Google & SHEROES Launch Rural Accelerator to Support Women Micro-Biz Owners
By: Merril Diniz
Tags: Women Entrepreneurs, Mentorship, Community, Sheroes, Business

The growth of women entrepreneurs is a core theme of the SHEROES platform. In the last three years, SHEROES has rolled out multiple initiatives too serve women entrepreneurs at various levels of the economic pyramid — from technology start-ups to small and medium-sized businesses.

According to “Powering The Economy With Her”, a report brought out by Google and Bain & Company, earlier this year, nearly 50% of women micro-business owners in rural India, struggle with the absence of community-level role models, mentorship and consequent low self-confidence. Strong “pay it forward” mentorship by leaders and entrepreneurs has been identified as a key intervention to create a level-playing field to develop high-impact entrepreneurs.

In December 2020, SHEROES launched the first-of-its-kind rural accelerator to support women micro-business owners with drive and ambition.

Launched in partnership with the Google Internet Saathi programme, the 6-month Accelerator offers mentorship, expert training, engagement and community support to 520 Internet Saathis, from across the country.

“Supporting women entrepreneurs with training, mentorship and community-led initiatives at all levels of the business ecosystem, is core to what SHEROES does via platform and community. Women led micro-businesses are triggering economic independence and jobs, and we are extremely excited to launch the Internet Saathi Accelerator. Hosted completely online, the programme leverages the power of the internet, to support ambitious rural women micro-preneurs. We look forward to scaling support for women entrepreneurs across the country, “ says Sairee Chahal, Founder, CEO — SHEROES.

Hosted in multiple languages, the programme will be completely delivered online. One of the core pillars of the accelerator is community support.

Mentors from the SHEROES community, many of whom are long-term SHEROES Champions, have stepped up to support the mentees. The mentors comprise a mix of entrepreneurs and corporate women who understand the intricacies of running a successful business.

Mentor Sarita Sinha, Founder of Mehndi Cultr shares, “ I’m very happy to meet the enterprising ladies from UP, Jharkhand and Bihar. They are very excited and are ready to grow. Our buddy, Narayani is awesome. She is guiding them very well.”

Mentor Sriparna Chakravarty engages with women entrepreneurs from Assam

Glimpses of the Saathis & their diverse businesses

The Saathis opened up on their challenges and goals during the live mentor sessions — from wanting to launch their business online, to sourcing products and accessing new customers. They are in regular touch with the mentors, sharing updates on their weekly actions, and progress. Digital transformation, marketing and communication, are some of the core takeaways of the accelerator.

Additionally, every Saathi is partnered with a buddy, a member of the SHEROES Community, someone who imbibes the community spirit, and is a friend, confidant and supporter of the mentees during this 6-month journey. A volunteer-based activity, the project is made stronger with the presence of buddies.

With access to initiatives such as the Internet Saathi Accelerator support micro-entrepreneurs can grow their businesses, become financial independent, and grow their identities in their communities, and beyond.

Powering a million women entrepreneurs

As entrepreneurship at all levels, becomes a key driver of the economy, SHEROES has launched multiple initiatives to support diverse kinds of entrepreneurs. In 2020, SHEROES partnered with US-based initiative Women In Cloud to launch India’s first accelerator to support women-led cloud and enterprise businesses in 2021. SHEROES also partnered with SEWA, to enable digital transformation amongst rural entrepreneurs, as well as Reliance Retail to set up offline entrepreneur marketplaces across 120 cities in India.

SHEROES, the women-only social network is a safe, constructive, high-empathy, high-trust online ecosystem for women to engage and chase dreams. It offers communities, a chat-based counsellng helpline, champions, resources, opportunities, credit opportunities, a reproductive health tracker and a social commerce marketplace. It is accessible via Sheroes.com and the SHEROES app