Women in business: Expectations from 2022

The Tech Panda asked several women business entrepreneurs their hopes from 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic was detrimental for the business community the world over. However, women business entrepreneurs suffered even more, pushing them towards less risk taking behaviour.

Read more: Women in tech: Pushing against the glass ceiling

According to studies, restrictions such as financial losses, loss of labour forces and brand values, in combination with death of loved ones and the onus of coping with family matters during the pandemic have disproportionately affected Indian women. Burdens of home and the market have caused damage to women entrepreneurs the most.

Small-scale women workers in trading, tailoring, dressmaking and shop keeping, as well as women working in beauty parlors, as receptionists, in daily wage work, and in the service sectors were acutely impacted by COVID-19

Studies have shown that between March and April 2020, when the pandemic lockdown was at the worst, approximately 17-19.3 million women became unemployed. Women unemployment increased 13% higher than that of their male employees.

Read more: Women in business: Challenges in the modern world of business

We need women to succeed because successful women make sense for any country’s economy. Just look at the thriving economies and how their women are faring. A NITI Ayog’s report pointed out that “if India is able to address gender inequality – we could add about $770 Billion to the GDP or about 18% more than the usual scenario.”

While 2022 begins with new hope, what does the Indian woman entrepreneur expect? Will new opportunities and support shape her journey towards success?

The Tech Panda asked several women business entrepreneurs their hopes from the year ahead.

Srividya Kannan, Founder & CEO, Avaali Solutions

“We expect 2022 to be a better year than 2021 for all businesses. As the pandemic comes to a semblance of routine and companies continue to build immense trust in digital, I think 2022 will be a year full of opportunities to deliver excellent outcomes for our customers via sensible initiatives.

As the pandemic comes to a semblance of routine and companies continue to build immense trust in digital, I think 2022 will be a year full of opportunities

“We’re looking forward to building numerous innovations on Velocious SRM (our solution for procurement and supply chain) and investing in solutions like process mining and shared service automation.”

Niranjana Neelakantan, Co-founder & COO, TESSOL

“I expect to get back into normalcy, personally and professionally in 2022. With the world reopening and learning to live with COVID, we are also seeing things stabilize for businesses. The sentiment is very positive, and we are very bullish about the business as well.

In the last two years, we were forced to think differently and reorganize our lives and businesses. This has given us new perspectives and has enabled us to prioritize in ways we had never done before. I am now excited to apply these learnings as we move forward

“At the production and operations side also, we see not just our operations but those at vendors and customers also returning to normal, which gives everyone a sense of hope and stability.

“In the last two years, we were forced to think differently and reorganize our lives and businesses. We have had some great learnings in the process. It has helped us understand ourselves and our businesses better. This has given us new perspectives and has enabled us to prioritize in ways we had never done before. I am now excited to apply these learnings as we move forward.”

Tarusha Mittal, COO & Co-founder, UniFarm 

I would like to see more innovative projects enter the Web 3.0 space and revolutionise the Defi industry with women spearheading the path to innovation

“I expect that 2022 will be as eventful a year for the Defi industry as it was in 2021. I would like to see more innovative projects enter the Web 3.0 space and revolutionise the Defi industry with women spearheading the path to innovation.”

Aishwarya Shivakumar, CEO, Oddz Finance

“We expect 2022 to be the year of more women entrepreneurs entering the blockchain community and breaking more barriers in the finance and technology industries. As crypto becomes mainstream, it is necessary that we include a diverse perspective to it. Last year, India attracted crypto funding and blockchain investments worth $638 million and we all are hoping to observe even bigger numbers this year.

We expect 2022 to be the year of more women entrepreneurs entering the blockchain community and breaking more barriers in the finance and technology industries

“With the global technology landscape evolving as new technologies such as Virtual Reality, Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence, etc., are moving towards mass adoption, we hope to see inclusive growth and more innovative solutions aimed at solving real-world problems. With Oddz Finance as well, we hope to increase accessibility and interoperability for a seamless experience for our users and aim to protect their wealth through customizable and secure financial offerings.”

Shweta Kataria, Co-founder & Chief Product Officer, GENLEAP

“We are slowly getting closer to reaching some normalcy of the pre-COVID world, equipped with more resilience, innovation, and skill-sets of the future. I am positive that 2022 is going to see further transformations in workplaces, occupational designs and skilling requirements.

I am also positive that more women will realise their optimal potential and we will see larger representation of women as managers and leaders, especially in the tech space

“We will see newer approaches to career management where understanding one’s inherent talents will be imperative to up-skilling and re-skilling. I am also positive that more women will realise their optimal potential and we will see larger representation of women as managers and leaders, especially in the tech space.”

Neha Suyal, Co-founder, Woovly

“In 2022, we are looking to a grow number of D2C brands by 400% and expand to 4 categories to bring lifestyle products to our users. We aim to reach out to customers in their own language i.e., vernacular languages. It is our target to capture 15% of the US$100 billion social commerce market in the next 5 years and 2022 is going to set the tone to reach this target.

Through the Woovly Creator Academy we hope to train more young girls across Tier II and Tier III cities so that they can prepare and shoot video content

“Through the Woovly Creator Academy we hope to train more young girls across Tier II and Tier III cities so that they can prepare and shoot video content. When they create content and build their community as micro and nano influencers, they get the opportunity to earn a livelihood or supplement their income through incentives on our platform.”