Australia-India Partnership to Support International Expansion of Female Cyber Entrepreneurs

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 15 September 2022

A new Australia-India exchange programme promises to assist Australian women company owners in growing their enterprises in India. These women use vital and cyber technology.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and the Government of Telangana, India, fund the CyberTech Women Entrepreneur initiative, which is operated by accelerator inQ Innovation Global and the female start-up incubator Women Entrepreneur Hub (WEHub).

In the WEHub campus in Hyderabad, India, six Australian women will be housed, and inQ Innovation will host six Indian women at the Sydney Startup Hub. To assist them pitch to investors, the six-week programme includes workshops and one-on-one mentorship. The deadline for applications is September 30, 2022.

Women who work in the fields of artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, next-generation telecommunications, internet of things, synthetic biology, genomics, and genetic engineering, as well as autonomous vehicles, drones, swarming and collaborative robotics, big data, and low emission alternative fuels, have submitted entries.

Australia and India "have a crucial role to play"

Following the conclusion of a free trade agreement between Australia and India earlier this year, the exchange programme is a continuation of continuing efforts by Australia and India to collaborate more closely on technological concerns.

The exchange programme is supported by the $12.7 million Australia-India Bilateral Cyber and Critical Technology Partnership (AICCTP) initiative, which acknowledges that Australia and India "have a key role to play in contributing to the global development of critical and emerging technologies" like artificial intelligence, next-generation telecommunications (such as 5G and 6G), the Internet of Things, quantum computing, synthetic biology, blockchain, and big data.

Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCL, and Australia's CyberCX were among the companies present at the inaugural meeting of an Australia-India Joint Working Group on Information Communications Technologies in Canberra in July of this year. The panel explored network security innovation and common challenges.

One of such important markets is India.

Melissa Wong, the co-founder of the marketing intelligence start-up Silfra, is one of the applicants for the CyberTech Women Entrepreneur programme.

Knowing that there is assistance there is what drew me to this programme, said Wong. We have access to some truly amazing companies and sponsors who support female founders, and it is a fantastic chance for us to learn as well as create opportunities to network.

“I love the fact that it is a six-week immersive program,” she added, “I think as a start-up founder there’s a lot that I don’t know so it’s a new journey for me.”

Wong recognised value in the partnership's provision of access to "outstanding professionals in Australia as well as India. India is one of those important markets when it comes to finding solutions to global issues, therefore this chance is valuable.

The challenges I'm trying to solve have great prospects around the world, and I'd want to make lifelong friends by meeting other amazing women in India who are also starting down a similar path, said Wong.

According to PwC, women represent fewer than 25% of the critical technology and cybersecurity workforce in Australia.

To assist female start-ups in getting access to capital and expanding into domestic and international markets, the Australian Government's Boosting Female Founders Initiative 2020 distributed $63.8 million in grants.

The Federal Government's Future Female Entrepreneurs Program, the NSW Government's Female Founder Connect Pilot initiative, and the Federal Government's Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship awards programme are among the other initiatives aimed at assisting Australian women entrepreneurs.