GSV- Emeritus India Summit: “Power of Women Leading Innovation ” discusses challenges women enterprenures face as they strive to lead

• ByStartupStory     |    February 21, 2023

Six women entrepreneurs met on the opening day of the three-day GSV -Emeritus India Summit, in Gurugram, to discuss the urgent need to close the gender gap that women in the workforce are facing. 

The panel was comprised of Ashley Chiampo, Chief Learning Officer, Emeritus; Smita Deorah, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, LEAD; Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital; Prerna Jhunjhunwala, Founder and CEO, Creative Galileo; Supriya Paul, CEO, Josh Talks, and Lisa Tenorio, SVP, Learning Design, Harvard Business Publishing.

They were part of a panel discussion titled “Power of Women Leading Innovation” that explored the impact women leaders are making in their respective communities, and how they are leveraging education and entrepreneurship to create positive change.

“Only 6% of venture funded businesses in India are co-founded by a woman. Yet, if you look at the CEO level, it is only 2%. As per a study we did recently, 70% of the women who wished to start their businesses claimed they mostly pitch to male investors. 68% of them believe that raising money is more difficult because of their gender. We must initiate discussions about this and look for solutions,” said Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital.

The panel also explored the challenges women have had to face as they strive to lead. 

Prerna Jhunjhunwala, Founder and CEO, Creative Galileo, said that “Women make up 75% of all teachers. When we consider Principals, this figure drops to 50%. When we consider edtech founders, the figure drops to 6%. And less than 1% when it comes to policymakers. As a founder, I firmly feel that this needs to change. We also need to change the mindset of people to foster the right environment for women entrepreneurs.”

The world’s most brilliant and influential leaders in education innovation, as well as, Indian government decision-makers gathered on the first day of the three-day summit to exchange ideas and develop a narrative about the future of the Indian edtech sector and its function in leveraging learning to transform lives around the world.

Over three days, the summit will feature speakers including Hon’ble Minister Smriti Irani, Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Sandhya Devanathan (Meta), Anant Agarwal (edX),  Sandeep Singhal (Westbridge Capital), Vani Kola (Kalaari), Deborah Quazzo (GSV Ventures), Alakh Pandey (Physics Wallah), Vivian Wu (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) Madan Pilutla (Indian School of Business), Rajendar Pawar (NIIT), and other eminent leaders from Blackstone, Accel, MIT, Harvard, upGrad, Simplilearn, Duolingo, Classplus and more.

About Emeritus:

Emeritus Executive Education offers customised and open programmes in India, Singapore, Dubai and other global locations in collaboration with IIM Lucknow Executive Education, IIM Calcutta Executive Education, IIM Kozhikode Executive Education, ISB Executive Education, Harvard Business School (HBS), MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School, Kellogg Executive Education, Berkeley Executive Education, and Wharton Executive Education, amongst other leading Institutes. 

Their world-class executive education programmes, supported by eminent programme experts, provide an immersive learning experience integrated with actionable insights and practical business applications. 

Their extensive portfolio also includes short 2-4 day in-class workshops, online courses of 2-3 months duration as well as comprehensive learning journeys that run over 6-9 months, customised to an organisation’s requirement. 

The Emeritus Group has more than 1,400 employees globally and offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Singapore, Palo Alto, Mexico City, New York, Boston, London, and Dubai. 

Following its $650 million Series E funding round in August 2021, the company is valued at $3.2 billion, and is backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Leeds Illuminate, Prosus Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Bertelsmann, Accel and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Learn more at emeritus.org/in.

 About GSV Ventures

GSV Ventures is a female-led, multi-stage venture capital firm focused on the $7+ trillion education sector. The fund is currently investing out of GSV Ventures Fund III and backs innovative entrepreneurs around the world in the “Pre-K to Gray” Arc of Learning. GSV manages over $675 million in global EdTech investments. Portfolio holdings include Andela, Class Technologies, ClassDojo, Coursera, Course Hero, Degreed, Guild, MasterClass, Outlier, Photomath, Quizizz, Lead School, Brightchamps, and ClassPlus, among others.

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