On Women’s Day in 2018, the NITI Aayog (Government of India’s policy thinktank) had launched the Women’s Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) – an initiative aimed at building an ecosystem for women across India to realize their entrepreneurial aspirations, scale-up innovative initiatives and chalk out sustainable, long-term strategies for their businesses. WEP was envisaged during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad in 2017.
In September 2018, the Investment Council of WEP was kicked off, chaired by Ms Anjali Bansal – Founder of Avaana Capital. The Council has representatives from multilateral agencies (such as IFC), corporate India (such as Google, Facebook and Mahindra and Mahindra), other development oriented institutions (such as SEWA and Tata Trusts); and aims to identify specific hurdles faced by women entrepreneurs in accessing funds, develop a simple process to create a more equal environment for women entrepreneurs and facilitate fund raising for promising, women led businesses.