessary for women entrepreneurs to fulfill their goals.
The platform was officially launched on International Women’s Day in 2018. WEP has been envisioned
as an aggregator of information and services, with a mission to educate, enable and empower women
entrepreneurs. To build a vibrant ecosystem for women-led enterprises, the platform works to
strengthen industry linkages and increase awareness of existing programs and services. The platform
plays a key role in addressing information asymmetry that impacts women entrepreneurs today. WEP
also provides a means to bring together numerous programs and initiatives which otherwise are
implemented in silos. The platform brings together various offerings and services provided through
WEP partners and integrates and curates these offerings.
The platform is agnostic with respect to its “target audience”, catering to rural and urban entrepreneurs.
Further, it supports and facilitates both established as well as upcoming entrepreneurs. For the first
time, the WEP community is now available in regional languages, which is an important initial step in
reaching a larger audience.
This report captures some of the efforts undertaken by this flagship initiative to move the needle on
women entrepreneurship.
Anna Roy
Adviser, NITI Aayog
1 The Power of Parity Report (2018)
2 http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/Press%20Note.pdf
FOREWORD CONTENTS
Acknowledgements II
Foreword III
1. Setting the Context 2
1.1 Introduction 2
1.2 The Indian Entrepreneurial Landscape 3
1.3 Women & Entrepreneurship - Key Challenges 4
2. Addressing Challenges to Female Entrepreneurship: The Approach 7
2.1 Genesis of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform 7
2.2 The WEP Platform – Portal Design 8
3. The Development of the Platform 10
3.1 Portal Evolution 10
3.2 Behavioral Insights Workshop 11
3.3 Gamma Testing 12
3.4 Partner Support: Flipkart and the Community module 13
3.5 Future Improvements 14
4. Understanding the WEP User base 17
4.1 User Requirement Surveys 18
4.2 Insights from WEP User Data and Surveys: 19
5. WEP: Highlight of Initiatives 21
5.1 Key Verticals of Support 23
5.1.1 Funding and Financial Assistance 23
5.1.2 Incubation and Acceleration 24
5.1.3 Entrepreneur Skilling & Mentorship 25
5.1.4 Compliance and Tax Assistance 26
5.1.5 Marketing Assistance 26
5.1.6 Community and Networking 26
5.1.7 Other General Initiatives 26
5.2 Creating Role Models: The Women Transforming India Awards 28
5.3 WEP’s COVID Response 30
6. Way Forward: Enhancing Reach & Impact 34 SETTING THE CONTEXT Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 2
1.1 Introduction1.1 Introduction
The participation of women in entrepreneurship plays a key role in the socio-economic transformation of
any nation. Apart from advancing the economic empowerment of women, entrepreneurship enhances
the social status of women through the ownership of assets and the freedom of decision making.
Women’s participation in the entrepreneurial landscape has multiple benefits, including the latitude
that it provides with respect to earning their own livelihoods and gaining financial independence. The
generation of income in turn leads to an improvement in the standard of living along with the agency
to apply their education and skills to fulfill their professional ambitions.
India can add 18% to its GDP (approximately USD 770 billion),
if it can bridge its gender equality gap by improving female
workforce participation in the country.
3
For developing
countries, Women’s workforce participation is closely linked
with entrepreneurship with self-employment and small and
micro business significantly contributing to job creation.
4
Evidence shows that women led enterprises have a tendency
to hire more women and hence female entrepreneurship
creates a multiplier effect in generating employment
in the wider community.
5
On their part, Indian women
entrepreneurs are revolutionizing the country by taking
the lead in fields that have traditionally been dominated by
men. It is imperative that an enabling supportive ecosystem
is created which can help women achieve their desired
economic outcomes and subsequently contribute to the
welfare of women in society at-large.
Gendered constraints impede women’s entry in the
entrepreneurial landscape. A healthy ecosystem requires
3. The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in Asia Pacific – India. (2018). McKinsey Global Institute. Retrieved from: https://mck.co/37aRT-
cb
4 http://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/press_release/Press%20Note.pdf
5. The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in Asia Pacific – India. (2018). McKinsey Global Institute. Retrieved from: https://mck.co/37aRT-
cb
SETTING THE CONTEXT1 Setting the Context3
conscious efforts to improve women’s access to knowledge and the requisite skills. These challenges
have been recognized in NITI Aayog’s Strategy document, New India@75, that was released following
the Honorable Prime Minister’s call for building a ‘New India’ 2022, when India completes 75 years
of Independence. Enhancing female labour force participation is one of the key goals listed in this
strategy and forms a crucial part of the five-year vision for India. This goal is aligned with research
that says that India has much to gain if women exercise their agency beyond the domestic realm and
join the formal economy.
In addition to recognizing and addressing these challenges, the strategy also focused on encouraging
women to participate in industry and enterprise. The strategy recommended improving access to
credit for women entrepreneurs as well as supporting skill development initiatives to motivate women
to explore entrepreneurship.
1.2 The Indian Entrepreneurial Landscape1.2 The Indian Entrepreneurial Landscape
Trade and commerce has always played an important role in India’s economy, right from historic times
when traders travelled across the globe to exchange goods and services. In the post-liberalization
period, India emerged as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Amongst the critical
factors that can be attributed for this steady pace of growth is the influx in the domestic and foreign
capital and rise in disposable income. However, economists unanimously agree that at the heart of
India’s economic growth is the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector. The sector accounts
for approximately 45% of the country’s industrial output and generates employment for 60 million
people, creating 1.3 million jobs every year.
6
Smaller businesses have quickly emerged as one of the key drivers of the country’s gross domestic
product and subsequently, its economic growth. Aided by the technology revolution and the
consequent positive disruption to the traditional industrial setup, India’s business ecosystem paved
the way for a diverse set of new entrants. To this effect, the previous decade has witnessed a rapid
mushrooming of enterprises in India, making it the third largest startup ecosystem in the world.
7
This
phenomenon has propelled the country on a path of economic boom, contributing to job creation
and fueling the engines of growth and development.
8,9
Cognizance of the propensity of startups to stimulate socio-economic progress has also led to a pan
India adoption of policies and programs targeted at building a catalytic environment for entrepreneurs.
The Indian government has invested substantial resources to spark entrepreneurship through programs
such as the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMGEP), Entrepreneurship Skill
Development Programme (ESDP) and Startup India. Several state governments, CSR entities, and civil
society organizations are also undertaking their own initiatives.
Yet, the participation of women entrepreneurs in this ecosystem remains minimal. According to the
latest available estimates, of the 58.2 million micro, small, and medium enterprises operating in the
country, only ~14% or 8.05 million are owned by women.
10
Additionally, women owned enterprises in
India are largely skewed towards smaller sized firms, with almost 98 percent of businesses falling in
the category of micro-enterprises.
