Back in the days, Madam C.J Walker was the first independent Women Entrepreneurs to break through the norms. Since then, the times have changed and women entrepreneurs in India and around the world are on a remarkable journey of entrepreneurship and leading with positive belief and confidence. Globally, all women have overcome criticism and breaking the trends to prove themselves beyond the stereotypes. This effect was also seen to impact the Indian corporate world. From being homemakers to successful entrepreneurs, women in India have come a long way
The original “Slumdog millionaire”, Kalpana Saroj went to be the first woman entrepreneur of India. She bought the distressed assets of Kamani Tubes Company and successfully steered the company back to profits. She proved that dreams can only turn into reality when we work hard. Today inspired by her journey many women entrepreneurs in India are emerging to success. The sixth economic census released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) highlights that women constitute around 14% of the total entrepreneurship in India. India is seeing a revolution concerning women entrepreneurs.
Let us see the 20 famous Women Entrepreneurs in India, who have proved that leading a company all by themselves is not beyond their wit.
1. Vandana Luthra (Founder at VLCC)
Education: Polytechnic for Women in New Delhi
Prior Work experience: Homemaker
“I am not VLCC, I am a part of the 6000 professionals who run it.”
Vandana Luthra is an inspirational Women Entrepreneurs who is the founder of VLCC Health care Ltd. She is an Indian businesswoman, philanthropist, and chairman of the ability council for the beauty and wellness sector (B&WSSC).
In 1989, Vandana Luthra set up a company called VLCC as a Wellness center. VLCC is a very popular giant of beauty and wellness and is present in 11 countries throughout Asia, Africa, and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). However, this success was not overnight.
While Vandana started her entrepreneurial journey there were hardly any women entrepreneurs in India. She had to face a lot of criticism in the male-dominated environment. But she kept moving forward with a belief that her idea was unique, unusual, and was introduced for the first time in India. In 2010, she won the Enterprise Asia Women Entrepreneur of the year award. Vandana was honored by India’s fourth-highest civilian honor, Padma Shri award from President of India in 2013.
Vandana started her journey in 1989 when the first of her two daughters were only 3 years old and today she is a grandmother to three kids and still lives her dream!
Founded by Vandana Luthra as a beauty and slimming services center in 1989, VLCC is today widely recognized for its comprehensive portfolio of beauty and wellness products and services and also enjoys a high level of consumer trust. The VLCC Group’s operations currently span 330 locations in over 150 cities and 14 countries.
2. Aditi Gupta (Founder of Menstrupedia)
Education: Engineering Graduate and a New Media Design Post-Graduate
Prior Work experience: – “Menstruating women are impure. This taboo has nothing to do with where you are from. From the interiors of India to big cities, if there was a myth I could do away with, it would be this.”
Aditi Gupta is the Co-founder of Menstrupedia—a platform working towards breaking the taboo around menstruation. This venture stemmed from her personal experience with the so-called ‘taboo’ of menstruation. For her, menstruation was often a painful time which she had to go through without any help to mitigate the pain. Later she found out that terrible menstrual cramps were the story of every girl next door. She decided to create a website on menstruation to educate women.
Aditi belonged to a conservative middle-class family, being familiar with the taboos from an early age yet she was brave enough to break the chain of silence on periods. Her efforts are commendable and her journey is even more inspiring.
Menstrupedia successfully challenged a lot of stereotypes which did cost her several uncertainties and hesitations in the beginning. However, today the platform has become extremely popular amongst girls and women seeking to gain awareness about menstruation. The platform has reached more than 14 lakhs users through online and offline efforts. Along with books and comics, Aditi also started an online store for selling menstrual products and merchandise around feminism, gender equality, and women empowerment.
Aditi has not only created a unique platform for providing much-needed knowledge about a woman’s body, but she is also changing the way menstruation is looked at by people.
More about Menstrupedia:
Menstrupedia is a friendly guide to periods that helps girls and women to stay healthy and active during their periods. With a team of dynamic and passionate people with complementary skills, Menstrupedia aims at delivering informative and entertaining content through different media. Menstrupedia is a small but definitive step to shatter the myths and misunderstandings surrounding menstruation for ages.
