Indian startup ecosystem has shown massive growth driven by factors such as huge funding, evolving technology, and a huge domestic market. It’s just a revolution and it will change the way the market is growing. While the majority of startups are male-dominated, there are many Female-led startups growing at a fast pace.
The Indian government is heavily focusing and bosting these start-ups. Funding is still a challenge for women leading startups, there are other challenges too like women are often easily assumed to be less willing to take risks, Masculine corporate cultures are one of the most-cited barriers to women’s leadership, family support, and child care but some of the women founders/co-founders are proving everyone wrong. According to Bain & Company and Google, women entrepreneurs will generate around 150-170 million jobs by 2030.
Let’s meet these women who are behind some of the successful women lead startups and role models to many.
Falguni Nayar, Nykaa
Nykaa is an e-commerce startup and today go-to platform for any cosmetics, wellness product, fashion and more. Falguni was an investment banker who turned into an entrepreneur. She launched Nykaa in 2012 and opened its first physical retail store at T3 Terminal, Indira Gandhi International Airport in November 2015. It claims to have over 1000+ curated brands and 85,000 products. Nykaa’s main target audience is the 22–35 age group. In October 2019, Nykaa has partnered with Bollywood celebrity and actor Katrina Kaif to launch the brand Kay Beauty. Nykaa is worth $473million and very soon we can see them in unicorn list.
Upasana Taku, Mobikwik
Mobikwik is a mobile wallet and online payment platform. Upasana launched MobiKwik in 2009 with her husband Bipin Preet Singh. In 2013, RBI authorized the company’s use of the Mobikwik wallet, and in May 2016 company started giving small loans to its consumers as part of their services. As of today, they have many known clients like Uber, IRCTC, Zomato, Bluedart.
Sabina Chopra, Yatra.com
Yatra.com is one of the most popular Travel booking aggregator platforms in India. Yatra.com is a public listed company. In 2019, it was acquired by Ebix, a US-based company for $338 million.
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, Shopclues
Radhika is the First Indian women to enter the Unicorn club. She co-founded Shopclues (online market place for unstructured categories like home and kitchen, daily utility items, etc) in 2011. In 2019, it was acquired by a Singapore based company Qoo10 valued at US$70 million, representing one of the largest valuations for India based startups.
Richa Kar, Zivame
Zivame is an online retailer of Lingerie. Kar launched Zivame in 2011 as an aggregator of the lingerie brand. As per a report, the Lingerie market in India is valued at about $3 billion, expanded at CAGR of 43.32% between 2019 to 2019. Kar’s venture was inspired by common issues faced by women such as embarrassment and the unwanted attention of buying lingerie from shops and stores.
Shradha Sharma, Yourstory
Shradha Sharma is the founder, CEO and chief editor of Youstory. Youtstory is a media technology platform for business persons and entrepreneurs. Before founding her startup she worked with a company like CNBC TV18 and brand adviser for Times of India. Today, most of the young entrepreneurs get inspiration by stories and interviews on Yourstory.
Swati Bhargava, Cashkaro
Swati with her husband Rohan founded CashKaro in 2013. Cashkaro is an online platform that helps the consumer to buy products and get cashback on e-commerce sites. They earn a commission from e-commerce platforms.
Sairee Chahal, Sheroes
Sairee found Sheroes in 2014. Sheroes is a women-only social network, which started as an online platform offering all kinds of support, resources for women to find a suitable job. Her approach has made SHEROES a globally known platform, changing the game for women and their aspirations. Over a million women have been directly benefited, and under Sairee’s leadership, SHEROES aims to impact over 100 million women in the coming years.
