WE HUB, India’s first state-led incubator to foster and promote women entrepreneurship, today announced its partnership with Western Digital, a leading worldwide data infrastructure provider, to launch an Acceleration Program focusing on Technology for Women Entrepreneurs. The Acceleration Program is customized for women-led technology start-ups in India, to equip them to be investment-ready and enable them to scale by giving via access to national and international investors. 

WE HUB and Western Digital will work with the eight start-ups for a 12-week acceleration program. The selected start-ups will have access and customized hands-on mentoring from WE HUB’s global network of Technology support, business mentors, venture capitalists, and enterprise executives; along with Western Digital’s expertise in data-led innovation and building the start-up ecosystem.

The Acceleration Program will also enable the start-ups to enhance industry exposure and position them to expand their customer base. WE HUB and Western Digital together will provide conducive opportunities for access to investors and guiding the start-ups to market success. 

Jayesh Ranjan, Industries and IT Principal Secretary, “Start-ups have always been the fore-runners of innovation in Telangana. They have had a great impact and potential in transforming the technology, leveraging the technology equation, and escalating the economy of the state. I am glad to see WE HUB is enabling high potential women led technology start-ups to be a part of this innovation revolution in Telangana and bringing along Corporate giants such as Western Digital to drive outcome drives programs.” 

Supria Dhanda, Vice President and Country Manager for India at Western Digital said, “Western Digital’s endeavour is to encourage and help women entrepreneurs succeed in the technology start-up ecosystem. The idea behind this joint initiative is to provide a platform for women innovators to showcase their ideas and offer the guidance required to accelerate their business. With WE HUB and Government of Telangana, we want to deepen our commitment to this cause, spark more technology innovation, and catalyze the start-up ecosystem of India.”

Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WE HUB, said, “Our work at WE HUB has been towards creating focused programs to enable the next generation of High Potential Women Entrepreneurs in the Technology space. We are excited to partner with Western Digital for the Acceleration program due to their extensive commitment to build a more inclusive work environment to support women in Technology. With our Global network of VCs, Business mentors & Product Strategists, Western Digital’s deep technical knowledge, we are extremely committed to making this 12-week acceleration program a truly outcome driven one for the start-ups.”

A total of eight start-ups have been selected from seven cities, out of the 963 applications received from all over India. From the 963 applications, 40 were shortlisted and were part of the Data Innovation Bazaar 2020 - conducted by Western Digital in collaboration with Startup India, Invest India, MeitY, DST, and TiE Delhi-NCR. Data Innovation Bazaar aimed to provide a platform to start-ups to showcase their potential to solve key issues of national importance, by leveraging the power of data. The selected start-ups, the majority of which, are early traction stage and will be supported to create cutting-edge innovations in the sectors of Healthcare, Education, and Agriculture.

This three-month-long acceleration program was kicked off by Jayesh Ranjan, Telangana Principal Secretary of the Industries & Commerce and IT; Supria Dhanda, Vice President & Country Manager for India, Western Digital; and Deepthi Ravula, CEO, WE HUB.