3. Richa Kar (Co-founder of Zivame)
Education: Engineering Graduate and MBA
Prior Work experience: Corporate Job
“If you are strong, focused, and passionate about what you want to do, everything falls into place.”
Richa Kar is the Founder of a successfully established online lingerie store Zivame. While working in the SAP department she tracked the online sales of Victoria’s Secret which is America’s largest retail company of women’s lingerie. She noticed that the sales and profits had crossed the target, but there was no such brand for Indian Women. In a conservative country like India, women feel shy about purchasing lingerie offline, as most shoppers in such stores are male. Also, women could not expect fitting and styling tips from stores like this. Keeping all of these issues in mind, Richa founded the company in 2011.
4. Shahnaz Hussian (Founder of Shahnaz Herbals)
Education: La Martiniere Lucknow, La Martiniere Road
Prior Work experience: Beauty Editor of Iran Tribune
“You don’t have to be born as beautiful, you have to acquire it.”
Shahnaz Hussian is the Founder of the world-renowned and celebrated brand Shahnaz Herbals. Being a girl married at a teenage and a daughter at 16, she wouldn’t have imagined building a beauty empire someday and becoming one of the most famous women entrepreneurs in India and also across the globe. But as they quote, only dead fish follow the stream, Shahnaz too fought against all the odds and ultimately became a brand in herself.
Shahnaz is known as the “Queen of Herbal Beauty Care” and was awarded Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2006. She is the most prominent businesswoman in India, has her business running over 138 countries, and has around 600 franchises and associated clinics across the world. Recently, Shahnaz was invited by Harvard Business School to speak on how she established an international brand without commercial advertisements.
More about Shahnaz Herbals:
The Shahnaz Husain Group is India’s leading company in the field of natural beauty and anti-aging treatments. Started in the 1970s by Shahnaz Husain in New Delhi, the group has over time vertically integrated to encompass every aspect of Ayurvedic care and cure. The group has activities as diverse as beauty training institutes, growing of its own herbs manufacturing of its cosmetics line to retail to specialized treatments through its chain of over 200 beauty centers worldwide.
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5. Falguni Nayar (Founder of Nykaa)
Education: IIM Graduate
Prior Work experience: Managing director at Kotak Mahindra Capital Company
“I wanted to stand for those women who want to be beautiful for themselves, not for men or other women.”
Falguni Nayar is the Founder of Nykaa, the one-stop destination for cosmetics and other beauty ranges. She endeavored her journey at the age of 50, a time when most people think about retirement she set herself on a new journey.
It was after resigning that Falguni began to think about various ideas and also how to shape everything in the form of an organization. Still, Nykaa was never really in her head until she observed the unbiased approach used among retail and online beauty shop sales managers to select the best products. She saw how her friends in the States relied on Amazon shopping. She saw the lack of good beauty sale experience in India and combined the two to launch Nykaa in 2012.
Shortly, several well-renowned brands started listing themselves on the platform. And soon enough Nykaa’s turnover crossed 200 crores, along with 850 brands and more than 50,000 products.
In India, people are dying to get a basic job so they could become financially stable for the future. And then, in her 51st year, picture a woman quitting her job at a prestigious bank and choosing to start something of her own, would you do the same? Falguni proved that it’s never too late and she has motivated people to believe in the opportunities that can be created at any time and age.
More about Nykaa:
Nykaa has quickly emerged as India’s largest omnichannel beauty destination with millions of happy customers across the country. From bringing the consumers their favorite brands and keeping them up-to-date with the latest beauty trends, expert advice, and videos, to more than 68 Luxe and On-Trend Stores, an ever-growing online community for beauty buffs, and a Beauty Helpline, Nykaa goes out of their way to give consumers only the very best.
