designed to accelerate professional growth across the entire lifecycle of women’s careers. This initiative marks a significant milestone in HerKey’s mission to build a vibrant career community for women professionals, where meaningful connections, expert guidance, and role-model support intersect to power sustained advancement in the workplace and beyond.

Since its beginning (formerly as JobsForHer) in 2015, HerKey has been focused on elevating women’s participation and progress in the workforce. According to recent data, women account for approximately 20% of India’s formal workforce participation, a gap that persists despite growing demand for diverse talent. At the same time, companies are now recognising the value of tapping into under-utilised talent pools, including women returning from career breaks or seeking new growth paths.

Mentorship at Scale: A New Chapter for Growth
HerKey’s newly launched network brings together over 200,000 curated mentors, sector specialists, senior practitioners and coaches drawn from its existing ecosystem of 5 million+ women members and 20,000+ companies. Through this network, every platform member can be matched with mentors based on domain expertise, career stage, aspirations, and individual context, whether early-career starters, women returning to work, or those seeking senior leadership roles.

By leveraging AI-powered matching, custom mentorship tracks, peer support groups, and live community forums, HerKey addresses critical barriers many women face: limited access to informal networks, lack of visibility into hidden opportunities, and the challenge of finding a trusted guide to navigate complex career inflexion points. This direct investment in mentorship complements HerKey’s broader offerings, including job opportunities, upskilling programmes, and community interaction to form a truly integrated women-jobs ecosystem.

Why Mentorship Matters - Evidence-based Insight
Research consistently shows that having a mentor increases career outcomes: individuals with mentors are more likely to change jobs, experience faster promotions, and report higher levels of job satisfaction. In particular, for women professionals, accessing sponsorship and mentorship can reduce attrition after re-entry, close pay gaps, and advance representation into managerial roles. HerKey’s network is built on this evidence: tailored mentor-mentee relationships, periodic check-ins and actionable growth milestones to ensure measurable impact.

For example, women returning to work after a career break represent a vast, yet underserved, talent segment in India and globally. HerKey’s previous research highlighted that organisations that embrace structured mentorship and return-ship programs achieve higher retention, greater productivity, and more diverse leadership pipelines. Given the scale of the new mentorship network, HerKey aims to enable thousands of women in the early months of the restart to feel confident, supported, and forward-moving within 6 to 9 months.

Platform Highlights & Mentorship Features
Match-making engine: Intelligent pairing of mentors and mentees based on role, industry, preferred working model, ambition and life stage, enabling relevant conversations from day one.
Structured Mentee Tracks: Designed paths for “Starters” (first job seekers), “Restarters” (returning professionals) and “Risers” (mid-career or leadership aspirants) to reflect the full spectrum of what HerKey defines as a holistic career community for women professionals.

Live Mentor Clinics & Cohorts: Regular virtual group sessions where mentors share real-world experiences, host Q&A, provide peer feedback and help set actionable goals.

Community Hubs: Topic-based groups (e.g., tech returnees, women in finance, hybrid working mothers) enabling peer-to-peer support and cross-industry learning.

Outcome Tracking: Dashboard for mentees and mentors to track goals, key results and progress on key metrics such as job placement, promotion, skill acquisition and network expansion.

Industry and Employer Response
With more than 20,000 companies already partnered with HerKey, the expanded mentorship network provides organisations with access not only to diverse talent pipelines but to a ready ecosystem of accelerated women professionals. According to a recent HerKey press mention, the platform now supports over 5 million women members and has matched them with corporate opportunities. Employers benefit by aligning with a high-quality engagement program that advances retention and helps build inclusive leadership.

Speaking on the appointment of a new growth leader in March 2025, HerKey noted the importance of scaling user engagement, skill-building and professional community development. The mentorship network directly aligns with that priority, creating a retention-rich environment for women professionals to thrive.

Founder’s Perspective
Neha Bagaria, Founder & CEO of HerKey, commented:
“We have always believed that career opportunity is only one side of the puzzle. What happens after a job match, a return, or a promotion is equally critical. With this new mentorship network, we are bringing together industry expertise, community wisdom and structural support to enable women professionals to rise on their own terms.”

She emphasised that the network is designed to complement and amplify the existing job and learning infrastructure on HerKey, offering members real human connection, strategic guidance and long-term career investment.

Impact & Reach
HerKey reports that participation in community-led mentorship cohorts correlates with a 30% higher job placement rate and a 25% higher retention rate after one year (internal platform data). The platform expects the new mentorship initiative to accelerate these outcomes, targeting an expanded mentor:mentee ratio of 1:20 by year-end and broadening the geographic reach beyond major metros into Tier 2 and 3 cities.

In addition to individual outcomes, the scaled network aims to contribute to wider socio-economic goals: raising women’s workforce participation, closing leadership gaps, and enabling inclusive growth across sectors. Mentoring programmes reduce intangible career friction and help convert latent qualifications into realised contributions.

About HerKey
HerKey (formerly JobsForHer) is India’s career engagement platform that supports women at different career stages, including Starters, Restarters, and Risers. The platform leverages AI-driven matching, expert-curated upskilling programmes, a rich professional network, and employer partnerships to help women discover meaningful opportunities, develop core skills, and accelerate their careers.

Media Contact
HerKey
Jasma Bhavan Road
Govinda Chetty Colony
Swamy Shivanandapuram
Vasanth Nagar, Bengaluru - 560052
Karnataka, India
Phone: 09741 065202
Email: [email protected]