State-led women entrepreneurship incubator WE Hub has launched three new programmes for students and tech-based startups.
The new programmes — Greater 50%, WE Alpha and Girls in STEM — will enable more tech entrepreneurship among girls and young women in Telangana and across India, CEO Deepthi Ravula told an event to mark their launch, graduation of four cohorts and a tech show, on Wednesday in the presence of Industries and IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao.
Under Greater 50%, which is an initiative of FICCI FLO to provide mentoring and business development support for women entrepreneurs, WE Hub in association with the women’s wing of FICCI will roll out a pre-incubation programme to incubate 100 aspiring women entrepreneurs and an incubation programme for 20 established startups across India.
WE Alpha seeks to serve as a springboard for girl students to take up entrepreneurship. WE Hub in collaboration with five technical educational institutions in Telangana has devised the programme to support 50 students through entrepreneurial development programmes, mentor-support and familiarisation visits.
WE Hub in a release said the Girls in STEM programme is for aspiring women entrepreneurs looking for opportunities in the fields of data science, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and allied domains. For the programme, WE Hub in collaboration with WiDS (Women in Data Science), Stanford University will run a cohort of 100 school students from Bengaluru, Jammu and Kashmir, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kerala.
Appreciating the efforts of WE Hub, Mr.Rao said, “I hope the first women-led unicorn will be from India and particularly, hope it comes from WE Hub in Telangana. Through these new programmes launched by WE Hub, including with the educational institutes, we will encourage innovation from a very young age across the country.” The release said 22 tech-based startups exhibited their products at the Tech show. IT and Industries Secretary Jayesh Ranjan said, “This is some of the best quality work that I’ve seen in recent years, without any doubt as we witnessed today some very precise design of solutions.”
The graduating entrepreneurs were from the Incubation Second Cohort, WDC Acceleration Cohort, Upsurge Pre-incubation Cohort and Suvidha Pre-incubation Cohort. Twelve student-preneurs who came up with solutions to tackle cyber crime and issues concerning traffic, road safety and women and child safety in collaboration with Hyderabad City Police also graduated.