Telangana, Australia kick off pre-incubation drive

Adarsh Nagar: WE HUB, India's first and only state-led incubator by the Government of Telangana to foster and promote women entrepreneurship to start-up, scale-up and accelerate with global market access, announced 'UPSurge,' a collaboration with the Australian government.

'UPSurge' is a pre-incubation programme to aid women entrepreneurs from across India to achieve financial independence. It follows the first WE-Hub/Australia collaboration 'Community Slate' which concluded in 2020. Australia was WE-Hub's first international partner.

The programme was launched by Barry O'Farrell AO, the Australian High Commissioner to India, Sarah Kirlew, Australian Consul General to South India, and Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE HUB, in the presence of KT Rama Rao, the Minister for ITE&C, Industries, Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary for ITE&C.

The 12-week pre-incubation programme gives participants skills to help them systematically gauge the feasibility of their ideas and develop them into a sustainable business, by instilling entrepreneurship to the participants. The conclusion of this programme will be a pitch day, followed by graduation.

Through the partnership entrepreneurs can minimize financial risks, get assistance in the selling of pilot products and risk mitigation. The program has already received 549 applications from across 14 cities around the country.

"'Three years ago, on the same platform, we took that first step in the country to establish a dedicated incubator to foster Women Entrepreneurship. Today, I am proud to say that WE Hub has emerged as the Role Model in India to enable women entrepreneurs and increased participation of women in the Workforce. Hoping this partnership with the Australian High Commission goes a long way and benefits women and girls in STEAM," said KT Rama Rao on the occasion.

Barry O'Farrell said, "Encouraging women and girls to STEM, and providing an environment for them to thrive and progress is an objective of the Australian government under our Academy of Science's 'Women in STEM Decadal Plan.' To the UPsurge participants, I wish you every success in the pre-incubation process, and look forward to visiting Hyderabad again in future."

Jayesh Ranjan, said WE Hub has been working extensively in terms of enabling market access, credit facilitation to women entrepreneurs, research & advocacy on the policy front for women entrepreneurship in our country.

And I strongly believe having the right partnerships on board will double the impact of work. I am glad we are being associated with the Australian High Commission and we welcome Barry O'Farrell, Australian High Commissioner to India'

Sarah Kirlew said, "Australia is proud to have been WE-Hub's first international partner. We are pleased to continue our support for their impactful work with women-led start-ups."

Deepthi Ravula said, 'Our association with Australian High Commission has kicked off with an acceleration program and has successfully supported five social enterprises in 2019. We look forward to enabling more women through the 'UPSurge' Preincubation program where we will be supporting close to 240 aspiring women entrepreneurs.''