GetVantage launches Rs 100 crore Rise-Up Fund for women entrepreneurs, aims to back over 400 businesses by 2025

GetVantage, an alternative-financing fintech platform, recently announced the launch of its Rise-Up Fund, which is dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses with inclusive capital. The company has announced a non-dilutive fund with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore that will be deployed in the next 12 months to help over 400 women-led businesses scale up, according to the official release.

The company will be distributing the funds through their own Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), GetGrowth Capital, along with Varanium’s Debt Fund partnership, among other alternate investment funds (AIFs) and NBFCs.

Based on data and analysis from the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), women-owned businesses in India have an unmet credit gap of over $11.4 billion, and the share of outstanding credit that Indian public sector banks grant to these women-founded businesses is only 5.2 per cent.

“Despite running successful businesses, women entrepreneurs everywhere remain chronically underrepresented and underserved by the incumbent venture finance infrastructure. The Rise-Up fund by GetVantage expands our commitment to empowering women entrepreneurs in India,” said Karun Arya, Chief Growth Officer, GetVantage.

Furthermore, according to a study by Encubay last week, out of 799 investment agreements totaling $6.6 billion made in the previous nine months, just 4.5 per cent of the money was raised by businesses with female founders.  

Deeksha Ahuja, Founder, Encubay, said, “Of 799 funding deals amounting to $6.6 billion in the past nine months, ventures led by female founders secured only 4.5 per cent of the total funding. With an increasing number of women venturing into entrepreneurship and many seeking funding for their initiatives, the present moment presents a pivotal opportunity for collective action.”

The proportion of women-founded enterprises in the Indian startup ecosystem is a mere 18 per cent. Despite this, India is home to 17 unicorns—woman-led enterprises valued at over $30 billion—and another 20 are in the making. More work has to be done, even if there has been significant work and renewed attention by policymakers with several state government initiatives and Niti Aayog's Women Entrepreneurship Programme (WEP). In January, GetVantage had announced its SaaS Accelerator Fund II, with a corpus of Rs 250 crore.

Richa Pendake, Founder & CEO, Nutrizoe, shares, “As a woman entrepreneur deeply immersed in the startup ecosystem, this is more than just about funding; it's about recognising and amplifying the voices and potential of women in entrepreneurship. I've experienced the uphill battle of securing funding and navigating the male-dominated landscape.”

Over the last three years, the GetVantage platform has helped hundreds of women founders with on-demand access to fair and reliable financing.