11
6. SME Landscape in India - Growth, Challenges and Opportunities. Business Standard. Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/3jRsf23
7. Indian Startup Ecosystem. (2019). Retrieved from startupindia: https://bit.ly/2MGs6yV
8. Indian Tech Startup Funding Report. (2018). Retrieved from INC42: https://bit.ly/3dKivmR
9. Indian Startup Ecosystem. (2019). Retrieved from startupindia: https://bit.ly/2MGs6yV
10. All India Report of Sixth Economic Census. (2016). Retrieved from Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation: https://bit.ly/379gVsb
11. Improving Access to Finance for Women-owned Businesses in India. IFC. Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/2CVSEuE Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 4
Percentage of Enterprises by Male/Female Owners
CategoryMaleFemale
Micro79.5620.44
Small94.745.26
Medium97.332.67
All79.6320.37
Source: Annual Report, 2018-19 Ministry of Medium and Small Enterprises
The limited presence of women entrepreneurs indicates that while India’s business environment is
improving as reported by World Bank in 2018, the overall ecosystem still poses multiple challenges
for women-owned or led businesses. This is backed by evidence as well; India was ranked 52 out of
57 countries when it came to women entrepreneurs’ ability to capitalize on opportunities offered by
their local environments by the Mastercard Index in 2018.
Stimulating women entrepreneurship can go a long way in bridging gender gaps and empowering
women. However, as recognized in the Strategy@75 recommendations, achieving this requires
building an enabling environment where the constraints to women entrepreneurship are actively
identified and removed. These constraints are instrumental in determining the size, scale and the
success of women led businesses and has larger implications for the India’s vision for inclusive growth
and attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
12
1.3 Women & Entrepreneurship - Key Challenges 1.3 Women & Entrepreneurship - Key Challenges
In the last decade, there have also been focused institutional efforts such as Mahila e-Haat and
Stand-up India to make women an active part of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of India by enabling
access to funds, markets and mentors. However, deeply entrenched socio-cultural expectations act
as systemic barriers leading to less than ideal participation from women entrepreneurs.
Domestic Responsibilities: For instance, in most Indian families, women are still operating within the
framework of pre-assigned gender roles shouldering the sole responsibility for domestic chores and
caregiving for dependents. OECD reports that the average Indian woman spends nearly six hours
on unpaid work each day with men contributing less than a single hour (52 minutes).
13
With the
management of the domestic realm falling on women alone, the time and energy required to run
a functioning enterprise is not always feasible, making women skeptical and hesitant to enter the
space.
Access to Credit: Additionally, the risks associated with entrepreneurial ventures play a part in holding
back aspiring women entrepreneurs who often have to tackle biased perceptions while seeking
credit.
14
Getting a loan from a financial institution requires adequate collateral and the gendered
differences in asset ownership and the lack of sufficient savings, often disqualify women for receiving
credit. Studies have shown that women are 5%-15% more likely to have their loan applications rejected
than men,
15
making women business owners reluctant to apply for business credit. Evidence also
indicates that women are less likely than men to seek capital from external financing because of low
confidence and expectations of discrimination.
16
12. An Analysis of Women Entrepreneurship in India. (2019). GIZ. Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/3enhilE
13. Employment:Time spent in paid and unpaid work, by sex. Retrieved from OECD: https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=54757
14. Improving Access to Finance for Women-owned Businesses in India. IFC. Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/2CVSEuE
15. Muravyev et al. Entrepreneurs’ gender and financial constraints: Evidence from international data. Journal of Comparative Economics. Retrieved
from: https://bit.ly/39yOvJr
16 Coleman, S. 2000. Access to capital and terms of credit: A comparison of men-and women-owned small businesses. Journal of Small Business
Management Setting the Context5
Gender Biases: The undercurrent of gender biases is most stark in the investment space for women
owned enterprises. Women entrepreneurs are often hesitant to approach investors. If and when
women do make investment pitches, investors have been found to prefer pitches presented by men
as compared to those by women, despite having identical content.
17
In 2018, women entrepreneurs in
India received only 5.2% of the total available funding,
18
contributing to the perception of the venture
capitalist world as a ‘boys club’, brimming with unconscious biases.
Theoretically the entrepreneurial world should ideally be gender neutral, but the judgement around
the likelihood of a startup to survive or not is often based on the broader stereotyping associated
with men and women, their skills, financial management capabilities and decision-making prowess.
Men are evaluated more favorably than women on characteristics such as persuasiveness, low need
for support, low conformity, leadership, propensity to take risks, low emotionally charged decision-
making and are thus considered to be better suited to lead successful enterprises.
19
70% of women-
owned MSMEs in the formal economies across developing nations are reportedly either “unserved or
underserved” by financial institutions.
20
Information Asymmetry: Another key challenge is the information asymmetry that amplifies the lack
of access to different resources and support available to women entrepreneurs. Limited exposure
to the world of business makes women with entrepreneurial ambitions undermine themselves and
question their ability to succeed in the space. This under confidence is only heightened by the lack
of formal training and consequent inadequate skillsets. Limited business knowledge coupled with the
lack of relevant advisors and mentors is a serious challenge facing women entrepreneurs. In a study
on female business owners, 48% of female founders claimed that a lack of quality advisors limited
their professional growth.
21
With the majority of the business world still being male dominated, it is
harder for women entrepreneurs to initiate connections into top-notch business networks.
Lack of Role Models: Added to this, is the dearth of role models, limiting the confidence of aspiring
women entrepreneurs, making success seem like an unbreakable glass ceiling. Visibility of successful
role models in the public domain helps combat stereotypes and trigger change and this lacuna can
be felt in the Indian ecosystem with the inhibited development of an “entrepreneurial” spirit among
young women.
22
Recognition of some of these systemic roadblocks has led to the Indian government launching
several initiatives to encourage and support women entrepreneurs across the country. Some of these
include the Startup India vertical dedicated to women entrepreneurship, National Skill Development
Program’s ‘Enabling Women Entrepreneurs’ skilling initiative and the special provision of 3% public
procurement for MSMEs owned by women. However, siloed implementation of these efforts and
limited inter-departmental communication results in many potential beneficiaries remaining unaware
of these interventions.
Resolving ecosystem challenges in a holistic manner posits the need for a central hub that can
address the challenges faced by women by aggregating knowledge and resources across the
entrepreneurial landscape. However, the Indian ecosystem lacked such an entity/avenue of support
that could disperse relevant and accurate information along with rolling out programs catered to the
specific needs of women entrepreneurs. The various verticals of WEP are designed to address these
challenges that limit women entrepreneurs from reaching their true potential.
