Only 7% of Women at CXO Level. This Woman Investor Explains Why Shanti Mohan, founder of LetsVenture, believes that if women can manage household finance, they can make business investments as well
By Bhavya Kaushal •
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Men take care of family finances, and women take care of homes and domestic expenses, that's the norm. And when it comes to make business investments, it is looked at as a far cry for women. Shanti Mohan, founder of LetsVenture—a platform that aims to bring together investors and entrepreneurs—talked to Entrepreneur India on the sidelines of the recently concluded LetsIgnite conference. Mohan highlighted that there are few women entrepreneurs in the ecosystem and shared some observations.
Lack of Women Investors
"On our platform, there are 6,500 investors, however, less than 25 are women," said Mohan. Overall in the Indian start-up setup, there are 33 per cent women founders and only 7 per cent women are at the CXO levels in organizations.
According to a report by This is Money, UK's financial website and money channel, 48 per cent of the women don't have the confidence to become an angel investor.
Shanti believes it is all a matter of priority. "As a woman you have to run the company, the home and then you have to think about investing. Juggling everything could be one of the reasons."
Igniting Conversations around Investors
Mohan believes that conversations in the business ecosystem have been too "founder-focused" and less "investor-focused".
Despite India having a battery of VCs, PEs and angel investors, the investor to start-ups ratio remains low. Mohan says that the solution lies in looking for alternate sources of capital beyond the funds that exist in the country.
"There is enough money. What we need is awareness," she added.
Talking about the global scenario, while she did not comment on WeWork and Uber IPO failures stating that they have been over-discussed and overanalyzed, she added the focus should be on learning from the failures. "Next 5-10 years will see a lot of start-ups wanting to get listed. There is a need for liquidity in the market."
It is a good time for start-ups to flourish in India. Mohan says the government has been initiating a lot of campaigns such as Start-up India to help start-ups flourish.
While the need for Indian investors remains paramount for Indian start-ups, some foreign capital pouring is not bad, according to her. "Start-up ecosystem is getting bolstered by foreign capital. It helps to get larger cheques."
