2019 Edition

Launch

empoWer 4th Edition was announced on June 21, 2019. Roadshows were hosted in 4 cities – Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi. This was followed by a launch in Mumbai at Rise by Barclays. Tara Scheurwater, Senior Trade Commissioner, Consulate General of Canada delivered a keynote talk at the launch event. This was followed by an interactive and insightful panel discussion on ‘The technological curve: how it’s impacting the startup ecosystem in this age’. The panel comprised of

• Paula Mariwala, Managing Director, Seedfund
• Lincy Therattil, Head – Rise Mumbai, Barclays
•  Deval Sheth, Managing Director – India, Giesecke & Devrient MS India Pvt. Ltd.
• Abhishant Pant, Founder, The Fintech Meetup (Moderator)

With over 270+ applications received from women entrepreneurs from across India, 14 startups were selected for the cohort.

Program

The 4th Edition startups with a 3-day bootcamp for 14 women entrepreneurs in  September 2019, with focus on designing business model, pitch coaching sessions and peer to peer knowledge sharing. 9 startups from the bootcamp made their way to the 4-week accelerator program that structured around providing sector-specific connects locally with mentors, investors and corporates. The startup sectors ranged across logistics, healthcare, AgriTech, capacity building, virtual reality, FinTech, IoT, interior design, and crowdfunding. In Mumbai,  legal firm, Lexstart, and Finance & Accounting firm, Savage & Palmer engaged with cohort startups at the one-on-one meetings. One-on-one investor meets were also facilitated with Artha Fund Ventures, BayTree and Unicorn Ventures.

Demo Day

After 4-weeks of mentoring and connects, the 9 startups graduated by presenting their businesses in front of leading industry players, successful entrepreneurs, top corporate professionals, delegates from the government, and prolific investors. The day started with fireside chat on ‘Leveraging the power of communication & scaling to global heights’ by Dharti Desai, Vice President – TiE New York and Vice-Chair TiE International Women and was moderated by Harshit Desai, Head – customer experience, strategic initiatives and digital, Aditya Birla Capital. This was followed by a high-profile panel discussion on ‘Funding Challenges’ moderated by Rashmi Bansal, author, entrepreneur and a youth expert. The panelists included

• Akshay Soni, Managing Director, N/Core
• Sharda Agarwal, Co-founder, Sepalika
• Hariharan Mahadevan, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategic Projects, Analytics, MIS and CSR, ICICI Securities
• Prachi Jain, Director, Achieving Women Entrepreneurs Funds

Winner announcements

With Akshay Soni, Dharti Desai, Hariharan Mahadevan, Prachi Jain and Sharda Agarwal on the jury panel, the final 9 startups presented their startups. Here are the winners of the 4th Edition –

• Winner – NemoCare | Cash grant of INR 18 lakhs 
• First runner-up – NIRA | Cash grant of INR 12 lakhs 
• Second runner-up – LetsEndorse | Cash grant of INR 7.5 lakhs
• Winner of week-long market access trip to Montreal by the Government of Quebec – NemoCare