17. Alison Wood Brooks, Laura Huang et al. “Investors Prefer Entrepreneurial Ventures Pitched by Attractive Men”, Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
18. Sharma, M. (2019). This equity free program aims to Rebalance the gender disparity in startup ecosystem. Retrieved from Economic Times:
https://bit.ly/3h0PDbQ
19. Alison Wood Brooks, Laura Huang et al. “Investors Prefer Entrepreneurial Ventures Pitched by Attractive Men”, Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
20. Sharma, M. (2019). This equity free program aims to Rebalance the gender disparity in startup ecosystem. Retrieved from Economic Times:
https://bit.ly/3h0PDbQ
21. Understanding Structural Barriers & Hidden Bias in Access to Credit for Women-Led Businesses. Oxfam. Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/3jYmzU6
22. Janice Byrne, et al. Role Models and Women Entrepreneurs: Entrepreneurial Superwoman Has Her Say. Journal of Small Business Management.
Retrieved from: https://bit.ly/30OEVOx Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 6
ADDRESSING CHALLENGES TO
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
THE APPROACH Addressing Challenges to Female Entrepreneurship: The Approach7
2.1 Genesis of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform2.1 Genesis of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform
Identifying the lacunae for an aggregator platform solely dedicated
to women entrepreneurship, NITI Aayog launched the Women
Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP). It was first proposed at the
conclusion of the 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2017 by Shri.
Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog. The platform was announced as a
Women’s Entrepreneurship Cell, to address the issue of information
asymmetry and cater to the needs of women entrepreneurs. Post
the announcement, research revealed that while there were multiple
such cells and initiatives, they were largely operating in silos with
little or no knowledge sharing or collaboration.
Launched on the International Women’s Day in 2018, WEP has been
envisioned as an aggregator of information and services, with a
mission to educate, enable and empower women entrepreneurs. To
build a vibrant ecosystem for women led enterprises, the platform
works to strengthen industry linkages and increase awareness of
existing programs and services.
The platform follows clearly defined objectives to fulfill the vision with which it was developed:
Enable collaboration among peers, partners and industry players
Address information asymmetry through a dynamic knowledge portal
Offer capacity building programs to enable scalability and sustainability
Create role models by recognizing exceptional women change-makers across India
A key characteristic of WEP is its agnosticism for the kind of user that can benefit from its service
offerings; WEP caters to both established as well as aspiring women entrepreneurs and all women
owned enterprises are welcome on the portal regardless of the size, sector and type of enterprise.
Three guiding pillars inform WEP’s 360-degree view to female entrepreneurship:
Ichha Shakti - to motivate aspiring entrepreneurs to kick-start their enterprise
Gyan Shakti - to provide knowledge and ecosystem support
Karma Shakti - to provide hands on support in launching and scaling ventures
ADDRESSING CHALLENGES TO FEMALE
ENTREPRENEURSHIP: THE APPROACH
2 Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 8
Guided by these pillars, WEP is primed to ensure that all women are equipped to reach their full
potential and the needs of women entrepreneurs feed into the platform’s service offerings. WEP’s
partnerships form the backbone of the initiative, bringing different kinds of support and service
offerings to the users, through tailored content and programs for each vertical of the platform.
Leveraging these different partnerships, WEP pushes the needle on female entrepreneurship
by developing quality programs and bringing industry players together to improve access to
knowledge and resource.
2.2 The WEP Platform – Portal Design2.2 The WEP Platform – Portal Design
WEP is a first of its kind unified-access online portal, designed to host information and services
hosted by partner organizations across the six verticals mentioned earlier. The online portal serves as
the primary mode for engagement with more than18,000 registered women entrepreneurs who form
the WEP’s user base. The WEP team and the technical vendor provide dedicated support to these
users with the support of partner organizations, who make premium content especially accessible
to the WEP user base. In its current iteration, the WEP portal provides an interactive website with
different sections (tabs) that has been streamlined to cater to the requirements of the users and to
provide a seamless navigational experience. There is multi-lingual community section that is designed
to make the community section accessible to a wider audience.
Key Components
WEP engages with these women entrepreneurs through its online portal and provides access to
relevant information and services. The portal houses three modules where WEP partner organizations
can host content in their domains of expertise.
The community module on the website allows entrepreneurs to connect with fellow
entrepreneurs, mentors, partners and the WEP Team
The knowledge bank module allows for hosting of blogs, checklists, infographics and
videos
All WEP and partner events can be hosted on the events module where users can
register and express interest in enrolling Addressing Challenges to Female Entrepreneurship: The Approach9
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE PLATFORM Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 10
3.1 Portal Evolution3.1 Portal Evolution
Following the CEO’s announcement, the first iteration of the WEP portal was launched on the occasion
of International Women’s Day in 2018 with an overarching theme of ‘Women first, prosperity for all’.
This first version (WEP 1.0) of the portal was envisaged as an interactive platform that would host
information to support entrepreneurial initiatives. It was geared towards driving awareness by guiding
registered users to schemes, initiatives and products suited to their needs. Designed to help both
women entrepreneurs’ access relevant information as well as WEP partners to host content, the 1.0
version of the portal was essentially composed of the knowledge bank module that hosted articles,
checklists, best practices, etc.
Improved understanding of the needs of the growing WEP user base, led to the decision that the
platform must be further customized by a dedicated technical team. These customizations were
primarily guided by user input; in November 2018, the WEP team conducted a survey, where 759
out of the total registered users at the time (~3000) responded. These insights were incorporated
to create a new vision for the design of the portal and subsequently, a new technical team was
onboarded. The new version of the portal was launched as WEP 2.0 on 16 December, 2018, on the
occasion of the Third Edition of the Women Transforming India Awards.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE PLATFORM
3 The Development of the Platform11
WEP 3.0 was launched on the 11th of January, 2021 on 1
st
January, 2020. This version of the platform
presently features a completely revamped community section and now also features multi-lingual
automatic language translation support. This version has also introduced a chatbot which helps users
access information easily. WEP 3.0 has a revamped homepage and a streamlined login experience
which allows for sign-up using Google or Facebook as well.
3.2 Behavioral Insights Workshop3.2 Behavioral Insights Workshop
To better understand the behavioral issues and to obtain deeper insights, various subject matter
experts and industry leaders need to be consulted.
To this effect, NITI Aayog hosted a workshop on “Leveraging Behavioral Insights for Informed Policy-
Making” in October, 2019. Specifically, breakout sessions were organized to ideate how to incorporate
a broader assessment of the barriers that women entrepreneurs face into making the portal more
user-friendly. This engagement is important to help improve the platform’s understanding and to build
an enabling environment for women entrepreneurs. The insights from the workshop helped identify
new features which were needed, to make the platform experience more user-friendly and engaging
for women entrepreneurs. Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 12
3.3 Gamma Testing3.3 Gamma Testing
In an attempt to increase user engagement on the platform and the feedback from the internal WEP
team testing the portal, certain friction points were discovered. While the development of all the
modules was complete, the final user input on the usability of the workflows was missing. In order to
understand this gap between website development and user uptake, the gamma testing exercise was
planned. Gamma testing is the final stage of testing that is performed on the product/service with a
focus on usability and security. This test aimed to identify friction points that women entrepreneurs
using the website might face in order to enhance the WEP user experience and curate a market
competitive aggregator platform that enables seamless knowledge dissemination and networking
opportunities for women entrepreneurs to avail support for their enterprises.