6. Shradha Sharma (Founder & CEO of YourStory)
Education: MICA
Prior Work Experience: CNBC TV18, The Times Of India
“When you know you have to fend for yourself every inch of the way, it gives you a different kind of grit and tenacity”
Shradha Sharma, the Founder, and CEO of YourStory is a courageous entrepreneur who was bold enough to call it quits while working for a famous media house like CNBC in Mumbai. While working she had the opportunity to interview several entrepreneurs and learn about their success stories. She wanted to feature these success stories but several channels rejected this idea. This is when she noticed that a million stories are storming around but there is no platform to cover them.
While working for CNBC, Shradha started YourStory as a blog one night. She was well exposed to the business practices of news channels and newspapers so she applied the same here. Soon the platform turned into India’s biggest platform for start-ups and entrepreneurs’ related stories.
Today the website has over 70,000 stories and serves the content in over 11 local languages. Shradha’s motive is to share the roller coaster of emotions an entrepreneur goes through. She was awarded the L’Oreal Paris Femina Award and was included in the list of Worlds’ Top 500 LinkedIn Influencers. In 2019, she got to interview Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. Shradha is one of the most successful and influential women entrepreneurs in India.
More about YourStory:
The team works from all over India to bring the best and the brightest Women Entrepreneurs into the limelight they deserve. The YourStory Team brings people stories of entrepreneurs and change-makers, funding analyses, resource pieces, and the first glimpse of emerging trends from India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, as well as profiles of great businesses and entrepreneurs from all over the world.
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7. Sheetal Ramkumar (Founder & CEO of WhiteGlobe)
Education: Alumni of the Indian School of Business (ISB)
Prior Work Experience: Advisor at ChalkBoard Academy
“Stay nimble but don’t let the scale of the change overwhelm you”
Sheetal Ramkumar, the Founder, and CEO of WhiteGlobe is a ferocious entrepreneur who is leading in the Language Service Provider Industry (LSPI) in India. Despite the APAC region being popular for its diverse cultures and languages, the LSP industry was much unorganized—especially in India. Sheetal noticed this wide gap and thus, created a professionally managed language services company that will help break the language barrier and support businesses across the Globe.
Initially, she encountered several challenges in her journey as the LSPI in India was highly fragmented with no documented methods of assessing the competency of language experts. She had to invest a lot of time and effort to develop a multi-dimensional competency assessment for language experts and facilitate their collaboration to offer high-quality services based on competency mapping.
Initially, she encountered several challenges in her journey as the LSPI in India was highly fragmented with no documented methods of assessing the competency of language experts. She had to invest a lot of time and effort to develop a multi-dimensional competency assessment for language experts and facilitate their collaboration to offer high-quality services based on competency mapping.
Today the company is one of the leading LSP’s but the journey toward the top was not easy. Sheetal has been ferocious with her decisions for the company and is a big believer in taking risks. This is a big reason why White Globe is known for its higher-than-average risk appetite. Her leadership skills are exceptional and are often rewarded with many awards and accolades. Recently she was awarded “Business APAC’s Most Influential Women of 2020.”
More about WhiteGlobe:
White Globe is a leading Translation and Localisation Services Company offering Translation, Localisation, Interpretation, Website Localisation, Software Localisation, Subtitling, Dubbing, and Language Training in over 350 Languages and is already serving more than 750 Corporate Customers.
8. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (Founder of Biocon Limited)
Education: Master Brewer
Prior Work experience: Trainee Manager
“I managed to do things with a lot of common sense, a lot of determination, and a lot of foolish courage.”
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, an Indian woman entrepreneur who, as chairman and managing director of Biocon India Group, led a pioneering enterprise that utilized India’s homegrown scientific talent to make breakthroughs in clinical research.
Kiran attained her knowledge of brewery from Melbourne in 1975 and returned to India. However, she could not find a job in India as she was told that she could not be hired as a master brewer in India because “It’s a man’s work”. She was also well aware of the cultural norms that often limited the social mobility of women. Thus, she started looking for job opportunities outside India.
