New Delhi: Women-Led AI Startups emerged as a central theme at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, where the AI By HER Global Impact Challenge brought together innovators, founders, researchers, policymakers, and ecosystem leaders to explore how inclusive and responsible artificial intelligence can drive public good and strengthen digital public infrastructure.
The programme showcased how Women-Led AI Startups are contributing to India’s AI ecosystem through solutions spanning healthcare, sustainability, education, security, and governance.
The AI By HER Global Impact Challenge, a flagship programme of the summit, featured panel discussions, startup showcases, and expert conversations focused on translating AI innovation into measurable societal outcomes.
The event demonstrated how Women-Led AI Startups are combining empathy-driven innovation, research-based problem solving, and scalable technology models to address real-world challenges.
The programme opened with the panel discussion Her First Algorithm: India’s Next Breakthrough, moderated by Ms Deepali Upadhyay, Programme Lead at the Atal Innovation Mission.
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Young innovators from Nagarjuna Model School, Dell Public School, and Adarsh Public School presented AI solutions addressing artisan livelihoods, grain storage inefficiencies, and chronic health conditions.
The session highlighted how institutional support systems are nurturing future pipelines for Women-Led AI Startups through school-level innovation programmes.
Another panel, From Lab to Lives: Turning Innovation into Impact, explored how research-driven AI can transition into deployable solutions.
Moderated by Meghna Bal, Director at the Esya Centre, the session featured Dr Anurag Agrawal of Ashoka University, Mr Hemendra Mathur of Bharat Innovation Fund, and Mr Ravindra Misra of OPL Innovate.
The discussion emphasized responsible data usage, sector-specific AI design, and Digital Public Infrastructure as key enablers for scaling Women-Led AI Startups across industries.
The session Rewriting the Startup Playbook: Not Despite. Because of HER. examined how women founders are building resilient enterprises.
Moderated by Rahul Matthan of Trilegal, the panel featured Kanika Tekriwal of JetSetGo Aviation Services, Rucha Nanavati of Mahindra & Mahindra, and Sarita Ahlawat of BotLab Dynamics.
The conversation highlighted how preparation, networks, and disciplined execution are helping Women-Led AI Startups scale across complex industries.
In Building Things to Transform: Breaking the Mould, moderated by Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog, panelists including Dr Sunita Maheshwari (The Telerad Group), Vidur Mahajan (CARPL.ai), and Dr Nagendra Nagaraja (QpiAI India Pvt Ltd) discussed infrastructure-level AI innovation.
The session underscored ecosystem collaboration and long-term conviction as critical to building scalable Women-Led AI Startups addressing systemic challenges.
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Startup Spotlight: Women-Led AI Innovation Across Sectors
Startup Spotlight sessions featured rapid pitches by Women-Led AI Startups developing solutions across education, biotechnology, manufacturing, cybersecurity, sustainability, and climate intelligence:
- Cognitii — AI platform for special-needs education
- Cellverse Pvt Ltd — AI-validated 3D bioprinted disease models
- BettrLab — AI-powered product development platform
- Secure Blink (NariRaksha.AI) — AI-driven application security platform
- Cratic AI — multilingual AI co-worker for factory floors
- Baeru — AI waste-intelligence platform for marine plastic recovery
- Arghyam — AI-enabled water governance solutions
- Trupreneurs.ai — AI platform for K-12 entrepreneurship learning
- Sychedelic — AI-enabled intelligent audio devices
- AquaAirX — AI-powered autonomous systems
- RoshniAI — voice-first AI learning companion
- ClipreAI — climate-intelligence platform for risk management
These presentations demonstrated how Women-Led AI Startups are expanding AI adoption across public-impact domains while aligning innovation with sustainability and inclusion goals.
WEP Announces Support Programme for Women-Led AI Startups
The summit concluded with From Access to Acceleration: How WEP Supports Women Founders, featuring Anna Roy, Mission Director of the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) at NITI Aayog.
“Our vision at WEP is empowerment—Shakti—where we enable behaviour change, provide access to the right knowledge at the right time, and support women entrepreneurs from aspiration through to scaling their enterprises,” said Ms Anna Roy.
She announced a capacity-building programme for 150 shortlisted Women-Led AI Startups, offering structured mentorship and ecosystem networking support.
The event concluded with the announcement of the Top 10 winners: Able Credit, Aso AI, Power Lifeline, Veryfi Technologies, Project Drives, Prosigo Language, Videos HR, That Creating, Water Ultra AR, and Zico AR — highlighting the growing national momentum behind Women-Led AI Startups building inclusive AI solutions for public good.
