Globally and in India, the platform economy has emerged as a rapidly growing engine of employment. However, women are under-represented within this sector. The flexibility of platform work appeals to women balancing household and care responsibilities, but their participation remains constrained by gaps in skills and digital literacy, mobility and safety concerns, and restrictive social norms. A further constraint that receives comparatively little attention, yet profoundly limits women’s ability to enter, remain and advance in the platform economy is their systemic exclusion from formal financial services. Lacking verifiable income records and conventional collateral, women struggle to access the capital and financial security required to participate in this emerging economy.