The WEP team conducted the gamma testing on the WEP website on the workflows through a
representative group of users. The portal design was scrutinized and assessed by this group and
feedback was captured on the usability of the website, look and feel, and user effort. From the
written and verbal feedback, over 200 insights were gathered, of which 101 unique ideas were filtered
out. These were then divided across 4 buckets - Bugs, Comments, Questions and Suggestions. This
was followed by further scoping these insights to assign priorities in the implementation phase.
The feedback received served as input for WEP’s technical vendor to develop a comprehensive plan
on incorporating learnings to enable Machine Learning on the website. Overall, the gamma testing
process helped WEP identify friction points that impact user engagement on the platform and the
exercise has ensured that this portal for women entrepreneurs is built on recommendations by women
entrepreneurs. These changes have now been incorporated in the portal, allowing for a seamless user
experience for both entrepreneurs and partners. The improved design also enables WEP to remain
the go-to portal for users. The presence of glitches or an outdated website is otherwise detrimental
for user engagement. The Development of the Platform13
Key Findings
A final portion of the testing included a SUS
23
scale that the women entrepreneurs filled which
indicated the overall usability score of the portal.
The WEP portal had a score of 68.9 and the main areas of improvement identified were:
1. Increase engagement on the portal through periodic and relevant updates to the knowledge
banks and events module along with visual aids
2. Improve search feature on the website to be uniform and intuitive
3. Revamp the profile builder pages to be more self-explanatory and detailed
4. Debug existing workflows to ensure that they are working as intended
5. Rework content and design to make the services more relatable and obvious for the urban
/ semi-urban user base
3.4 Partner Support: Flipkart and the Community module3.4 Partner Support: Flipkart and the Community module
The Gamma testing exercise also brought forth incredible insights and features that could potentially
transform the networking and support experience on the community module. In order to translate
this refined vision of the community module into reality, the WEP team reached out to partners with
prior expertise, for assistance in the revamp process. Therein arose the partnership with Flipkart
which aims to provide a new look of the community page through gamification and personalization.
The new revised look will enable features like multi-media support, hashtags, predictive text, auto
correct, etc. which make the post-building experience more lucrative. The collaboration with Flipkart
aims to revamp the community module via:
1. Promoting the idea of ‘Community’ across WEP website & Social Media
2. Revamping the user experience on the Community module
3. Revamping the user interface on the Community module
4. Improvising on the website’s Chatbot
23. The System Usability Scale (SUS) is an industry standard, reliable tool for measuring usability. Originally created by John Brooke in 1986, it allows
for the evaluation of a wide variety of products and services, including hardware, software, mobile devices, websites and applications. The aver-
age System Usability Scale (SUS) score is 68. Less than 68 indicates serious flaws with the website, 80 and higher indicates that users love the
site and would even recommend it to their peers. A score between 68 to 80 indicates scope for improvement. Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 14
The updated model is expected to increase user engagement by introducing up-voting, sharing and
reporting features that help in the peer to peer moderation within the community. To incentivize
participation, a simple interaction metric has been included through the awarding of badges to
information seekers and contributors for upvotes for contributor resolutions/discussions, level of
engagement, usage of the platform, etc. that encourages greater participation and community
building.
The community page in this all new avatar has transformed into a QnA portal so that it is easier for
knowledge seekers and providers to interact and engage. The platform is now available in multiple
regional languages and is aligned with the larger #VocalForLocal initiative which allows users and
mentors to communicate in the language of their preference.
3.5 Future Improvements3.5 Future Improvements
Conversational AI
Currently, the website allows entrepreneurs, partners or even unregistered users coming to the portal
to ask questions about WEP and its offerings using a chatbot. This enables 24×7 real-time interaction,
irrespective of the geographical location and time-zone of the user. WEP’s chatbot engages users
who are looking for more information about WEP and answers queries on a wide range of topics
from registration on the portal to government schemes for different sectors.
In addition to the communication with users through basic text and links, interactive CTA (Call to Action)
buttons are also used. The chatbot provides prompts to get the user to engage more effectively.
For registered users, based on the areas of interest they have filled, reference links are shared.
Moving forward, the chatbot will eventually evolve into a Conversational AI unit that can converse
with entrepreneurs to go beyond pointing to information and present intelligent recommendations
basis specific organizational needs.
Intelligent Design
Machine Learning capability will also be integrated in the portal in the near future. Recommender
engines (REs) also known as recommender systems are software tools and techniques providing
suggestions to a user. Introduction of the recommender engine in WEP will help users to discover
and interact with content in a more natural way. Using state of the art machine learning algorithms,
the RE can recommend the user most relevant content right on the feed’s page. Machine learning The Development of the Platform15
tools will also be incorporated to help women entrepreneurs curate content posted on the website
for better outreach and visibility as well as ensuring regulation of content suited to the needs of the
aspiring entrepreneurs.
This will lead to the following user benefits:
Reduction in time and effort to look for relevant information by curating content on the
on the feed page
Personalization and customized recommendations according to the user’s interest and
interaction
Greater user interaction and engagement with the portal due to personalized feeds
Discovery of similar peers and mentors thereby building robust networks
Enhancing capability to customize and curate content for better outreach to fellow
entrepreneurs and partners. Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 16
UNDERSTANDING THE WEP
USER BASE Understanding the WEP User base17
The upgradation of portal design and features must go hand in hand with the long-term vision for
the platform to cater to the needs and services of its users across its key verticals. To achieve
this, it is imperative for the platform to understand its users, the nature of their enterprises and
their requirements. This understanding and insights are derived from the user requirement surveys
conducted by WEP that reflect the nature of enterprises registered on the platform as well as their
unique requirements.
The age-wise segregation of the user base
shows that less than 2% of the registered
women entrepreneurs are over 60 years of
age whereas the 50 – 60 years age bracket
constitutes 6.6% of the user base and the 40-
49 bracket takes up 24.8%. The 30-39 bracket
is the largest demographic with over 40%
users falling in this category whereas the 20-
29 years bracket stands at a healthy 26.6%.
Larger participation can be seen from the 28-
35 years bracket which allows for curating
learning content and allowing a long-term
vision for the knowledge bank in the portal,
both in terms of retaining existing users as well
as seeing reaching out to a new user base.