After a brief period as a trainee manager at Biocon Biochemicals Limited, of Cork, Ireland, to learn more about the business, Kiran returned to India. She started Biocon India in 1978 in the garage of her rented house in Bengaluru with a seed capital of Rs. 10,000. Although it was a joint venture, Indian laws restricted foreign ownership to only 30% of the company, which meant that 70% of the company belonged to Kiran.
Kiran spearheaded Biocon’s evolution from an industrial enzyme manufacturing company to a fully integrated biopharmaceutical. In 2005 Kiran also received the Padma Bhushan Award, one of India’s highest civilian honors, for her pioneering work in industrial biotechnology.
More about Biocon:
Biocon Limited is a globally recognized, innovation-led organization that is enabling access to high-quality, advanced therapies for diseases that are chronic, where medical needs are largely unmet and treatment costs are high.
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9. Sairee Chahal (Founder & CEO of SHEROES)
Education: IMT Ghaziabad, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Prior Work Experience: Heidrick and Struggles, CII
“I was faced with questions like can you do it? Gladly, things are changing and now, they can see me doing it”
Sairee Chahal has established the platform SHEROES with the idea to help women get ‘more from life’—from careers and jobs to health, family life, and wellbeing.
Sairee belonged to a small town and was familiar with the limitations of opportunities for women. After moving out of her house she pursued her education and worked side by side. Soon she was creating job opportunities for the needy.
The big gender gap in the Indian internet ecosystem, the lack of diversity in the workplace, and the insignificant amount of women workforce did not go unnoticed by Sairee. She started SHEROES as a career-centric community for women. The platform started gaining admiration and in just two years they had almost 1M women and 20k companies signed up and would post 100k job listings a month. As an upgrade, SHEROES then set up a helpline for women to enable them to talk to a professional if they had any sort of career questions.
More about SHEROES:
SHEROES is a women’s community platform, offering support, resources, opportunities, and interactions via Sheroes.com and the SHEROES App. SHEROES—Communities for Women, is a safe and trusted space, where members discuss health, careers, and relationships, and share their life stories, achievements, and moments. The app also offers a dedicated Ask SHEROES helpline where community members can talk to counselors on all aspects of their growth journeys.
10. Upasana Taku (Founder at Mobikwik)
Education: Stanford University
Prior Work Experience: Paypal, Zaakpay, 2020 Social
“Kick up a storm or die trying”
Upasana is the Founder of Mobikwik—an easy replacement for the wallet. When you start something new, the ecosystem doesn’t accept you easily, people say no. Though the concept seems relatable it was fairly new for the market to accept it. However, Upsana was calm enough to build her idea into a venture.
Her gender was one of the major obstacles that she faced. She observed that woman in a position managing finance was unsettling. And this is why she talks about the courage that a woman has to take when at the helm of affairs.
Upasana’s journey to becoming one of the best women entrepreneurs in India was not that easy. She battled her way up to the top unceasingly. Upasana had the entrepreneur calling from within but she also wanted it to be in other people’s best interest too. She established Mobikwik to help underserved individuals in India. Mobikwik was established as a simple recharge platform soon it found its way into every individual’s phone as an e-wallet.
Upasana is pure inspiration, she decided to quit the privileged life, ignored gender discrimination patiently, and confronted numerous challenges just to give back to her homeland.
More about Mobikwik
MobiKwik is the first-ever truly Indian payments app with an option to access digital credit and deliver a better & financially secure future to millions of Indians. Its technology-driven network connects over 110 million users to over 3 million online and physical stores, and each other, and enables payments and financial services – credit, insurance, and wealth, at the click of a button.
11. Sugandha Agarwal (Founder at Docttocare)
Education: Engineer
Prior Work Experience: Corporate Job
“As we delve deeper, IoT, and wearable startups as well as analytics startups will play a key role in making predictive healthcare a reality for India.”
With the crisis upon us didn’t we all turn our healthcare query to digital? It took a pandemic for us to realize the importance of telehealth but the young businesswoman Sugandha Agarwal saw it way ahead. She established Docttocare an online healthcare service provider that provides information to its users about the best doctors, clinics, hospitals, and diagnostic centers. Docttocare also offers virtual walkthroughs of the hospitals and their facilities.
