‘Women startup founders face bias’

There is a lack of investment support for startups that are founded by women.

BENGALURU: On the concluding day of Bengaluru Tech Summit, women working in the corporate space spoke in a panel discussion titled ‘Role of individual, organisation and society in the growth of women in tech’. Cynthia Srinivas, a panelist, said: “Statistics show that only 8-10 per cent of tech startups in India are founded by women. Of the funding that goes into startups, only 2-5 per cent of it is spent on startups founded by women.”

Speaking to TNIE on the sidelines, Cynthia, engineering director of Intuit India Product Development Centre, said: “Women are always pitching to a room full of male investors because they are under-represented in the industry. There is a lack of investment support for startups that are founded by women. Investor hold per-conceived, unconscious gender-bias notions about women entrepreneurs.”

Visitors  at the Bengaluru Tech Summit at Bangalore Palace on Wednesday; a visitor experiments with a Virtual Reality gadget; a participant carries
his robot, which was exhibited at the summit | Shriram B N

“They think women have a lower risk appetite. In the perspective of an investor, this will translate to stagnant growth, loss of opportunities and less competitive drive. Even in big corporate companies, there are fewer women at the top. In college and while entering the field, there are a lot of women but mid-career, several tend to drop out. Society plays a bigger role,” she added.

She said, “The government should specifically start funding startups headed by women. There are some programmes at present but these need to be matured and scaled up.”

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