Hyderabad, Mar 3 (IANS): WE Hub, India's first and only state-led incubator by the government of Telangana to foster and promote women entrepreneurship to start-up, scale-up and accelerate with global market access, on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Meesho, an Indian-origin social commerce platform.

This year-long partnership aims to aid women entrepreneurs from Telangana to achieve financial independence by providing market exposure.

The MoU was inked between Deepthi Ravula, CEO of WE Hub, and Vidit Aatrey, Founder and CEO of Meesho in the presence of Women and Child Welfare Minister Satyavati Rathod.

WE Hub and Meesho said they will work together to provide robust market access to women-led businesses in the state, helping small businesses to grow and thrive in the post-pandemic environment.

The entrepreneurs will register as suppliers on the Meesho platform which enables them to sell their wide range of products on a national e-commerce platform.

WE Hub and other startups from the Telangana startup ecosystem will be able to leverage this partnership and expand their markets in India. It will benefit in the form of seamless onboarding, free cataloguing, and market access on a national platform which will create avenues to increase business and trade opportunities.

"When women succeed, everyone benefits. There is no tool more effective for women than their economic development. I am truly heartened to see We-Hub and Meesho coming together to help the women of Telangana realise their economic, social and financial goals," said Satyavathi Rathod.

She said this will be a pathbreaking partnership for the state of Telangana that will enable women to use the power of technology for creating their own identity, and will in turn help us take a big step forward towards diversity and financial inclusion

"It is great to see unicorns like Meesho join hands with WE Hub, Government of Telangana in enabling small business entrepreneurs. We believe this partnership would benefit many women entrepreneurs across the socio economic strata of Telangana by making best use of these platforms, WE Hub is bringing into in Telangana," said Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT, Electronics and Commerce.

Vidit Aatrey said they were hopeful of creating a vibrant, diverse and inclusive ecosystem for women-led micro businesses in the state.

"Small women led businesses have always been left behind due to the digital divide that exists. Through our new partnership with Meesho, small businesses in Telangana will learn about taking the next step in expanding their markets and converting their customer base and sales in entirely new ways," said Deepthi Ravula.

WE HUB through this partnership also aims to promote homepreneurs by providing digital and financial literacy training to the women registered as homepreneurs on the Meesho platform. This effort will enable them to achieve financial independence.