With Mastercard’s support, She Leads Bharat:Udyam scales to 100,000 women entrepreneurs, setting sights on one million by 2030
October 6, 2025 | Mumbai, India
She Leads Bharat:Udyam (SLB:U), a Mastercard Strive initiative supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (CFIG) and implemented by Frontier Markets in collaboration with Airtel Payments Bank, has reached a landmark milestone of empowering 100,000 women entrepreneurs across India. Aimed at empowering women in rural belts, the program has diversified revenue and unlocked income growth for women-owned small businesses, as well as expanded access to essential products and services.
Through the 'Meri Saheli' digital platform set up under the initiative, women entrepreneurs can sell products, such as agri inputs and consumer durables through assisted commerce, facilitate financial services at the last mile as a bank correspondent and collect data on rural communities.
Gautam Aggarwal, Division President, South Asia at Mastercard, said, “At Mastercard, we’ve always believed that inclusive growth must be both scalable and sustainable. Through this program, we’re equipping women entrepreneurs with the resources, networks, and financial tools they need to build thriving businesses and resilient communities. Reaching the milestone of 100,000 women-led enterprises is a powerful testament to the program’s impact. We remain deeply committed to expanding such initiatives that strengthen India’s economic and social fabric.”
Building on this milestone, SLB:U continues to scale and expand, growing from two to five states, with Andhra Pradesh as the latest addition. The program is transitioning into a self-sustaining model, with reduced reliance on philanthropic funding as the number of products and services offered through the program increases, establishing a market-driven approach for long-term growth. Additionally, women entrepreneurs can now access working capital through returnable grants and bank financing, helping them build formal credit histories.
Subhashini Chandran, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, said, “She Leads Bharat:Udyam demonstrates that when women are given the tools, networks and financing they need, they build strong businesses and stronger communities. The program shows that entrepreneurship can be a powerful driver of income and opportunity, especially in underserved areas. At CFIG, we work to build ecosystems that expand these opportunities into long-term engines of inclusive economic growth.”
Looking ahead, SLB:U aims to empower one million women entrepreneurs by 2030, advancing financial inclusion and creating resilient, sustainable communities across rural India. The program’s success can be attributed to the unique partnership between corporations, financial institutions and grassroots organizations. The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth played a catalytic role in connecting these partners, helping create the conditions for scale and long-term sustainability.
Ajaita Shah, Founder and CEO, Frontier Markets, said, “Reaching 100,000 women entrepreneurs across five states is a powerful demonstration of what’s possible when multisectoral partners come together with a shared vision. With Mastercard’s catalytic support and Frontier Markets’ deep rural reach, we’re building a sustainable ecosystem that not only expands income and opportunity for women but also accelerates their integration into formal credit and commerce. This milestone lays a strong foundation to scaling this model to empower many more women across rural India.”
Mastercard Strive in India is working towards its goal of enabling 500,000 small businesses to participate in the digital economy by 2026. Globally, Mastercard Strive has supported over 19 million small businesses worldwide since 2020 by facilitating access to capital, digital tools and knowledge networks.
About She Leads Bharat (www.sheleadsbharat.org)
She Leads Bharat was launched by Frontier Markets in January 2023 as an ambitious rural shared action initiative with the goal to onboard 1 million women entrepreneurs as Saheli’s and serve 100 million Indian rural households by 2030. She Leads Bharat has identified 3 key market domains: Financial inclusion, Inclusive Climate Solutions, and Inclusive Health & Wellbeing. She Leads Bharat:Udyam is the first domain to launch officially with the launch of She Leads Bharat Inclusive Climate Solutions expected to launch at COP’28 in November of this year.
About the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth
The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. The Center leverages the company’s core assets and competencies, including data insights, expertise, and technology, while administering the philanthropic Mastercard Impact Fund, to produce independent research, scale global programs, and empower a community of thinkers, leaders, and doers on the front lines of inclusive growth.
For more information and to receive its latest insights, follow the Center on LinkedIn, Instagram and subscribe to its newsletter. www.mastercardcenter.org
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.
