Visa, the American multinational financial services corporation with its partner IFundWomen, the go-to funding marketplace for women-owned businesses, has announced the launch of a grant programme to support and empower women entrepreneurs in India.
As an extension of two programs launched in the US this year, women entrepreneurs in India will now receive funding from Visa to grow and expand their business. Visa will seek applications from women entrepreneurs across all sectors till October 20 and applicants need to submit details about their business and online presence, along with a short video about their business. Three winners will be selected from the shortlist and receive grants of Rs. 7,00,000 each and coaching from leaders within the Visa and IFundWomen network. Visa has partnered with FLO (the ladies’ wing of FICCI) and Instamojo as Digitization partner for the program in India.
“Women-owned businesses play an important role in commerce and employment generation. However, they constitute only around 14 percent of the total entrepreneur base in India. We want to see this number increase but our interactions with women entrepreneurs show that access to capital to fund, run and grow their businesses remains a challenge. The Visa and IFundWomen grant program in India aims to boost female entrepreneurship and empower budding businesswomen through our network, guidance, financial support and resources to help achieve their dreams,” stated T R Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa.
IFundWomen is the marketplace for women-owned businesses and all the people who want to support them with access to capital, coaching and connections. Visa’s partnership with IFundWomen is designed to help women entrepreneurs secure the funding they need through a series of grants.
In June this year, Visa committed to supporting 50 million small businesses globally to power recovery and enable them digitally. In August, through the first India edition of Visa Everywhere Initiative, it awarded three fintech startups with monetary awards and technological support to take their solutions to market. Currently, with the announcement of this grant program, Visa extends its commitment to support small businesses and organizations, mainly those which are led by women entrepreneurs across India.
