Hyderabad: Finance has been a barrier to entrepreneurship for women in Telangana, but We-Hub is changing that. More than 200 women have reached out to We-Hub over the past six months seeking assistance with funding. An official from We-Hub confirmed that the largest chunk of applications for the women start-up initiative require MSME interventions and credit linkages.
Unlike typical start-ups which require mentorship and incubation, requests from women entrepreneurs in the state are less to do with structuring and more to do with operations and finance. This yet again reflects the presence of a glass ceiling that women entrepreneurs find difficult to penetrate when seeking funding, particularly for a business.
While We-Hub has been organising workshops for various schemes and financial assistance programmes available from the Central and state governments and banking institutions, it is also collaborating with Mee-Seva to help women entrepreneurs to avail subsidies and schemes.
The “Women entrepreneur” application will be available at Mee-Seva centres from Monday for women entrepreneurs to register. By paying a nominal fee of '45, women entrepreneurs can get themselves registered on Mee-Seva. As part of the roll-out of Mee-Seva2.0 within a week, all the 4000 centres in the state will have this module. Additionally, the enrolment will be made available on T-App-Folio app within a fortnight.
An official of the Telangana State Technology Services (TSTS) said, “Entrepreneurs need to enter their personal details, their business details, and incorporation document. It is a very straightforward document with minimum details. Once the entrepreneur registers, We-Hub will take it forward based on their need.”
We-Hub does not provide funding but will assist the entrepreneur with the available options for funding. Some women start an enterprise in order to earn a livelihood while there are others who want to grow.
An official from We-Hub said, “We will analyse the registrations and based on the kind of inputs we get, we'll segregate them in buckets and determine the best fit for them.”
