Women’s economic empowerment is tied to their agency—their ability to make financial decisions and control resources. This extends to their active participation in the economy through self-employment and entrepreneurship. According to the 2025 Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE), nationwide, women entrepreneurs run 21.38 million proprietary establishments. However, their capacity to scale their enterprises… Continue reading What women need from fintechs is not another feature (but a community of peers)
The Government of India spends over INR 3 trillion on subsidies: food, fertilisers, healthcare and cash transfer. However, a significant chunk is lost before it reaches the person it was meant for, sometimes due to inefficiency and sometimes to middlemen. And even when the money does reach the beneficiary, they are more often than not… Continue reading Two Innovations, One Aspiration: e-Rupee and eRUPI
No country has been asked to do what India is being asked to do. Home to over 1.45 billion people, it is the world’s sixth largest economy by GDP and the world’s third largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter. It is also the 9th most affected country by the adverse consequences of climate change. The… Continue reading India’s Climate Tightrope: What the Approved NDCs Mean for Startup Builders
Organisational culture is widely recognised as central to a startup’s success and failure, yet most of the understanding on culture formation and evolution is rooted in the context of large, established organisations. How do cultures form and evolve in early-stage startups, when they are small, fast-changing, and founder-dependent, is still largely unknown. This paper addresses… Continue reading How Startup Cultures Form: Founder Imprint, Early Choices, and a Toolkit for Shaping Culture
We’re in Space 2.0. Version 1.0 was sponsored & supported by the Government. Version 2.0 has been supported by the venture capital & private investments, assisted by the Government. This iteration is focussed on commercialisation & on revenues – as any other business category. Private capital is investing heavily, 78% of global turnover already… Continue reading Indian Spacetech Playbook: What startups should build
Suta, a handcrafted saree brand co-founded by sisters Sujata Biswas and Taniya Biswas in 2016, quickly became a recognised name in India’s slow-fashion movement. Known for its flagship “Made in Heaven Mul” sarees and founder-led storytelling, Suta built a digitally native, community-driven brand with more than 600,000 social media followers and a loyal urban customer… Continue reading Suta: Genesis and Growth of a Slow-Fashion Saree Brand in India
HoneyVeda was founded in 2019 by Hardik Joshi, a business-analyst-turned-apiarist, to promote ethical beekeeping practices and produce and sell high-quality honey. To realise this vision, the startup partnered with farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and government agencies to supply beekeeping equipment, deliver training to novice beekeepers and produce honey from bee boxes placed on agricultural… Continue reading HoneyVeda: Scaling Startup Presence Across the Honey Value Chain
Simply put, gender disaggregation in data comprises capturing, recording, analysing and reporting data separately by gender. The same can be gathered from the customers through surveys etc. (often called demand side data) or sourced as part of administrative data of the providers i.e. Financial Services Providers (FSPs); the latter is (called supply side data). … Continue reading Mapping Gender Disaggregated Credit Data in India
There has been an enormous jump in digital financial fraud cases in the recent years. This report provides a systematic analysis of digital financial frauds using an ontological framework. The framework is used to map research, regulations and start-up solutions to identify existing gaps, and directions for future. It helps formalize, standardize and visualize the… Continue reading Fraud Management: Current Landscape and Future Directions
India’s rapid expansion of digital payments and fintech adoption has been accompanied by a sharp rise in digital financial fraud, with losses running into tens of thousands of crores and cases proliferating due to increasingly sophisticated scams that exploit both user trust and digital infrastructure. This report presents a systematic analysis of fraud typologies, their impact… Continue reading Taxonomising Digital Financial Frauds for Ecosystem Resilience
The digital lending ecosystem has experienced intensified regulatory scrutiny in recent years, characterized by enforcement actions ranging from the suspension of unauthorized lending applications to comprehensive oversight of digital loan disbursement and collection practices. This toolkit is designed to help early-stage and growth-stage lending fintech start-ups navigate their compliance journey. It brings together regulatory requirements,… Continue reading Lending Compliance Toolkit
The BuildforHer Forum – an integral part of our Women’s Financial Inclusion Initiative at IIMA Ventures, supported by the Gates Foundation – is a platform to hear from founders, researchers, practitioners, and other experts innovating specifically for women. The forum brings together insights from their experiments, successes, failures, and learnings with the singular objective of… Continue reading Build for Her Forum