the^delta prize launches ₹5.25 crore national challenge to power local foodpreneurs and advance India's women-led development goals
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 21: the^delta prize has launched the aahaar bazaar challenge, a ₹5.25 crore nationwide incentive competition to unlock the potential of India's home-based women food entrepreneurs and help them grow thriving, revenue-generating businesses by tapping into local and regional market demand. The challenge is granted by State Street Foundation, the philanthropic arm of State Street Corporation.
This mission aligns closely with India's national priorities on women-led development, particularly the government's Lakhpati Didi initiative, the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises (PMFME) scheme, and efforts under Digital India and Skill India. Together, these aim to strengthen the economic agency of women, especially in rural and low-income urban communities.
India's packaged food market is expected to grow from USD 2.8 billion in 2023 to USD 6.4 billion by 2029, driven by consumer appetite for healthier, artisanal, and locally rooted products. Yet, despite producing high-quality, regionally significant food products from their homes, most women entrepreneurs remain locked into subsistence-level operations, often earning less than ₹4,000 a month and selling only within a 2 km radius. Over 90% of women-owned businesses in India generate under ₹10 lakh annually, keeping them outside the fold of even 'micro' enterprises by formal standards.
The aahaar bazaar challenge, spanning over 18 months, seeks to change this by identifying and backing scalable, technology-first solutions that empower home-based women foodpreneurs to improve business readiness, achieve compliance, upgrade packaging, increase digital visibility, and access new customer segments across local and regional markets.
"There's already a strong entrepreneurial spirit among many women in India, and these women are not waiting to be empowered," said Kanishka Chatterjee, Managing Director of the^delta prize. "The problem is not aspiration; it's access. These women are running viable businesses from their kitchens. With this challenge, we're creating conditions for recognition, revenue, and resilience by enabling them to move from invisibility to economic inclusion, while fueling India's broader vision of women-led development."
The challenge offers a total prize purse of ₹5.25 crore to reward impactful tech models that can unlock income growth and long-term business viability for thousands of home-based women food entrepreneurs.
"At State Street Foundation, we believe that access, when coupled with the right tools, networks, and know-how, can shift the trajectory of livelihoods for home-based women entrepreneurs in India. Our grant support to the^delta prize on the aahaar bazaar challenge is rooted in that belief. By backing solutions that expand market access and enable sustained revenue growth, we aim to support thousands of these women 'foodpreneurs' to move from the margins to meaningful economic inclusion, on their own terms, and at scale," said Joan Christel, President, State Street Foundation.
Beyond financial rewards, the aahaar bazaar challenge provides access to a powerful support ecosystem including ACT Grants, Acumen, IIMA Ventures, Villgro, RangDe, Mann Deshi, GAME, Frontier Markets, PRADAN, LEAD at Krea University, Nasscom Foundation, The Udaiti Foundation, Udyogini, Sauramandala Foundation, Aapti Institute, i-Saksham, iSPIRT, Project Potential, Navgurukul, deAsra, and The/Nudge Institute.
The challenge is also guided by a distinguished advisory council comprising Chetna Gala Sinha, Founder of Mann Deshi Foundation, Gayathri Vasudevan, Chairperson of LabourNet, Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-founder of TeamLease, and Sharad Sharma, Co-founder of iSPIRT Foundation.
Participants will also benefit from mentorship by Dhiren Kanwar, Founder of Zaad Ventures, a veteran in the retail and food innovation space, who will guide scale-up and branding strategies.
Applications are now open to solution providers across domains such as food-based marketplaces, packaging, retail intelligence, logistics, compliance tech, and small business services.
To learn more and apply, visit: https://thedelta.org.in/prize-page/
About the^delta
the^delta enables entrepreneurs to create social impact at scale. Through our incubator, accelerator and grand challenges, we provide capital, mentorship and ecosystem support to early-stage, livelihoods-focused, impact-first entrepreneurs.
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