Entrepreneurship is not an easy passion to follow. Many people come up with ideas in their heads but only a few rare souls are able to transform that particular idea into a full-fledged reality. In a country like India where people generally ask why a person needs to be an entrepreneur, a woman transforming an idea into reality is seen as a herculean task. Overcoming these adversities and more, these ten Indian women entrepreneurs have made their mark on the Indian market and definitely turned the stocks in their favour.
Upasana Taku, MobiKwik
Co-founder of one of the leading firms in digital payments, Upasana Taku, on noticing the glitches that occur during online payments, along with her partner, decided to form an interface which will allow easy financial transactions with the facility of adding money to a wallet.
Upasana has completed her B.tech in Industrial Engineering from NIT and an MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. She has a total of 12 years of professional experience and has become one of the leading women entrepreneurs in the country.
Apart from just simple money transactions, MobiKwik provides financial services including loan, accident insurance, life insurance, fire insurance, credit card bill payment, mutual funds, and DTH recharge.
Anisha Singh, MyDala
A Delhi-based woman who went through various ups and downs before tasting success with one of India’s leading platforms in deals and coupons, MyDala, Anisha Singh made a bold move and established an organization in a market space where competitors are fighting tooth and nail to gain the buyer’s attention.
Post completion of her Master’s degree in Political Communication and then an MBA in Information Systems from American University, Washington DC, Anisha started off in Clinton Administration assisting women entrepreneurs and other innovative women-led businesses. MyDala being her second venture after her first company ‘Kinis’ in DC, Anisha has evolved as one of the most influential women in the country. With a vision of making MyDala as a consumer’s first choice when they shop online, she sure has an ambitious path to cover.
Neeru Sharma, Infibeam
One of the most inspiring startup stories for a future woman entrepreneur lies in the story of Neeru Sharma, the co-founder of Infibeam. She dared to establish a platform when the e-commerce industry and digital usage was in a nascent stage in India.
Born into a middle-class family, Neeru worked with firms like TCS and Alcatel and then went on to pursue her MBA degree in Finance and Strategy from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. Post this, she worked in Amazon and understood how the market worked. She then quit her corporate job in 2009 and established Infibeam along with like-minded people.
In 2017, Infibeam merged with CCAvenue (one of the largest payment gateways in the country) and is now known as Infibeam Avenues. Today, the company has diverged into digital payments, infrastructure services like data centres, and e-commerce enterprise platforms.
Malika Sadani, The Mom’s Co.
“Necessity is the Mother of Invention”, an age-old proverb became true when Malika Sadani, a woman who had moved from London to India after having her first child, encountered difficulties in getting her hands-on chemical-free and good quality products for her baby. This led to the birth of The Mom’s Co.
The banker turned into an entrepreneur in 2012 when she established a leading home-grown brand with toxin-free, natural and safe-to-use products for pre- and post-natal care, babies, and conscious consumers seeking personal care solutions which are chemical-free. Though ‘The Mom’s Co’ is a home-grown brand, all their products have Australian certifications. Malika states that it was her passion and enthusiasm to help women like her in the country who are struggling to avail products which are chemically free for themselves and their babies, which in turn is the driving force behind ‘The Mom’s Co’ being a success.
Chitra Gurnani Daga, Thrillophilia
A travel enthusiast, Chitra Gurnani Daga, went on to establish Thrillophilia in 2009 with her husband. Chitra who is a Bangalorean says this venture was their manifestation of the passion which they have for traveling and love the experiences which each place has to offer.
Having worked at organizations like SAP and Infosys as a software engineer, the idea struck her after she completed her MBA degree in Marketing from the Indian School of Business. She is focusing on building an organization that adds value to both its customers and employees instead of solely focusing on revenue. Chitra’s vision is to make the travel experience of people memorable and fun so that they cherish the trips afterward.
Falguni Nayar, Nykaa
Building a beauty brand is a difficult task in itself. Falguni started Nykaa around 2012, and since then the brand has only expanded itself inthe proportion. Nykaa has built trust in the customer by providing quality products and services.
Falguni has completed a postgraduate diploma in Management from IIM (Indian Institute of Management), Ahmedabad and was the former Managing Director at Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. for more than 18 years.
She decided to quit her job in 2012 to pursue her dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. The idea struck her while shopping at Sephora, which is an international beauty brand, and she decided to replicate it in India. The present valuation of the company stands at $750 million.
Akanksha Anshu, Refundme.in
An engineer turned entrepreneur, Akansha Anshu rose as one of the youngest influential people in the Indian business sector. Founder of refundme.in and other ventures, namely, Quantumsoftech and AVision, her ideas are helping the government in revising the Air Passenger Act, making the whole process of flying an easier for people. The company refundme.in pioneers in claim compensation management service, and is helping passengers receive their compensation from airlines.
Having expertise in Technology and Marketing she is now a mentor for other startups. Apart from being a successful entrepreneur, she is also a motivational speaker and a traveller.
Aditi Gupta, Menstrupedia
Being an entrepreneur, you carry a responsibility towards the people living in the society. Aditi Gupta became a pioneer in taking up the issue of Menstruation in the country and forming a website with every bit of information about the topic thus helping girls across the country access knowledge about menstruation as soon as they turn 9.
It was a bold move by Aditi as she hails from the small town of Garwal in Jharkhand and was born into a conservative family. The grit to convert an idea into reality is only hindered by your mind and Aditi proved it by launching Menstrupedia along with her co-founder Tuhin.
The website is dedicated towards interactive literature on periods. Menstrupedia has a comic version that appeals to children and requests adults to supply this knowledge to their younger ones. The result of this particular project was astonishing with more than 1 lakh visitors every month on the site and volunteers ready to translate the comic book in eight different Indian languages as well as three different foreign languages. Additionally, the ‘Menstruation comic’ has been shipped to countries like South America and the Philippines.
In a country like India where girls are not allowed inside temples during their periods, more entrepreneurs like Aditi are needed to come forward and make life easy for women here so that we have more Indian women entrepreneurs.
Suchi Mukherjee, LimeRoad
An idea is worth a million dollars and it can strike you anywhere and at anytime. If you let it go, it will be an opportunity wasted. Such was the case with Suchi Mukherjee; the idea for LimeRoad was conceived in her mind post the delivery of her second child when she was on her maternity leave in London.
Having started her career back in 1998, Suchi worked with Lehman Brothers Inc. and then in 2003 she joined Virgin Media as Director of Change and Business Development, later working with firms like eBay, Skype, and Gumtree.
She started LimeRoad in 2012, which has now become one of the leading e-commerce platforms for jewelry and apparel. LimeRoad has reported an increase in revenue by 78.50%in February 2019.
Shradha Sharma, Yourstory
A hundred stories to tell but the platform to do so was missing, and this is what drove Shradha Sharma to establish her own startup, ‘Yourstory’. Shradha was at the peak of her career, working with leading publishing houses like TOI and CNBC in Mumbai. Her interaction with many entrepreneurs during that phase of her career made her realise that these inspiring stories need to be told.
The idea to form an online platform to give these stories a voice and audience gave birth to Yourstory in 2008 which now has over seventy thousand stories and a team of more than a hundred people who offer content in eleven local languages, though her idea was rejected by channels multiple times. She has been awarded the L’Oreal Paris Femina Award and has been included in the list of Worlds’ Top 500 LinkedIn Influencers.