This graph shows the urban vs suburban vs
rural demographic that takes an interest in
WEP services. 68% of WEP users reside in
metro cities, 26% reside in tier 2 cities and
the remaining reside in tier 3 locations. This
builds the case to introduce the service of city
chapters to propagate offline engagement
networks and the simultaneous need to invest
in improved digital literacy in the rural context.
The enterprise landscaping exercise helps
WEP understand the scale of WEP user-owned
enterprises and illustrates the mushrooming
UNDERSTANDING THE WEP USER BASE4 Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 18
MSME sector. Customized services for these enterprises can be offered on the WEP portal through
relevant partnerships. From these data points, it can be seen that >65% of women start their businesses
with less than 5 lakhs of investment; and ~40% of organizations have a turnover of less than 5
lakhs. Finding investors for a unit of this size can be a challenge and WEP can attempt to facilitate
such connections through capacity building and networking events. The investment landscape of
enterprises owned by WEP users, illustrates the exact nature of funding opportunities and resources
that need to be designed through, partnerships. It can also provide insights on how future WEP
partner sessions on pitching and investing can be designed.
A majority of WEP users, i.e. 68% have enterprises registered as sole proprietorships or private
limited companies. Very few women entrepreneurs availing WEP services run other types of entities
with 11% running partnership ventures, 8% running limited liability partnerships and around 3% running
section 8 companies. However, it is also pertinent to note that only 43% of WEP user run businesses
are registered enterprises. These data points help the WEP team identify the requirement to drive
registration of businesses through helpful toolkits and other mentoring resources as well as customize
their partnerships to cater to the different entities availing WEP services.
4.1 User Requirement Surveys4.1 User Requirement Surveys
WEP leverages data obtained through different surveys to understand its user requirements. As
mentioned in the portal development section, the first user survey was conducted in November
2018 and saw participation from 759 WEP users, ~50% of which were social enterprises. In addition
to understanding the scope for portal design improvement, the survey gave an insight into the
challenges
24
faced by women entrepreneurs. Since then, the WEP team has made it a regular practice
to leverage user insights and data to incorporate modifications in the overall WEP strategy as well as
specific elements, partnerships and programs.
24 Lack of knowledge of schemes and compliance - 18%, Lack of knowledge on financial assistance and funding avenues - 42%, Lack of marketing
assistance - 19% Understanding the WEP User base19
WEP conducted another survey in February 2020 to update its information on its expanding user
base, which had grown almost 5 times since. The objectives of the survey to understand the following
user requirements:
Key support areas for women entrepreneurs
Challenges under each area of support
Sector-wise distribution of women-led businesses
Location-wise distribution of women-led businesses
Preferred format of consumption of information
Methodology
The survey was designed in-house, based on the insights obtained from an exhaustive literature
review of reports, policy briefs and research papers on women entrepreneurship in India. Post design,
the survey was shared with existing users of the WEP platform and within the networks of women
entrepreneurs supported by ecosystem partners. Finally, the survey results were supplemented with
qualitative interviews of the Top 30 women entrepreneurs of WTI Awards, 2019.
4.2 Insights from WEP User Data and Surveys:4.2 Insights from WEP User Data and Surveys:
Challenges faced
About 66% of the women feel that a lack of funding opportunities is a challenge they face in
their entrepreneurial journey and around 49% feel the same about the lack of information about
government schemes. Inputs provided by these users indicate that the challenges faced by them
overlap with established research on constraints to female entrepreneurship
25:
funding support,
networking, information about government schemes and programs, mentorship, and marketing. The
validation of these challenges has fed into partner mapping exercises that allow for the collaborations
for initiatives that tackle each of the barriers. While WEP will actively work to bridge these systemic
changes, socio-cultural challenges and gender bias are the most prominent social challenges that also
need to go hand-in-hand with this development.
25. An Analysis of Women Entrepreneurship in India. (2019). Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Retrieved from: https://
bit.ly/30fQdfT
* Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMGEP), Stand-Up India, Entrepreneurship Skill Development Programme (ESDP) and
Mahila-E-Haat
** Self-reported data was available for 7,000 users of the WEP portal
*** Information collected from the 3,000 WEP users who registered for the Women Transforming India Awards, 2019 Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 20
Funding, networking and scaling are the top 3 reported support areas to aid women entrepreneurship with
a frequency of 54%, 39% and 36% respectively. This can be explained by the nature of WEP user owned
enterprises that are often under 3 years old (growth stage). Followed by these support areas are marketing,
policy knowledge, mentorship and skilling which forms the basis for many of the interventions that WEP drives.
The graph depicting the city-wise sector breakup of data shows 2,140 applicants to the ‘Women
Transforming India’ awards 2019 who can be used as a representative of WEP users as all WTI
Applicants are required to register on the portal. Approximately 20% of the applicants were from
Tier 1 cities, 46% were from Tier 2 cities, 35% were from Tier 3 cities. The maximum number of
WTI applicants hailed from Tier 2 cities. Education, Manufacturing, Handicrafts, Healthcare are the
most prominent sectors in Tier 2 & 3 cities. The agriculture and handicrafts sectors have maximum
presence in Tier 3 cities. Understanding the WEP User base21
WEP: HIGHLIGHT OF
INITIATIVES Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 22
Based on the assessments and analysis of the data from the surveys and feedback from the Women
Entrepreneurship Ecosystem, key areas of support were identified. These have been developed into
6 verticals of support or parallel work streams.
For the identified verticals of support, the WEP team undertook a partner mapping exercise to
bring on board relevant knowledge and service providers. The platform collaborates with different
organizations to develop customized content and resources for women entrepreneurs. These programs
are curated in a manner so that the larger objectives of the WEP, namely facilitate collaboration in
the ecosystem, address the information asymmetry, facilitate capacity building programs and create
role models for the larger ecosystem.
Our Partners
Partner Snapshot
WEP: HIGHLIGHT OF INITIATIVES5 WEP: Highlight of Initiatives23
5.1 Key Verticals of Support5.1 Key Verticals of Support
To cater to the diverse needs of its user base, WEP partners with key industry players to curate content and
services. Organizations interested in collaborating with the platform, have to submit an expression of interest,
post which their proposed service is vetted and rolled out to the users. Currently, the platform hosts more than
30 partner organizations on its portal, offering services to users across its six verticals:
1. Funding and Financial Assistance: Providing information on sources of funding, financial
management for launch and expansion of enterprises
2. Incubation & Acceleration: Connecting women to incubation and acceleration programs
for speeding up the growth of startups and early stage companies
3. Entrepreneur Skilling & Mentorship: Imparting essential entrepreneurial and management
skills to stimulate innovation and sustainability
4. Compliance & Tax Assistance: Leveraging knowledge partners for resources around
taxation, audit, business licensing and regulations
5. Marketing Assistance: Providing guidance to help women-led businesses improve their
online and offline market presence
6. Community & Networking: The ultimate goal of WEP is to build a robust network of
women entrepreneurs to enable an ecosystem of support, learning, collaboration and
mentorship
By enabling key partnerships, WEP helps entrepreneurs realize their aspirations, scale-up innovation
and chalk-out sustainable, long-term strategies for their enterprises. Over the course of the last two
years, WEP has collaborated with a diverse range of partners under its six verticals to advance its
mission of building an enabling environment and robust support system for women entrepreneurs.
