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STEP

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2022, India ranked 143 out of 146 countries in women's economic participation and growth

The reasons for this issue are:

  • Socio-cultural barriers
    • Preference to support the male child with access to better education & technology
    • Barriers to the mobility of women
    • An unfavorable attitude towards ambitious women.
  • Lack of access to banking opportunities as most of the collaterals are not in their names.
  • Lack of access to learning, mentorship & funding opportunities

Communities of women entrepreneurs are negligible

Data suggests that women-led enterprises generate 10% more cumulative revenue for five years than their male counterparts. Thus, supporting women entrepreneurs is not just socially relevant but also economically significant.

STEP (Shakti-The Empathy Project) runs an incubator and accelerator program for women-led, early-stage social startups. STEP’s ideology rests on 5 pillars empathetic community, learning, mentorship, networking & role modeling.

Our purpose is to nurture female entrepreneurs, improve the survival rate of women-led social impact startups, and build a safe and empathetic ecosystem to create a snowball effect that increases women’s participation in entrepreneurship and the workforce.

STEP has supported 71 women-run startups and aspiring entrepreneurs and has touched more than 7.5 lac lives. The program is sector-agnostic, runs pan India, and currently runs in Hindi and English.