HYDERABAD: Is lack of access to credit slowing down women entrepreneurs from starting their own ventures, or scaling up their ventures? Despite plenty of loan options being in place from the Mudra and Startup India schemes, experts feel that many women entrepreneurs continue to face hurdles in accessing them due to lack of awareness and financial know-how.
It is learnt that several women entrepreneurs, both in startups and those scaling up their businesses, know about the existing schemes and benefits that can fetch them capital, but often fail to make the cut with the banks as they lack the skills in completing the formalities.
For instance, when it comes to the operationalising part, they may not have a sound business plan in place, or know how to put across their projects or may lack the know-how on how to communicate the same to the banker.
“Some women entrepreneurs may not get into the operational aspects of balance sheets, working capital, business projections etc,” Deepthi Ravula, CEO of We Hub, said.
Experts also note that for Startups, debt financing, on the whole, can become a challenge irrespective of the gender. “With startups in general, the case is that they do not have a lot of equity to offer since they have no collateral or asset backing as security, which makes banks reluctant to offer loans,” noted Saloni Khandelwal, Founder, Transaction Square.
She further said that many bankers fail to understand the new evolving nature of business. “A lot of startups are technology intensive or skill driven with very little assets to offer as collateral. For instance, a bakery is highly skill driven, but unlike a factory, where land and machinery can be put as collateral, a bakery trying to expand their operations may not have that,” Saloni said.
To overcome this gap, We Hub has planned a loan mela in the city.
TS to participate in ‘Female Entrepreneurship Summit’ in the Netherlands
Telangana will now be represented at the ‘Female Entrepreneurship and the Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2019’ which will take place in the Netherlands next month. Representing the State will be WE Hub CEO Deepthi Ravula.