5.1.1 Funding and Financial Assistance5.1.1 Funding and Financial Assistance
United Nations Investor Consortium
The United Nations is a key partner for the Women Entrepreneurship Platform and has assisted WEP
in a multitude of endeavors. To accelerate opportunities for investing in women’s entrepreneurship,
the United Nations in India (led by UNDP, and UN-Women) have partnered with WEP to establish
the UN India-NITI Aayog Investor Consortium (IC) for Women Entrepreneurs. The platform brings
together key ecosystem partners who are committed to support women entrepreneurs through
mentorship and possible funding opportunities and advocates for the reduction in gender disparities
in startup investments.
Currently, the Consortium has membership from several leading Impact Investors including: Aavishkaar;
Omidyar Network; Trust Group; Stanford Angels; SeedFund; Ankur Capital; SIDBI; WeHub (non-
investor member) Members of the Investor Consortium also support capacity building efforts of WEP
by conducting structured masterclasses.
The interventions under IC 2020 aimed at building onto the momentum created in 2019. A Virtual
Entrepreneurship Development Programme was launched to support a cohort of 35 promising women
entrepreneurs from across sectors and regions. The selected entrepreneurs were provided support with
managing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and fostering growth through a structured programme which
offered 1:1 mentorship; expert sessions and critical investor connects for fundraising. Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 24
6 senior experts from the ecosystem were on-boarded to work with the entrepreneurs for over 3
months to support them with specific functional/ sectoral needs. Based on emergent needs, the sector
experts provided strategic guidance to the enterprises in terms of re-orienting growth, preparing
them for investments, navigating partnerships, negotiation, allocation of capital, people management
and so on. To complement the 1:1 engagement with the mentors, 3 structured webinar sessions
were organized for the cohort of women entrepreneurs, namely the “Art of Effective Communication
and Storytelling”, “Effective Go-To-Market Strategies for Start-ups” and “Simplifying Fundraising
for Start-ups”. To keep the sessions interactive, mock pitches were conducted based on which the
entrepreneurs received feedback.
At the end of the programme, Investor Pitching sessions were organized over the course of two days
where women entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to panels of esteemed venture capital firms, angel
investors and impact investors, helping provide them with access to financing and fueling an enabling
environment for women leaders and entrepreneurs. The IC is presently focused on facilitating the
connections between the entrepreneurs and interested investors and will also continue with post
programmatic support to the top entrepreneurs, who have been identified by the investors.
5.1.2 Incubation and Acceleration5.1.2 Incubation and Acceleration
Indigram Labs Foundation
Indigram Labs conducted an incubation and mentoring program for a cohort of
15 women entrepreneurs in the Agri-tech, Clean-tech and Food-tech space. The
program featured a two-week long bootcamp which helped entrepreneurs to
generate market insights, streamline their business value propositions, creating
partnerships and raising funds. The bootcamp was followed by one-on-one
mentoring sessions through which entrepreneurs were able to revamp their business models, create
go to market strategies and craft their funding decks. The program culminated into a Demo Day on
26th June 2020 where the entrepreneurs pitched their businesses to investors. WEP: Highlight of Initiatives25
5.1.3 Entrepreneur Skilling & Mentorship5.1.3 Entrepreneur Skilling & Mentorship
Masterclasses & Inspirational Video Series
As the premier knowledge hub for women entrepreneurs,
WEP has also been hosting a series of video casts delivered
by established leaders who share their experience and
expertise on how to navigate the world of business
and enterprise. One such initiative, the Friday Morning
Masterclass covers topics like incubation support, current
government schemes for entrepreneurs, microfinancing,
and angel investing among others.
To highlight inspirational women serving as role models,
WEP launched a Monday Morning Motivation series called
‘SheCan YouCan’, supported by upGrad, to capture the
heartening journeys of successful women entrepreneurs
across India.
WEP collaborated with the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) to conduct a workshop exclusively for
WEP users on leveraging the GeM portal as a sales channel and walked them through the registration
and tendering processes.
166 users from WEP attended the two-hour walk-through session which had live interaction with the
training team from GeM who answered questions and guided the users on the different components
of the portal.
WhatsApp and WEP have collaborated and launched the StepUp to ScaleUp
initiative, through which WhatsApp supports WEP’s capacity building and
mentorship programs. Most recently, it sponsored the first batch of WEP-
ALEAP training fellowship that provided virtual entrepreneurial upskilling to 40 women entrepreneurs
across India.
Association of Lady Entrepreneurs in India (ALEAP)
A 15-day virtual entrepreneurship development program was designed to upskill 40
aspiring women entrepreneurs in essential entrepreneurial and management skills.
The Sedibus
Mentorship and Networking support was provided to 10 early stage women-
led B2B startups in the technology space over the course of 3-6 months
(March 2020 to September 2020).
FICCI-Flo
WEP and FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO) have launched a partnership on the
Greater 50% initiative. FICCI and FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO) have initiated
a mega campaign titled ‘FICCI-FLO Empowering the Greater 50%’ with an aim to
impact the lives of 1,00,000 women over the next three years. The objective of the
program is to support women entrepreneurs by enhancing their entrepreneurial
& decision-making skills through engagements such as mentorship programs,
access to finance, business accelerators, training women to get into boards, workplace inclusion, Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 26
special guidance to marginalised women on a business framework and financial models among
others. Through this program, it is envisaged that a mentorship community will be created to support
WEP users
5.1.4 Compliance and Tax Assistance5.1.4 Compliance and Tax Assistance
CAXpert: CAXPert is WEP’s resident taxation and accounting
advisory partner. They develop easy to consume content for WEP
demystifying and simplifying complex taxation and accounting
issues. They have conducted learning sessions on topics such as
setting up your business, accounting hacks for startups, financial metrics to track, taking your business
online and a three-part series focussed on social enterprises. Their sessions have benefitted over
2000 women so far. They have also set up an exclusive helpline through which they provide resolutions
for compliance and taxation related issues over one-on-one calls.
deAsra Foundation: deAsra Foundation is WEP’s knowledge partner and
provides critical insights on business management and planning to small and micro
businesses, in the fashion, food and beauty sectors. DeAsra regularly updates
relevant resources and tools for evaluation, business-assessment, compliance, business management
on WEP’s knowledge bank. It also provides one-on-one support on digital marketing related queries
through the WEP portal’s community module and will be hosting online capacity building workshops
for the small business owners in the WEP userbase.
