Google selects its first batch of 20 women startup founders to empower, here’s the full list

India has 100 unicorns, which are startups valued above $1 billion, and only 15 per cent of those have been founded by women entrepreneurs. Despite being the co-founder at India’s top edtech platform Byju’s, Divya Gokulnath isn’t as visible as her partner Byju Raveendran. Despite these factors, founder of fashion and beauty startup Nykaa, Falguni Nayar has become India’s richest self-made woman.

These are factors that make Google’s accelerator program, which specifically focuses on startups which are led by women founders. From about 400 applicants, 20 women have been selected for the initiative, which will help them with networking, access to capital and mentorship, as well as challenges with hiring. To find a way around low representation and social factors, Google will provide workshops on web, android, cloud and product strategy, for this first batch of 20 women.

Part of Google’s larger plan

Here’s the full list of startups selected for Google’s program, which is part of its plan to support women techies and young graduates in tech as well.

Aspire for Her for women’s empowerment in the workforce, Brown Living for plant-positive living, CoLLearn Education for celebrity educators, Commudle for developer programs, Dubverse for its video dubbing software, Elda Health for focusing on women’s health, Fitbots for Objective and Key Results coaching, FreeStand for product sampling, Jumping Minds for community interaction, LXME to provide neobanking to women, MeMeraki for culture-tech, Mishry to counter product misinformation, OPOD Audio for vernacular information on news, PickMyWork for customer acquisition and Rang De for peer-to-peer lending.

It also includes, Savage for PCOS, menopause and thyroid care, Sprint Studio for conversational research, The Bridge for sports media, Tracknow’s location service and Tradyl which facilitates online business for small firms.

A timely initiative

The program comes to India at a time when half of all STEM graduates in India are women, but still make up 36 per cent of the IT workforce. A survey by Skillsoft further found that only 7 per cent of Indian women in tech are currently working in an executive position.