This article was originally published here
---
AHMEDABAD, MARCH 8:
As the world celebrates the 97th International Women’s Day on Tuesday, many a startup, women-centric or run by women, have ‘come of age’, attracting investors’ attention—and funding.
In particular, Sheroes, literally meaning “women who take charge” according to its founder, claims to have helped place nearly 40,000 women professionals in different jobs across India in the last two years of its existence.
In 2015, Sheroes.in, a jobs and career community for women professionals, raised Rs. 5 crore in an angel round from the Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur-led Quintillion Media, 500 Startups and a group of individuals, including Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Rajan Anandan of Google India and Binny Bansal of Flipkart, besides Mekin Maheshwari, Girish Mathrubhootham, Indu Khaitan, and Krishna Mehra.
Founded in January 2014 as an online career destination for women, Sheroes.in helps women find opportunities, including work-from-home jobs, part-time jobs, corporate roles, and startup options, including other entrepreneurial options like franchising and affiliates. “We create a career eco-system for women professionals, and are the only startup in India that works exclusively for empowerment of women through employment,” Sairee Chahal, Founder-CEO, told BusinessLine.
“We have so far interacted with a million women and helped nearly 40,000 of them in placements.” Its partners include majors like Random House and Harper Collins, CNBC18, while its clients include Aditya Birla Group, Castrol India, CII, FICCI, Mahindra, L&T Insurance, MakeMyTrip, OXFAM, Novartis, paytm, Sony and Taxi For Sure.
About the startup’s business model, Chahal said Sheroes.in does not charge any fees or money from aspirant women; only the companies that select them for jobs pay. The platform finds mentorship, career resources and career content along with career advice and opportunities of various work formats – full-time, flex work options, entrepreneurial work options, internships, projects etc.
Mylescars.com, founded by Sakshi Vij in November 2013, has seen a phenomenal growth in self-driven cars rented by women. “Over the last 18 months, we have seen a 40% growth and more and more women now prefer to rent a car they can drive themselves,” she said.
Mylescars duly registers these women customers and tracks the vehicles they rent all the times through GPS and other technology. No wonder, the startup, that began with 14 cars and three locations, has now grown to over 1,000 cars and 200 locations with presence in 21 cities. Myles gives an option to its customers to choose from 34 car models depending upon their needs; be it hourly, weekly, monthly or yearly. “But we are not just rented car aggregators; we have our own vehicles.”
Some of the leading startups launched and run by women include Timesaverz.com founded by Debadutta Upadhyaya, Modspace.in Co-Founded by Meha Seth Marwah and Easyfix.in run by Shefali Holani, Founder. These service aggregators’ beneficiaries include an increasing number of women skilled and unskilled workers.
Timesaverz is an on-demand home services marketplace that delivers various services to one’s door step- from cleaning, repairs, handyman jobs to running errands and paperwork. Easyfix.in, in a similar space, operates as a ‘one call home repairs service’ to resolve household maintenance problems. Modspace.in, founded by Mehaa Seth Marwah, is an online furniture company for delivering modular kitchens and home goods.
An era of “Achchhe Din” for women of India?
__
As published on - thehindubusinessline.com