5.1.5 Marketing Assistance5.1.5 Marketing Assistance
CRISIL
The partnership between CRISIL and WEP led to the incorporation of an exclusive
WE-CHECK feature on the portal. WE-Check is an instant and independent
verification of the organization’s presence in the market, by profiling various
aspects of its business. This helps organizations position themselves as reliable
business partners, and builds a better market identity to attract global customers.
5.1.6 Community and Networking5.1.6 Community and Networking
In addition to the platform, WEP regularly engages with its users through its social media channels on
Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to promote partner initiatives, programs and events. As an aggregator
platform, WEP also shares relevant information about programs and events being conducted by
organizations in the entrepreneurial ecosystem with its cumulative follower base of ~18,000 users.
A newsletter is shared with the user base to inform them about the ongoing and upcoming activities
in the ecosystem and share updates about WEP’s partnerships and initiatives.
Finally, WEP has partnered with Flipkart and revamped the community module to ensure a seamless
user experience which makes it easier for entrepreneurs to engage with each other on the website.
WEP has also been ensuring that women entrepreneurs do not miss out on learning opportunities,
by collating information on various webinars being conducted by other partner agencies and
disseminating it to the larger network of women entrepreneurs.
5.1.7 Other General Initiatives5.1.7 Other General Initiatives
In addition to the core focus verticals, there were other initiatives undertaken through the platform.
Health and well-being is critical to the success of entrepreneurs. There was a program series “WEP
Cares” which focused on the health and the general wellness of women entrepreneurs. In addition, WEP: Highlight of Initiatives27
the platform also sought to showcase women leaders and achievers and present their stories to the
wider WEP audience.
Testimonials
#
Program &
Partnerships
Testimonial
1. N/Core
Workshop
“The speakers did an excellent job of making sure that relevant topics were
covered in great detail. Much appreciation for the work of Nudge and Intellihealth.
We would gladly have sat for a couple of hours more. Possibly one of the best
webinars I have attended in these days of excessive webinars!
Thank you, Team WEP.”- Sujata Sahu
2. Indigram “Everything was very good; the content was very easy to understand. It will
definitely help me to redesign and craft differently help me to redesign and craft
different strategies for my business.” Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 28
3. ALEAP “Thanks a lot, ALEAP team. Always felt like an ALIEN trying to be a woman
entrepreneur, being part of this fellowship gave me an ecosystem. Watching all
your journey really pumps me up to more n more. Looking forward to stay in touch
with you all over regular virtual meetups”
4. Sedibus “This program has helped me brainstorm on and chart out solutions to several
critical aspects of Presolv360. The practical quotient of this program is its highlight.
It goes beyond academics and helps solving real world challenges.” - Ms Namita
Shah, Co-Founder, Presolv 360
5. CAXpert “All the business concepts were briefed in an integrated way like financial, logistics
and supply chain, digital marketing and customer value for the session on Financial
Metrics to Track”
5.2 Creating Role Models: The Women Transforming India Awards5.2 Creating Role Models: The Women Transforming India Awards
The Women Transforming India Awards
While the lack of access to resources and mentorship is being actively addressed through WEP’s
multivariate service offerings, the need to create more role models for women to look up to and to
be inspired by, has also been identified. The Women Transforming India (WTI) Awards addresses
this need by celebrating stories of Indian women from both commercial and social sectors who are
breaking the glass ceiling.
Launched in 2016, the WTI Awards mark NITI Aayog’s annual endeavour to recognize exceptional
women changemakers in the country. Since 2018, the WTI Awards have been hosted under the aegis
of WEP with a special focus on entrepreneurship. These awards have become a core activity for WEP
to highlight the commendable and ground-breaking work of India’s most innovative and hardworking
entrepreneurs. The Fourth Edition of the Awards, launched in August 2019, focused on the theme
“Women and Entrepreneurship” and received more than 2,300 entries.
The awards felicitated 15 women entrepreneurs leading enterprises in healthcare, education and
food-tech among other fields. The process for selection of these top 15 women entrepreneurs was an
elaborate task that saw the coming together of WEP’s community of partners and mentors. For the
first round of evaluations, the WEP team undertook a rigorous appraisal of all applications to shortlist
this year’s Top 130 women entrepreneurs with the assistance of PwC – WEP’s evaluation partners.
In the second round, the Top 130 were invited to present their journeys to a panel of WEP’s Jury
members on the 6
th
of December, 2019. The Jury comprised of thought leaders and industry experts
across various fields who evaluated the presentations of the shortlisted 130. After a day of meticulous
assessments, the Jury whittled the list down to the Top 30 women entrepreneurs from the applicants. WEP: Highlight of Initiatives29
The selection of the 15 winners called for a final day of deliberations on the impact created by these
women’s remarkable initiatives as well as their personal stories and struggles.
In the last stage of evaluation, these 30 entrepreneurs were invited to NITI Aayog on the 15
th
of
December, 2019, where a Super Jury comprised of industry leaders were called upon to determine
the winners for this edition of the WTI Awards. The official ceremony for the Fourth Edition of the
Awards was held on the 8th of March, 2020 with the Defence Minister, Sh. Rajnath Singh as the chief
guest of the event. He felicitated the top 15 women entrepreneurs leading enterprises in healthcare,
education and food-tech amongst other fields and also launched the WTI Coffee Table Book at the event.
Post the WTI Awards, Tech Mahindra partnered with WEP to offer customized mentorship and
business support to select WTI winners to help scale their solutions to other markets.
WTI Awards, Top 30 with Sh. Rajnath Singh and NITI Leadership
Launch of the WTI Coffee Table Book showcasing stories of grit from the Top 30 candidates Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 30
Winners of WTI Awards, 2019
5.3 WEP’s COVID Response5.3 WEP’s COVID Response
The pandemic caused by the global outbreak of COVID-19 has had a staggering impact on public
health and welfare around the world. The economies around the globe are facing an unprecedented
slump, with a record level of job losses and business shutdowns. With the world’s biggest economies
struggling to stay afloat, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had
issued warnings of stagnating or negative economic growth and a worldwide recession.
26
Overwhelming empirical and anecdotal evidence suggests that the socio-economic fallout from this
pandemic is impacting women in a more crippling manner. Past experiences with pandemics, such as
Ebola and SARS, as well as emerging evidence around COVID-19 suggest drastic consequences for
women’s labour force participation and socio-economic welfare.
27
In these somber times, WEP has been at the forefront of leading initiatives that can help create a robust
support system for women entrepreneurs across India. After assessing the limited and diminishing
earning opportunities for women in the informal economy during the pandemic, WEP learnt about
the alternate work they were taking up to support their families during the lockdown. WEP designed
and rolled out a nationwide campaign to support home-based workers in mask production activities.
