FreeCharge ties up with IFC to promote women entrepreneurship

Digital payments platform FreeCharge today said it has partnered with International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of World Bank Group, to help women entrepreneurs sell their products on its parent Snapdeal's website.
The partnership will support startups and early-stage women entrepreneurs to join the e-commerce platform for the first time, a statement from Freecharge said.
FreeCharge and IFC will work together to promote women entrepreneurship and improve their financial access through technology and digital payments. The programme will also address their non-financial needs through skills and capacity building, the statement added.
"By enabling women entrepreneurs online, FreeCharge wants to promote the digital payments landscape. Offering financial products on the basis of seller digital transaction histories and digital footprints reduces manual intervention in providing access to finance to these sellers," said Govind Rajan, CEO of FreeCharge.

"Cashless transactions could pave the way for higher participation of women as entrepreneurs who typically shoulder multiple responsibilities and for whom time is always scarce.
"Digital payments could be the defining tool for their empowerment as contributors to India's growing online retail industry," said Andrew McCartney, Principal Operations Officer at IFC.
This partnership will also help develop a pilot to address the factors hindering women entrepreneurs from selling online and accepting digital payments, the statement added.