Mumbai, Maharashtra, India:  HDFC Bank on International Women’ Day announced the launch of SmartUp Unnati, a dedicated programme for mentoring women entrepreneurs by women leaders at the bank. As a part of the programme, over the next one year, senior women leaders from HDFC Bank with expertise spanning domains will mentor women entrepreneurs in helping them achieve their goals. This programme is available only to existing customers and will initially target more than 3,000 women entrepreneurs associated with the Bank’s SmartUp programme.
 
“We firmly believe in providing ‘equal opportunity’ and have facilitated women’s empowerment over the years,” said Ms. Smita Bhagat, Country Head, Government & Institutional Business, E-commerce and Start-up Banking, HDFC Bank. “In the start-up ecosystem, women entrepreneurs are often faced with challenges unique to them. We believe HDFC Bank's SmartUp Unnati is the perfect platform for them to benefit from the experience of our women leaders. It will provide them access to mentorship, expand their vision, and enable them to scale up their businesses by widening their horizons. This is a programme by women for women.”
 
HDFC Bank had launched an online mentoring platform for banking start-ups in 2018 under its SmartUp Program. Under this programme, the bank is working with various state governments, incubators and accelerators to promote entrepreneurship. It recognises the challenge that entrepreneurs face be it accessing credit or formulating strategy in a dynamic business environment. Under SmartUp Unnati, senior women executive leaders’ will act as a sounding board for women entrepreneurs as they undertake building diverse and innovative businesses.