Celebrating women entrepreneurs in the country for their achievements in tech-based solutions creating social impact, six women entrepreneurs who demonstrated their tech-based business solutions inspired the 2300 women who attended the Grace Hopper Celebration India (GHCI) conference on Friday.
Cognitive-computing based solutions for medical practitioners, optical image detection aid for cervical cancer, an end-to-end enterprise relationship platform for students and educational institutes and a real-time inventory management tool for retailers were some of the ideas that these women entrepreneurs had implemented.
Women Entrepreneur Quest 2015, a business plan contest organised by Anita Borg Institute to recognize women entrepreneurs across the country received over 140 applications for the award this year.
“It’s an effort to recognize women entrepreneurs who have made a social impact through business,” said Geetha Kannan, managing director, ABI India, adding that through the program, women entrepreneurs not only gain knowledge, but also get the guidance and connections to grow their business to the next level of success.
Through a government sponsored experiential learning visit to the Silicon Valley, these entrepreneurs will get an exposure to the entrepreneurial culture in the Valley, establish connections and receive individual business plan mentoring.
Presenting a brief business pitch to a panel of judges, including investors, technology experts, government officials, entrepreneurs and over 2000 women who attended the conference, the six finalists talked about their startups and entrepreneurial journey.
A mixed bag of technology based solutions around education, healthcare, bio innovations, inventory management and automated water distribution, these women entrepreneurs demonstrated a variety of applications.
From the finalists, Vidhya Sundaram’s, founder of Channelyst Advisory Services that provides real-time retail inventory management solution won a cash price of Rs 5 lakhs.
All women’s Hackathon
With the event, GHCI concluded its three-day-long conference in the city today that focused on career, research and entrepreneur interests of women in computing and technology.
Among sessions and workshops over technology, leadership, entrepreneurship, management, back-to-work and early career advices, the conference also hosted a Hackathon that saw a huge participation
of 616 women. 11 finalist teams demonstrated the apps they built to provide solutions for actual problem statements submitted by various NGOs. From building self-reliance tool for the blind to creating an app that alerts when a garbage bin needs disposal, this group of 55 women who participated in a Hackathon brought up low cost innovations for non-profit organisations.
