Female entrepreneur support organisation SheEO is coming to India

SheEO, a Toronto-based organisation working to support and encourage female entrepreneurshio, is making its entry into India. The company has started to rope in investors who are ready to fund start-ups that are run and owned by women.

As per the business model, 1,000 women per city will be committing $1,000 (Rs 67,000) each to so that 10 women-led ventures, selected by these very women, can be given low-interest loans. The expansion plans include a presence in 1,000 cities by 2020.

"The idea is to support under-supported and under-financed women entrepreneurs. In addition to the low-interest loan, the women get access to the 1,000 women network, expertise and their buying power to help grow their business," Vicki Saunders, founder of SheEO, told ET. Saunders is in India to talk to Indian women investors who have expressed their interest to be a part of this initiative.

She was recently named one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from EBW - Empowering A Billion Women. The list included names like Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, businesswoman and philanthropist Melinda Gates, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and FLOTUS Michelle Obama.

"It is taking this new model of crowd funding but also we have moved from singular, one-entity companies to a much more dispersed organisation," Saunders added. "Women weren't really at the table to design it in the first round, so we need more women now and for that we need new models and new approaches," she concluded.

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