WE-RISE Programme Launched in Coimbatore to Support 50 Women Entrepreneurs

Chennai: Women’s World Banking (WWB), in partnership with PSG College of Arts & Science (PSGCAS) and with support from FICCI FLO, has launched WE-RISE – Women Entrepreneurs: Ready to Grow, Evolve for Tomorrow, a six-month programme aimed at helping women entrepreneurs in Coimbatore strengthen their businesses and improve access to formal finance.

The first cohort will include 50 women entrepreneurs and will cover enterprise incubation, mentoring, financial capability, credit-readiness and market linkages.

The programme will use workshops, online learning, business assessments and one-to-one mentoring to help participants improve business operations and financial records, prepare loan applications and connect with financial institutions, markets and business networks.

Follow-up support will focus on effective use of loans, cash-flow management and implementation of business growth plans.

According to Women’s World Banking, many women-led businesses remain small due to limited access to growth capital, mentoring and business development support. The organisation estimates, based on IFC and ASUSE data, that 2.7 million women-owned very small enterprises in India have an estimated unmet credit demand of ₹83,600 crore ($11.4 billion).

Kalpana Ajayan, Regional Head – South Asia, Women’s World Banking, said the programme seeks to help women-led businesses move beyond small loans towards growth capital and business development support.

Beyond supporting the 50 participants, WE-RISE will also document the challenges women entrepreneurs face in becoming credit-ready and examine institutional approaches that could help address those barriers.

The programme combines the expertise of WWB, PSGCAS and FICCI FLO in finance, entrepreneurship, academic incubation and business networks.