Docttocare has been successful in slowly gaining the trust of doctors and patients alike. The company has enrolled in all the major hospitals like Apollo, Manipal, Medanta, and many more. Docttocare is now getting around 300+ appointments per day, and 4000+ medical tests have been done through Docttocare. 500+ clinics, 100+ hospitals, and 2000+ doctors are registered with it.
Through Docttocare, Sugandha is planning to bring many positive changes in the healthcare scenario of India.
More about Docttocare:
Docttocare is an online healthcare service provider. Docttocare provides its users with information about the best doctors, clinics, hospitals, and diagnostic centers. The platform also offers virtual walkthroughs of the ambiance to showcase hospitality and its facilities. It makes booking appointments super easy and assures the confirmation of online appointments through call, SMS, or email.
12. Ankita Ghaba (Founder at Social Samosa)
Education: MBA
Prior Work Experience: Founder at a Social Media firm
“I have a hunger to grow and learn each day. I believe in persevering against all odds.”
Ankita Ghaba is the Co-founder of Social Samosa and an ace multitasker. Apart from being an entrepreneur as her profession, she is also a social media strategist, a lecturer, and a consultant. Before this, Ankita had also been a part of the founder team of Superchooha, which was India’s first social media firm. Under her management, Superchooha devised and conceptualized various online media solutions and strategies for several popular brands like
Mahindra, Idea Cellular, Ponds, Colors, Zapak, and many other names have joined the list since then.
Later on, she founded Social Samosa, an Indian Social Media Knowledge Storehouse which tends to provide hands-on experience and professional services running various social media projects and campaigns by virtue. However, it was not served on her plate just like that. She had her share of struggles and difficulties which she faced bravely and overcame all of them and still chose to be the woman she is today.
Social Samosa enables industry by leading thought and influencing the influencers. Its editorial team propels the industry with insightful analysis and investigative research—empowering decision-making. Training brands, agencies, and tools on harnessing the power of social rights through the lifecycle of their product/service. Facilitating custom-made social media workshops, seminars, and events.
More about Social Samosa:
Social media is growing at a rapid pace and it has become such a vital medium of knowing what’s going on in and around you. Ankita is a social media enthusiast and is always exploring new ways to use social media and engage with more and more people through such platforms. The idea behind Social Samosa is to be the go-to destination for everything related to the Indian Social Media Industry.
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13. Ashwini Asokan (Co-founder at Mad Street Den)
Education: Product Design and Movement Grammar
Prior Work Experience: Product Design
“I was almost certain that I was going to be a professional dancer, a singer, or a musician. But something changed, something snapped.”
Ashwini Asokan is the Co-founder of Mad Street Den (MAD). She is a brave tech entrepreneur who called it quits to the job at Silicon Valley and ventured into entrepreneurship.
Ashwini’s initial plan was not to be a tech enthusiast—a dancer, singer, or musician maybe— but her plans changed when she went abroad to study Product Design. She landed a job at Intel in Silicon Valley where she developed her interest in AI.
MAD was established with a mission to build models of generalizable intelligence that can be used by billions of people from various industries across the globe. It has grabbed the attention of various retail giants and investors due to automated workflows and bringing in operational efficiency. So far, they have generated 600 million product tags, and 1,000+ digital models, and curated over three billion outfits. The startup has helped generate 65 percent higher revenue per visitor and saved time of up to 30 hours per week per person.
More about Mad Street Den:
MAD is an Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision company. It is building an AI Architecture of the future. They use Artificial Intelligence to get any smartphone with a camera to identify faces, detect facial expressions and emotions, and react to facial gestures.
14. Chitra Gurgani Dhaga (Co-Founder at Thrillophilia)
Education: MBA
Prior Work Experience: –
“Entrepreneurship excites me and the more I do it, the more I love it.”
Chitra Gurgani Dhaga is the Co-founder of Thrillophilia and one of the most innovative entrepreneurs of India. In today’s stress-ridden world, people often turn to a mini-vacation for a break. Through Thrillophilia, Chitra tried to combine adventure and tourism together for travel enthusiasts.
