A Country Sans Women Founders: The Stark Gender Gap in India’s Start-Up Ecosystem

With just 17 women founders in India’s rapidly growing start-up ecosystem, the gender gap remains stark, highlighting systemic challenges and the urgent need to support and empower female entrepreneurs across industries, from tech and finance to consumer goods and health care

Outlook Business Desk

30 January 2026 3:27 pm

Photo: Illustration: Shutterstock

India’s start-up ecosystem continues to be marked by a pronounced gender gap, even as the country ranks as the world’s third-largest start-up hub. Women founders remain significantly under-represented, both in access to capital and in leadership positions across high-growth ventures. This imbalance is reflected among the top-100 start-up outperformers ranked by Outlook Business. Across these companies, there are 243 founders in total, but only 17 are women, underscoring the persistence and depth of the gender disparity within India’s start-up ecosystem. According to industry estimates, less than 5% of venture-capital funding in India is directed towards start-ups with at least one woman founder, pointing to structural barriers in fundraising.

Gender disparity is visible in numbers

Women founders are visible in consumer-facing D2C start-ups, but very few or none at all in other segments

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