Hardeep Singh
Women remain the world’s most underappreciated resource, with the potential to change the world if given the chance. The goal of Leap.club is to accelerate the process and ensure that the world has a sufficient number of female leaders. The groundbreaking programme believes that providing women with a high-value support network as well as the resources they need to study and advance in their careers will spark a revolution.
The wage gap between men and women is well documented: women earn approximately 80 cents for every dollar earned by males. The gender investment gap is a lesser-known issue. Our research shows that when women pitch their business ideas to investors for early-stage finance, they receive much less than men—a gap of more than $1 million. Nonetheless, women-founded businesses make more income than men-founded businesses—more than twice as much per dollar invested—making women-owned businesses better assets for investors.
As India’s economy grows, there are calls for the government to prioritise social and human development, notably women’s empowerment. This study defines women’s empowerment as “advocating for women’s and girls’ human rights, opposing discriminatory behaviour, and questioning the roles and stereotypes that promote injustice and exclusion.” Women’s empowerment is crucial for achieving gender equality, which entails equal authority and opportunities for men and women in areas such as education, healthcare, economic participation, and personal development.
Enzia Ventures, Kunal Shah, and its users invested $810,000 in Gurugram-based leap.club, a community-led professional network for women. Existing investors include Whiteboard Capital, Titan Capital, and Artha India Ventures. Thirteen members of the early community participated in this round, making leap.club one of the few companies who generate funds from their customers. It had earlier raised $380,000 as part of its seed round in July 2020. According to Enzia Ventures Partner Namita Dalmiya, the cap table of leap.club contains 24 female angel investors.
There is clearly a desire for establishments that promote women’s networking in terms of style, requirements, and aspirations. According to the study, not all networks are created equal, and those with focus and quality outperform those that are just vast. The founders of leap.club want to build a professional networking platform for women that prioritises quality and attentiveness. In less than a year, they’ve demonstrated exceptional product-market fit and a laser focus on providing a quality experience for their members. This startup’s founders are delighted to collaborate with them on their mission of motivating women to network, learn, and lead so that they can reach their full potential.
Leap.club has gathered almost 3,000 members since its launch in May 2020. On the site, members can create or join micro-communities and book executive coaching sessions, resulting in hundreds of new contacts. The site hosts three to four moderated lectures and skill-sharpening workshops with industry specialists three to four times per month. In the past, Shaheen Mistri, Mukesh Bansal, Kunal Bahl, Mohit Bhatnagar, and Abanti Sankaranarayanan all talked. After noticing a difference in the amount of women in leadership roles in the workplace and how traditional professional networks are in decline, Ragini Das and Anand Sinha launched leap.club.
Arcana Network, a blockchain startup based in Bengaluru, revealed on Wednesday that it has raised $2.3 million in funding from leading blockchain investors.
Among the round’s investors were Republic Crypto and Woodstock Fund, as well as Digital Currency Group (DCG), Hyperedge, Sahil Lavingia’s shl.vc, Fenbushi Capital, LD Capital, and Paradigm Shift VC. This round was raised in a fraction of the time it took to raise the seed round.
Ganesh Swami, CEO of Covalent, Ajeet Khurana of Builders Tribe, Nishal Shetty of WazirX, Ajit Tripathi of Aave, and Arcana’s seed investors, AU21 and Arcanum Capital, were also present.
Since its debut in May 2020, over 3,000 people have joined Leap.club. Thousands of new connections have been created, and users can utilise the site to organise executive coaching sessions, as well as to create or join micro-communities. The platform hosts three to four moderated debates and skill-building workshops with industry leaders three to four times per month. It has already been discussed by Shaheen Mistri, Mukesh Bansal, Kunal Bahl, Mohit Bhatnagar, and Abanti Sankaranarayanan.
Former Zomato executives Ragini Das and Anand Sinha established leap.club after noting a difference in the number of women in leadership roles in the workplace and how existing professional networks aren’t addressing this issue.
Without focusing on grassroots measures done by the government and civil society organisations, India’s narrative on women’s empowerment would be incomplete. New strategies, policies, and programmes have been devised by the federal and state governments to empower both urban and rural women. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter), Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (a scheme to provide gas connections to women from low-income households), and Mahila-E-Haat are some of the primary programmes introduced by the Narendra Modi government to promote gender equality.
