Edelweiss MF’s CEO Radhika Gupta has strongly criticised GSF Accelerator, a platform for Indian startups, over its upcoming founders-investors conference scheduled at Shangri-La Bengaluru due to its exclusively male panel of 40 speakers. The event has sparked a vigorous debate on gender representation within the startup ecosystem online following Gupta’s post on X (formerly Twitter).
The controversy erupted when GSF Accelerator posted a promotional image on X showcasing the panellists, declaring them as "150 Rockstars of The Startup Ecosystem. 75 investors (Stock Market Maestros, VCs, Seed funds, and angels) + 75 founders (From Seed to IPO) are the audience for 40 esteemed speakers/Presenters."
The image in the post showed 40 men without any female representation among them, prompting widespread backlash and discussions on diversity and inclusion in such forums.
Edelweiss MF’s CEO expressed her disappointment. In a tweet, she wrote, "Sorry to call this out, but at a time when women are doing much awesome stuff in start ups and in investing, when the government talks women led development … not one female face? #Manel.”
Several X users related to Gupta’s thoughts and came forward to share their take in the comment box. One X user wrote, “Do not be sorry, especially when calling out the blatant lack of diversity in an all-male panel of speakers. It's crucial to hold organisers accountable and demand inclusive representation. This is utterly shameful!”
“In all startup events - ratio at best is 98-2. Reason I see is India doesn’t have support for risk capital. Since men have been in earning position more - they are able to garner some risk capital. At All Bharat AI Association some women have taken initiative to challenge this,” added another user.
A third user wrote, “Looks like now they have just given up even the hypocrisy of having a token name in their boy clubs.”
GSF Accelerator has yet to respond to the raised concern.
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