Women innovators for a better world

Spark Festival 2018’s Virangana Project events uncover some incredible world-class talent among India’s women innovators

BY ASTHA SINGH

Push the boundaries, for the greater good.

That’s what a Virangana does.

‘Virangana’ is Hindi for a brave and courageous woman. Historically it is a term used for a woman showing excellence in the battlefield (think Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, who led her tiny kingdom in war against the British, making the ultimate sacrifice for her people).

The term was bandied about a fair bit in recent days in Sydney, when six women from India participated in Spark Festival

2018, Australia’s largest festival for start-ups, innovators and entrepreneurs. The talented and successful entrepreneurs were viranganas in the full sense of the term, pushing boundaries in their attempts to help build a better society. The Virangana Project is an Australian initiative aimed at putting some of India’s most innovative women entrepreneurs in front of Australian investors and fellow entrepreneurs.

This year, Dr Suba Dravida, Aditi Balbir, Rajlakshmi Borthakur, Nayab Bookwala, Devika Srimal Bapna and Ruchi Rastogi were the finalists who impressed with their start-up pitches in the health, lifestyle and social justice fields.

It all started for them months ago when their applications were assessed on a set of stringent criteria. They worked with ‘virtual’ mentors to fine tune their business plan and pitch deck.

As they presented their work at the event in Sydney, listening to them were angel investors, equity groups, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

It turned out to be a brilliant opportunity for them to get a firsthand look at some of the innovative ideas and investment opportunities that India has to offer.

The Indian elements at the event also allowed participants to dive into the culture to which the presenters belonged – the welcome, the decorations including pooja style lamp lighting, the Bollywood-style dancing, the food and the Slumdog Millionaire background score made it a very different Spark Festival event.

Many of the participants turned up again for a panel discussion on ‘The Next Generation of Viranganas’, which aimed to bridge the gap between the Australian and Indian women’s start-up communities. This panel consisted of Viranganas from India and Australia. The objective was to compare the challenges and opportunities facing female entrepreneurs in each country, discuss new alternative funding models for women around the world and the growing interest of venture capital firms in social impact start-ups. This event was part of the Visiting Entrepreneur Program, the Global Sydney Business Exchange and Spark Festival, produced by the City of Sydney in collaboration with event partners The Virangana Project and the Australia India Business Council. It was supported by funding from the Australian Government’s program for entrepreneurs and its national innovation and science agenda.

Tony McAuslan, Co-Founder & Communications Director, The Virangana Project, expressed great satisfaction at the program.

“Three of the finalists have given CEO Strategic (the company behind the Virangana Project) a clear mandate to act on their behalf and continue with a capital raise for their brilliant ideas; one of which (which specialises in the early detection of epileptic fits) we plan to relocate to the Sydney Innovation Hub, which will result in more jobs for NSW. This will also help to establish Sydney as the focal point for international innovation.”

The Virangana Project Team are currently in discussions with various parties in Australia to further engage with the finalists, to the direct benefit of both the Australian and Indian economies.

On the basis of this successful event, they are now working on plans to stage a new intake in 2019 that will focus on the renewable energy and clean water sectors, where Indian innovators are at the forefront of new technologies in these areas, due to the scale of problems a nation of 1.3 billion people.