BENGALURU: Eight Indian based venture capitalists and funding agencies have joined the United Nations India-NITI Ayog Investor Consortium for Women Entrepreneurs, a platform that supports prospective and present women entrepreneurs in the country.The consortium is an outcome of the UN India Business Forum (UNIBF) CEO Roundtable held in collaboration with NITI Ayog in Bengaluru on Thursday. Addressing the media after the Roundtable, Yuri Afanasiev, UN Resident Coordinator said that Seed Fund, SIDBI, Aavishkar, Omidyar Network, Ankur Capital, Trust Group, WeHub and Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs India have come forward to invest on struggling women entrepreneurs and to push sustainable development growth (SDG). UNIBF’s Roundtable was on the theme SDG.Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) was launched in March on the occasion of Women’s Day, but the consortium to enable the platform was created at the CEO Roundtable. “The platform will identify beneficiaries and provide them mentoring and networking opportunities, accelerate financial and market linkage and showcase success stories,” Yuri said.On the capital investment front, Yuri said the consortium has not arrived at a decision on the capital amount set aside for the purpose. “It depends on the demand. We are hoping that more number of venture capitalists will join the consortium in future,” he said, adding that the researches on women entrepreneurs have shown that their need is not finance, but assistance and exposure in various levels.States and Centre too are expected to play a critical role for the success of this initiative.