Zone Startups India in partnership with Department of Science and Technology, Vodafone, Google and Nishith Desai Associates came out with the ’empoWer’ technology accelerator programme for women entrepreneurs. Well it has been fruitful for some. Following the event they announced a seed investment of over Rs 50 lakh in the three startups — Saral Designs, DAZ Land and Shubh Puja.
The programme received a record number of applications amounting to 181 applications from all over India, exceeding the expectations of Zone Startups India. In the course of the six week program Zone Startups interacted with a number of startups. The 15 select founders interacted with over 40 mentors, including industry leaders and subject matter experts; in addition to a few industry visits. This included a meeting with the Group CTO Office at Tata Sons.
Zone Startups India handed out equity free seed funding of Rs 10 lakh, Rs 7 lakh and Rs 5 lakh to the top 3 women founded startups, based on multiple evaluation criteria. The respective winners were Saral Designs, DAZL and Shubh Puja.