SEPTEMBER 22, 2025: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Management Lucknow Enterprise Incubation Centre have been chosen as new academic partners to provide women entrepreneurs with the skills and knowledge they need to grow their businesses under a major expansion of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, a global initiative that fosters economic growth by providing women entrepreneurs with business education, networking, and access to capital.
Together with existing academic partner Indian Institute of Management Bangalore - NSRCEL, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women aims to graduate 1,000 women entrepreneurs in India over the next year and grow its current overall intake of about 3,800 women entrepreneurs to 10,000 by 2033. This expansion seeks to unlock the potential of women entrepreneurs to drive India’s growth story and directly supports the nation's “Viksit Bharat 2047” vision for a developed India.
Sonjoy Chatterjee, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs’ business in India, said: “We are doubling our commitment to women entrepreneurs in India. Widening our partnership with India’s premier business schools will drive a powerful combination of education, mentorship, and networks for these entrepreneurs. They will become pillars of India's growth.”
Professor Bharat Bhasker, Director of IIM Ahmedabad, said, “IIM Ahmedabad has been a torchbearer of entrepreneurship development in India. Our robust entrepreneurial ecosystem spans from campus to the national level, supporting ambitious founders at every stage of their journey. This collaboration with Goldman Sachs helps address the critical structural barriers that women entrepreneurs face, particularly in accessing capital and professional networks. By combining our academic expertise with the global reach of the initiative, we can further bolster an ecosystem of women entrepreneurs to foster innovation, drive growth, and empower women to scale their businesses and become leaders in the Indian economy. Together, we aim to shape a future where women thrive as key contributors to the economy.”
Professor M. P. Gupta, Director of IIM Lucknow, said: “Promoting female entrepreneurship in India is not just about breaking down barriers but creating a ripple effect that inspires entrepreneurs for generations to come, bolstering the impact and contribution women can have to the economy while driving positive change in society. The association between IIM Lucknow Enterprise Incubation Centre and Goldman Sachs is committed to boosting women entrepreneurship through this uniquely targeted initiative. The initiative will contribute to dismantling barriers and establishing a supportive ecosystem where women-led ventures can flourish, scale and inspire.”
Goldman Sachs’ “India Womenomics” research highlights that over the next two decades; India is uniquely positioned to benefit from favourable demographics. To capitalize on this, the country needs to create employment opportunities for women and increase their overall labour force participation rate, which remains below other major developed and emerging economies.
The 10,000 Women program has a proven track record of creating a significant economic impact. In India, graduates of the program have on average, quadrupled their revenues and doubled their workforce shortly after completion. Collectively, graduates have already created more than 12,000 new jobs and added billions of rupees in revenue to the Indian economy. Furthermore, an overwhelming majority of participants adapt their businesses effectively in response to external disruptions, and nine out of ten create a multiplying effect by mentoring other women entrepreneurs and creating employment opportunities for other women.
About Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs is a leading global financial institution that delivers a broad range of financial services to a large and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals. Founded in 1869, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in all major financial centres around the world. In India, Goldman Sachs operates from offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
About Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women in India
Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women is an ongoing initiative to foster economic growth by providing women entrepreneurs around the world with a business and management education, mentoring and networking, and access to capital. Since the launch in 2008, the program has reached more than 320,000 women entrepreneurs in over 150 countries and unlocked more than US$3.1 billion in investments for women in emerging markets, in partnership with International Finance Corporation to date. The program was informed by Goldman Sachs research showing that investing in education for women could narrow persistent gender gaps. In India, the in-person classroom program is delivered in partnerships with three institutions – IIM Ahmedabad EIC, IIM Lucknow, and IIM Bangalore NSRCEL. In 2018, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women was made available online worldwide through Coursera, further democratizing access to a business education in more corners of the world. The program curriculum is available in both English and Hindi languages.
About IIM Ahmedabad
The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) is a premier global management Institute that is at the forefront of promoting excellence in the field of management education. In more than six decades of its existence, the Institute has been acknowledged for its exemplary contributions to scholarship, practice, and policy through its distinctive teaching, high-quality research, nurturing future leaders, supporting industry, government, social enterprise, and creating a progressive impact on society.
IIMA was founded as an innovative initiative by the Government, industry, and international academia in 1961. Since then, it has been consolidating its global footprint, and today it has an international campus in Dubai and a network with over 80 top international institutions. Its eminent faculty members and around 46,000 alumni, who are at the helm of influential positions in all walks of life, also contribute to its global recognition. Over the years, IIMA’s academically superior, market-driven, and socially impactful programmes have earned a high reputation and acclaim globally.
To know more about the Institute, please visit: https://www.iima.ac.in/
About IIM Lucknow Enterprise Incubation Centre
IIM Lucknow Enterprise Incubation Centre (IIML EIC) is one of the leading business incubators, serving as the innovation and entrepreneurship arm of India's one of the most prestigious business institutes— Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. IIML EIC serves as a catalyst for entrepreneurship, and provides strategic guidance, mentoring, funding and resources to early-growth stage entrepreneurs for successful commercialization & scale up of technology/product together with the support from its host institute- IIM Lucknow, one of India's premier institutes of excellence in management education, offering education, research, and consultancy across sectors of the Indian economy. Guided by its vision to be a pre-eminent centre of excellence generating and imparting knowledge in management and providing socially conscious and globally relevant thought leadership.
Media Contacts:
Goldman Sachs
Mr. Shivaprasanna Hebbar| Shivaprasanna.Hebbar@gs.com | +91 9481132180
IIM Ahmedabad
Ms. Shivangi Bhatt| manager-comm@iima.ac.in |
Mr. Shivaprasanna Hebbar| pr@iima.ac.in | +91 9570664488
IIM Lucknow Enterprise Incubation Centre
Mr. Arunodaya Bajpai | eic_gs10kw@iiml.ac.in | +91 9545978916
