Economic Survey 2025: 149 Women-Led Startups Bagged Over INR 3K Cr Via AIFs

Economic Survey 2025: 149 Women-Led Startups Bagged Over INR 3K Cr Via AIFs

SUMMARY

Start-up India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), a government initiative to provide financial assistance to early stage startups, has approved INR 227.12 Cr in funding for 1,278 women-led startups since inception in 2021

Women entrepreneurs in India have received 90% guarantees under the credit guarantee scheme

The survey also highlighted that 63% of the 2.41 Cr enterprises formalised since January 2023 are owned by women

In a push to women entrepreneurship, more than INR 3,000 Cr have been invested across 149 women-led startups through alternative investment funds (AIFs), the Economic Survey 2024-25 said. 

Women are at the forefront of driving innovation, as almost half of the startups out of 1,57,066 recognised under the Startup India Initiative have at least one woman director.

The survey also mentioned that the Start-up India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), a government initiative to provide financial assistance to early stage startups, has approved INR 227.12 Cr in funding for 1,278 women-led startups since inception in 2021.

Under the credit guarantees scheme for startups, women entrepreneurs received 90% guarantees.

Notably, out of the total 97.68 Lakh guarantees approved under CGSS, 22% were for women, as per the survey. The credit scheme has guaranteed INR 24.6 Cr in loans for women-led ventures. 

The economic survey also highlighted that 63% of the 2.41 Cr enterprises formalised since January 2023 are owned by women. 

Further, in a boost to women-owned startups, the survey said that 10% of the fund of funds for startups is reserved for women. 

The survey also recognised Telangana’s WE Hub (Women Entrepreneurs Hub), a state-led incubator for women entrepreneurs a significant move to provide women entrepreneurs access to technical, financial, governmental, and policy support. 

It has raised INR 177 Cr in funding and incubated 6,376 start-ups and SMEs. It has also engaged around 7828 entrepreneurs and has launched 87 start-up programmes, and 75 per cent of the startups survive beyond 2 years, the survey added. 

The Startup India initiative aims to build a strong homegrown startup ecosystem while nurturing innovation and encouraging investments.

Under the initiative, 157,066 startups are recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and 759,303 users are registered on the portal till date.  

Notably, DPIIT-recognised startups get access to a variety of incentives and sops under schemes like Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS). 

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.