#MaskingItUpwithWEP#MaskingItUpwithWEP
26. Global economy will suffer for years to come, says OECD. (2020, March 20). Retrieved from BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/busi-
ness-52000219
27. The Impact of COVID-19 on Women. (2020, April). Retrieved from UN Women Publications: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publica-
tions/2020/04/policy-brief-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-women WEP: Highlight of Initiatives31
COVID-19 had impacted businesses and jobs across the country significantly and amongst them
women home-based workers have been struggling to make ends meet in this uncertain climate. WEP
launched the ‘Masking it Up with WEP’ campaign to promote women entrepreneurs who had started
making reusable cloth masks.
WEP leveraged its aggregator status to initiate a nationwide campaign and bring together organizations
with the capacity to supply and procure raw materials and manufacture and distribute cloth masks in
India. Through this initiative, WEP played the role of a facilitator by connecting:
Home-based workers: Women workers from grassroots organizations, not-for-profit and
women-led small businesses who are making reusable cloth masks.
Potential Buyers and Funders : Organizations/Individuals who need masks for their
employees or personal use or would like to support these workers by funding.
Raw Material Suppliers: Traders/businesses who could supply raw material to the
home-based workers during the initial lockdown when curfew passes were required for
transportation.
Under the initiative, more than 2,00,000 masks have been produced and sold till date, engaging
approximately 215 home-based women workers. As per the impact report prepared by our partners,
SEWA Bharat and SEWA Federation, the initiative ensured a minimum income of Rs. 4500 for each
home-based worker through the orders received from the campaign.
Business in the Times of COVID-19
WEP also conducted an exclusive webinar series titled ‘Business in the time of COVID-19’, to share
the perspectives of subject experts with women entrepreneurs on how they can tackle the market
turmoil in the pandemic and plan for the times ahead. Key industry leaders were invited as panelists
on these webinars to provide nuanced perspectives and guidance through live interaction with WEP’s
users. These webinars covered a range of topics from leveraging technology for enterprise expansion
to the impact of the COVID-19 on women led businesses and the government relief measures offered
to abate the economic distress. Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 32
Knowledge Bank – COVID-19 Resources
A special section in the WEP Knowledge Bank was curated to present Knowledge resources relevant
for entrepreneurs facing challenges during the pandemic. These resources include textual resources
and video content on relief schemes launched by the government and financial institutions as well as
third party content to support entrepreneurs during the coronavirus outbreak. WEP: Highlight of Initiatives33
WAY FORWARD:
ENHANCING REACH & IMPACT Moving the Needle: The Women Entrepreneurship Platform 34
The WEP has evolved and grown since its inception, with now there being more than 18,000 users. The
platform presently plays a critical role, catalyzing the entrepreneurial ecosystem, bringing together
all stakeholders and delivering impact through the partner offerings and services. Given the gaps
in women’s participation in the labor force and women’s ownership of MSMEs, and the information
asymmetry, the role of WEP has never been more relevant. In order to deliver impactful programs
and to scale the platform’s reach, it is now more important than ever to enhance the support and the
offerings of the platform. For the platform, 68% of WEP users reside in Tier-I cities while, 26% and 6%
respectively reside in Tier-2 and Tier-3 locations. This highlights a clear need to expand the presence
of the platform in Tier-2 and 3 locations. Expanding the reach in sub-urban and rural areas can have
a significant impact on the entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is envisaged that in order to reach this larger
audience, the accessibility and ease-of use of the platform would have to augment.
To achieve the desired expansion and reach, there would have to be increased interactions with
women entrepreneurs to better understand their needs and requirements. The platform provides a
medium for developing existing partnerships and building new collaborations. These goals can be
achieved through:
Better Knowledge Resources: Improved Resources and knowledge products will be
available. The emphasis of the platform will on quality of content instead of quantity. Content
will especially be curated and developed to serve the needs of Women Entrepreneurs. In
addition to the knowledge bank resources, there will be collaborative studies undertaken, to
better assess the existing gaps and the challenges that are faced by women entrepreneurs.
These inputs will be key as WEP can serve to coalesce thought leadership around women
entrepreneurship.
Improved Technology Stack: Strengthening the underlying technology in the portal to
allow for automatic matchmaking and a streamlined user interface, making it easier for
women entrepreneurs to connect with the partners that provide the support or services
which are specially curated for users. Regional language support is a key aspect that can
enhance accessibility, especially in rural areas. The community module of the platform is
already available in 8 regional languages. This would have to be expanded to cover all the
other modules on the platform. A mobile application will be developed and improved data
analytics would be introduced to better capture the functioning and the needs of women
entrepreneurs. The technology behind the platform has also been constantly evolving and
improving. The improvement roadmap is presently under preparation for implementing these
WAY FORWARD:
ENHANCING REACH & IMPACT
6 Way Forward: Enhancing Reach & Impact35
improvements that will enhance the matchmaking aspect, simplify the ease of access and
helping match entrepreneurs with appropriate partner offerings. There will be a dedicated
team which will look after the technology and development aspects of the platform.
Expanded Marketing: The social media and outreach aspects of the platform will be
carefully examined and a robust plan will be developed. There will be a dedicated marketing
team which will be looking at expanding the digital reach and establish better means of
delivery for partner content. There will be a combination of online as well as off-line events
for the platform which will be executed by the dedicated marketing team.
New Partnership Framework: Partnerships are the foundation for the WEP and the
strength of the partner offerings directly relate to the strength and quality of offerings
made accessible through the WEP. Being a partnership driven endeavor, the WEP team
is presently developing a new partnership engagement and monitoring framework which
will streamline the engagement and performance monitoring of on boarded partners. The
platform is also constantly looking to expand these partnerships to reach and serve more
women entrepreneurs. The development of a self-sustaining tech-based framework for
onboarding newly identified partners and deepening the engagement with the existing
Partner Ecosystem is going to be a very important undertaking. A dedicated team would
be leading the partnership engagement process. A dedicated partner engagement team
will be deployed.
The proposed improvements and enhancements will be informed by consultations which are going
to be used to develop detailed implementation plans. The needs of the users/women entrepreneurs
continue to define WEP’s roadmap to achieving its vision and building an enabling environment for
India’s women entrepreneurs. The documented information will inform the design of the programs
under the 6 WEP support verticals.
The six focus verticals will also be undergoing programmatic strengthening in order to expand the
reach of the platform to serve more women entrepreneurs. For 2021-22, WEP is looking to develop
programs to support women entrepreneurs in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and also cater to the needs
of women engaged in rural entrepreneurial activities and Self-Help Groups. The expanded reach is
crucial for creating the impact that is necessary for moving the needle on Women Entrepreneurship.
The platform has a transformative impact on the lives of Women Entrepreneurs in India, empowering
them and giving them agency.
MOVING THE NEEDLE
The Women
Entrepreneurship Platform
MVING
THE NEEDLE
March 2021