India has a booming start-up space, the fastest-growing in the world in fact. Over the last decade, the sector has grown rapidly to become the 3rd largest in the world, and in 2019 alone, it received investments of over USD 14.5 Billion. However, there is a noticeable lack of women’s participation in this success story. In 2019, of the startups that received funding, only 12% had at least one-woman co-founder.

This is a persistent problem. Globally, less than a third of formal businesses are solely or jointly owned by women, and in India, this number drops down to only 14%. Many of these businesses are small, and largely-self financed, making them highly vulnerable to the disruptions caused by COVID-19. There are a number of complex reasons as to why such a situation has arisen, but it has little to do with a lack of entrepreneurial ambition or ability on the part of women.

In fact, evidence shows that women founded start-ups generally earn more on every dollar of investment than their male-led counterparts. Despite facing greater difficulty in accessing finance, women entrepreneurs are found to be extremely resourceful and capital efficient. Not just in terms of financial returns, there are several reports which suggest that women-led organizations are operationally better oriented and are often creative and inclusive in their approaches. Women entrepreneurs are typically more conducive to peer-support and are committed to creating a diverse working environment, thereby increasing opportunities for more women and other vulnerable groups. These qualities equip women entrepreneurs with better insights which enable them to reach out to critical market and customer segments which often get overlooked but are crucial in holistically addressing key environmental and social issues.

Women entrepreneurs play an important role in addressing the problems caused by climate change, which, like most development challenges, has a disproportionate impact across societies. Traditionally, women have played a significant role in climate change adaptation and mitigation, given their knowledge and understanding of the changing environmental conditions. By tapping into this rich pool of knowledge, the development of innovative solutions that enhance access to sustainable energy, and creation of new resource efficient circular economies becomes far more likely. As entrepreneurs, women are progressively working towards creating sustainable and scalable solutions for climate change and providing support to these ventures will in turn open new avenues of work for women across the value chain. With women increasingly marking their presence and credibility in the fields of management, innovation and sustainability, supporting women entrepreneurs as change-makers and leaders will promote a culture of environmental stewardship and inclusivity across all levels of society.

To help unlock the latent potential of Women Climate Entrepreneurs in India, UNDP and ReNew Power are partnering with each other, and inviting others, to launch an integrated entrepreneurship development platform, that will provide all essential support. The platform seeks to move beyond generic capacity building, targeting instead to dismantle the key barriers to growth faced by the selected Women Climate Entrepreneurs. This will be done through an approach that prioritizes hand holding the entrepreneurs with support tailored to sectoral and functional needs. In addition to this, the platform will provide an array of services, such as helping create global and international linkages with relevant networks and market players, arranging seed funding and establishing investor connects for the most promising enterprises and also strategic guidance. The program will specifically focus on identifying and nurturing women entrepreneurs across spheres including but not limited to cutting-edge technology, digitalization and innovation in the energy and climate change domain. Finally, the entrepreneurs will go through capacity building, designed to help them accurately measure and subsequently increase the impact footprint of their enterprises in alignment with the SDGs, cultivating a mindset of impact driven and responsible business practice.

Call for Partnerships

For generations, women have been deploying innovative tactics for climate change mitigation. Their role in helping tackle climate change and achieving the SDGs cannot be overlooked. Through creating an enabling environment for women climate entrepreneurs, the platform seeks to also advance the broader landscape of innovative businesses seeking to address key environmental issues. In pursuit of the same, the platform is eager to partner with organizations and individuals with a strong commitment to entrepreneurship, business development, sustainability and diversity, and with a keen interest in making women an important stakeholder in the climate discussion.

Join us on 21st August at 3:30 pm for a live chat to learn more about what the future holds for women entrepreneurs in India: bit.ly/2EmnoFC

For more information, please reach out to sayantani.mukherjee@undp.org