Google concludes first cohort of Indian women founder accelerator

Tech major Google has concluded the first cohort of its accelerator for Indian female entrepreneurs. The company had launched its first edition of 'Google For Startups Accelerator--India Women Founders', a three-month programme, last year.

In the first batch, which had 20 participants, the programme focused on topics such as access to networks and capital, challenges around hiring, and mentorship, among others. The company said the programme also helped the participants by providing "actionable inputs on technology, product, UX (user experience) and growth".

"Participating in the Google for Startups Accelerator program was an inflection point in CoLLearn's startup journey. First and foremost, our vision changed. We started thinking beyond India and about how to cater to global citizens," said Srishti Jain, Founder and CEO, CoLLearn, a company that provides cohort-based courses, as mentioned in a blog post by Google.

Jain further added that the programme helped them develop "an approach for structured thinking" with respect to product launches, digital marketing, and scaling.

Some of the companies that were a part of the first cohort of Google's women-focused accelerator programme include gender-diversity movement Aspire for Her, online video dubbing platform Dubverse.ai, health platform Elda Health, financial platform solely for women LXME, and community platform connecting software developers and businesses Commudle.

According to a report by technology industry body, The National Association of Software and Service Companies, and management consulting firm Zinnov, women-founded startups account for less than a fifth (18%) of unfunded startups. The numbers for other stages of startup are not rosy either. Women-founded startups represent just 18% at the seed stage, 14% in the early stage, 16% each in the late stage and unicorn categories.