- Thursday, April 18, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
NEYTHRI, a global community of South Asian professional women which works towards building a pipeline for the women from the region to bag leadership roles, announced last week two fresh initiatives at a virtual event – Neythri Circles and Neythri Hub, a new digital platform on which members from across the world can connect and collaborate with each other.
Neythri, which was founded in March last year by Indian-American business leaders Mythili Sankaran, Chitra Nayak and Sruthi Ramaswami, has emerged fast to become the world’s largest platform for South Asian professional women with over 1,800 members in more than 14 nations.
Sankaran, who is also the chief executive of Neythri besides being one of its co-founders, said she noticed a lack of role models for the South Asian women but a growing energy around what they are accomplishing.
“During the pandemic, women really came together in ways we probably couldn’t have otherwise,” Sankaran, who is also an active angel investor and a member of several women-led investor networks that back women entrepreneurs, said during a virtual interaction with Neythri on August 5. “We wanted to create a group of women who could support one another,” she said.
“The common cultural context of the South Asian experience, regardless of where in the world you live, is opening up conversations among a community of women traditionally quite conservative in asserting themselves and networking,” she added.
Nayak, who has worked as the chief operating officer for a number of companies in San Francisco Bay Area and serves on several boards, told India-West publication, “As a leader at Salesforce during the years from 2007-2015, I found that women were often in quest of ways to make themselves heard in the aggressive, male-dominated environment that is often found in tech companies.”
Nayak also told India-West that Neythri looks to bridge the gender divide for South Asian women. She also said there is a sizable gender gap in business leadership roles, particularly for women of color. Sharing data from a Morningstar report that came out recently, she said that in the highest ranks of corporate America, the number of male executives is seven times that of females.
Ramaswami, a technology growth equity investor at ICONIQ Capital, said she eyed a cross-generational community from whom she could draw inspiration and make long-term connections.
Neythri has set up a $7-million venture capital fund to support start-ups led by South Asian women.
