Meet 10 up-and-coming women-led startups in India

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing’s 2016 Women Entrepreneur Quest winners.

Walk into the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, an event held in December in Bangalore, and a sea of female entrepreneurs and students rush between conference sessions.

A hiring fair in the middle of the action has booths from pretty much every tech bigwig – Microsoft, Google, Visa, etc. It is flooded by female engineers. It’s a jarring sight because it’s just so rare: The vast majority of people in tech are male.

Part of the conference is the Women Entrepreneur Quest (WEQ) 2016, in which 10 entrepreneurs are awarded an all-expenses-paid experiential learning visit to Silicon Valley. 2016 marked the sixth year of the contest, and winners were chosen from a pool of 329 entries evaluated on the basis of their product and business model.

See: Meet 10 trailblazing, inspiring Indian women entrepreneurs

Aqaya

Aqaya is a software and mobile app combo that helps micro-entrepreneurs in rural communities access financial services, makes capital less expensive for borrowers, and creates more transparency within the banking system for them. Startup director Shrishti Sahu picked up the award on behalf of the team.

See: This entrepreneur brought in $250m last year. Here’s her advice to women founders

Anaxee

Indore-based Anaxee Technologies works with biometrics, identity management, and pattern recognition. Its products include fingerprint sensors, photo imaging products, and address verification. It has a team of 17, led by co-founders Arti Agrawal and Govind Agrawal.

See: 4 female entrepreneurs – from an 11 year old to a Hollywood producer – share tips

Bitgiving

Founded by Ishita Anand, Bitgiving is a crowdfunding platform for artists, engineers, and other creators. It emphasizes storytelling as a campaign tool.

See: How a Harvard grad founded a crowdfunding startup to lend a hand in India

Greenopia

Co-founded by Mayukhini Pande and Manikandan HK, Greenopia engineers smart gardening products. It focuses on design planters that self-water to take some of the work out of gardening.

See: Afraid your startup pitch isn’t up to par? Why you should enter competitions anyway

Mishipay

Co-founded by Mustafa Khanwala and Tanvi Bhardwaj after a frustrating queueing experience, Mishipay will ring bells with those who have heard of Amazon Go. The company allows customers to pick an item from a store, scan it with the MishiPay app, and walk out with their item. The customer is charged through the Mishipay app. If customers try to walk out without paying, the app will trigger an alarm within the store.

The startup is a Cisco Solutions Partner and was got its beginnings at startup support program IDEALondon. It has won the UCL Bright Ideas award and the University of Manchester Venture Further award. It began public beta trials last month.

Oorjan

Founded by Roli Gupta and Das Gautam, Oorjan hooks homes and workplaces up with solar power. It will design the solar power system, deliver materials, oversee installation, and offer financing services. It can monitor and show power generation, as well as how much a user has saved in energy costs. Users can ask for aid through the startup’s app.

PlexusMD

PlexusMD is a healthcare network of doctors, medical students, and healthcare organizations. Think a LinkedIn for doctors plus patient referrals. It keeps medical professionals up-to-date on jobs and seminars.

See: This LinkedIn-like app for doctors helped save Nepal earthquake victims

Saral Designs

Co-founded by Suhani Mohan and Kartik Mehta, Saral Designs uses technology to create feminine hygiene solutions for India, where sanitary napkins are sparse in smaller towns and stigma against menstruation makes the subject hard to discuss. Its products include long-wear pads and a vending machine that dispenses the products.

See: India’s taboo over menstruating women has to end. Period.

Storemore

Storemore is a storage service for households and businesses. It is managed by Pooja Kothari and Nitin Dhawan.

YourDost

Emotional wellness startup YourDost connects people with trained counselors for free online checkups, or with voice and/or video calls for a fee. Founded by Richa Singh, Puneet Manuja, Satyajeet Nandekar, and Prakhar Verma, the app discreetly tackles the mental illness stigma in India.

See: Mental illness is an open secret in India. A startup bags a million bucks to fight it

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Named after American computer scientist and US Navy rear admiral Grace Brewster Murray Hopper, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is a series of conferences that gathers female technologists around the world. Sponsored by the Anita Borg Institute India, the conference has taken place annually in India since 2010.

See: Are you sexist and you don’t know it? Why you should ask yourself that if you’re in tech

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