Female Foundry to be launched in India and Bangladesh

As part of One@DentsuAegis, Dentsu Aegis Network and its digital performance agency iProspect, have formalised an initiative to mentor women-led start-ups in India and Bangladesh. The initiative – Female Foundry – will be launched in India and Bangladesh after its successful run in Singapore.

One@DentsuAegis is a programme developed to support diversity and innovation across business.

Female Foundry aims to drive diversity and inclusion in business. It provides access to tools, training, connections and resources, which will empower female entrepreneurs to thrive in today’s complex digital economy. The initiative intends to bridge the gap in gender parity by offering experienced mentorship that helps empower female entrepreneurs, high-level skill development and professional help in securing funding for the next phase of their start-ups.

Talking about the initiative, Rubeena Singh, CEO, iProspect India said, “As you know, iProspect has women leaders across its offices in the world. Internally, we run various programmes to help women reach the leadership programmes. Women@iprospect, for instance, is an existing initiative, which caters to junior and mid-level women who have potential to become a leader tomorrow. Female Foundry is more than just an initiative for us. We are leading the programme in India, along with the help of DAN leadership and resources as well as our partners who have volunteered, to help build a more cohesive ecosystem for women entrepreneurs.”

About the Female Foundry initiative being executed in Bangladesh, Sadia Afreen Chowdhury, Group Head , CSR and Social Initiatives (DAN Affiliate Operations in Bangladesh), said, “Across all our organisations in Bangladesh, we strongly emphasise capability building for our female team members, ensure inclusion and growth of female team members at both mid and senior levels and leverage a work environment which enables progression and empowerment of women workforce. Through this initiative, we aim to play an accelerator role in mentoring and facilitating capability building for business growth of female entrepreneurs and female entrepreneur led businesses of the country and impart knowledge of integrating their business with digital and technology integrations.”

Ashish Bhasin, CEO- APAC and Chairman- India, Dentsu Aegis Network said, “DAN as a network has been at the forefront of encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs. Women play an important role in every aspect of business today – from leading companies to building new ventures. Along with iProspect, we are proud to bring Female Foundry to India and also extending it to Bangladesh, as we believe that getting the right mentorship is necessary for anyone to grow; especially in today’s competitive world. Bangladesh has been putting strong efforts in the last 5 years to ensure social inclusiveness of women in the socio-financial mainstreams to play a significant role in the economic progression of the country.”

Interested applicants must meet the key criteria to be considered for selection. The business venture must be female-founded or a woman holding leadership position with shareholding, with the business operation having completed one year and demonstrated proof of revenue generation. The business venture is preferred to be technology enabled at its core (tech education, fintech, software development, app development, app based, etc.).

Promising organisations yet to embrace technology integration but feeling a significant need for it may also be considered. There must be a long-term business plan in place with path or potential path to revenue and monetization.

The selected participants will join the Female Foundry Boot Camp to be held in Mumbai, India from 6-8 November 2019.
Further information about the programme and the registration can be found at www.femalefoundry.com or https://www.facebook.com/Dreachbd