The Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) and the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWAKE) has announced an accelerator model ‘Xcelerator Bengaluru’ for women owned enterprises. The initiative would support 20 women-owned growth businesses in the city every six months to enable ‘quick growth’ among select small businesses through a combination of formal learning programmes, mentoring, expert sessions, and peer learning, a GAME statement said.
“These entrepreneurial growth stories will be communicated to the ecosystem so that other stakeholders can learn, align and contribute to the ecosystem”, it said. The programme will be co-designed and led by some of the country’s industry experts, past and current bureaucrats, academic institutions, veteran entrepreneurs and trade associations, among others, it was stated.
Xcelerator Bengaluru is a curated six month accelerator program for supporting and scaling 20 women-owned micro-businesses. The initiative will mainly focus on enterprises from all manufacturing, trade, services & export sectors. They are encouraged to apply if they meet the application criteria. Enterprises using technology to make, market and deliver a non-IT product are accepted. The program is not designed for enterprises in the IT products & services, research or consulting.
The eligibility criteria demands women entrepreneurs who are the primary decision maker in their business. The business should be well-established, profitable and have an annual net revenue between Rs. 60 lakhs to Rs. 3 Crores for the financial year 2019-2020. Even during COVID in 2020, the business should generate at least 50 percent of the revenue pre pandemic. The business should be in operations for at least 3 years, formalized, registered and fully compliant (including GST). The women entrepreneur should have demonstrated consistency in commitment to the business, showcased a track record of business growth year on year, and she should want to grow her business.
The program aims to provide a growth trajectory for every participant in the cohort through a focus on business development, customer acquisition, improved cash management techniques and capacity building in people and infrastructure. All participants will also be given training in communications, so that they may communicate their growth stories impact fully to their customers, channel partners, distribution and other institutional stakeholders. Participants will also become role models for their industry peers, and inspire other women entrepreneurs to start and scale the businesses via features in English and local newspapers, magazines, and more.
Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWAKE) is a 37 year old organization dedicated to empowering women through entrepreneurship development. The organization aims to work as a team towards shared objective to reach a greater number of women. Further the organization strives hard to develop suitable membership program to increase member base and also to encourage members to be more. Additionally, AWAKE surges ahead with a strong vision to provide need based quality services to clients.