Chitra is an alumnus of an Indian business school and belongs to a family with high designations in the service industry. However, she did not have any exposure to the family business. She wanted to build something independently so she shot in the dark and scored indeed.
After a lot of debates, research, and discussion, in 2009 Chitra established Thrilliophilia. She hired exceptional adventure experts, experienced staff, and trained professionals who have within them the passion just like she has. Currently, Thrillophilia has more than 3.5 million monthly users. Consequently, Thrillophilia has more than 12,500 listed activities across 125+ destinations.
More about Thrillophilia:
Thrillophilia is an Indian adventure travel company that curates the best local experiences with hand-picked guides and vendors to expand your journey into something offbeat and super fun. Above all, Thrillophilia is India’s biggest online platform when it comes to booking your travel experiences.
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15. Radhika Ghai Aggarwal (Founder at Shopcules.com)
Education: MBA
Prior Work Experience: Strategic Planning
“Anybody who comes to work needs to do it with heart.”
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal is the Co-founder of the online marketplace ShopClues established in 2011 in Silicon Valley. She is an Internet entrepreneur and India’s first woman to enter the Unicorn Club.
Radhika has completed her MBA from Washington University and has worked for many acclaimed US companies like Nordstrom and Golden Sachs. In 2006, she established Fashion Clues (2007-09) as a fashion and lifestyle website targeting South Asia and the US, which she ran single-handedly.
In 2011, with her knowledge and experience, she established ShopClues targeting small details and innovative marketing ideas and garnering a complete understanding of the customer. For her, ShopClues is like her third child and she closely cherishes the ups and downs the company has gone through, particularly the big milestones—from getting 3.5 lakh merchants at the end of 2015 to raising two rounds of funding and joining the unicorn club in 2016.
Today, the company claims to have over 600,000 merchants and 28 million products on its platform, serving over 32,000 pin codes across the country.
More about ShopClues:
ShopClues is trying to cater to all shopping needs by delivering customers an elaborate range of options. Some of them include fashion, sports, tech, and kitchenware amongst many others. Radhika’s page is here to give a run for their money to e-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon.
16. Suchi Mukherjee (Founder at Limeroad)
Education: Master’s in Finance and Economics
Prior Work Experience: Consumer Division Management Team
“Don’t just dream about success, work for it!”
Before becoming renowned as one of the successful women entrepreneurs in India, Suchi Mukherjee was a Cambridge University alumnus and studied Economics and Finance at the London School of Economics. Her career pathway is very impressive, as she has worked for Lehman Brothers, Virgin Media, and eBay. Suchi was also a part of the initial development of both Skype and Gumtree.
she is a Cambridge University alumnus and has studied Economics and Finance at the London School of Economics. Her career pathway is very impressive, as she has worked for Lehman Brothers, Virgin Media, and eBay. Suchi was also a part of the initial development of both Skype and Gumtree.
Back then she was on maternity leave when she noticed that there was a gap in the e-commerce market i.e. a woman-devoted portal to find inexpensive accessories and products. After understanding the consumer business and the perfect balance between demand and supplies she established Limeroad.
Limeroad has always focused on the organic community driven by scrapbooks, social platforms, and vendors. The website is filled with customer-created content like scrapbooks and posts resulting in more than 50 million visitors to the website and app.
More about Limeroad:
The clothing brand Limeroad is here to make a buzz. Its unique selling point is its Scrapbook. It lets you create your look and lets you choose the item that best fits you. Although Limeroad specializes in women’s clothing, they have now also branched out to men’s and kids’ clothing too. Their fashion is not only groovy in style but also affordable by price.
To conclude, few of the leading top ventures and ideas were born from the market gap which was camouflaged under taboos and stereotypes. It is 2020 and the winds have changed now showing a drastic effect on the Indian Corporate world too. The Indian Government is coming up with the initiative to prosper forward-thinking and perhaps with time the country’s women will follow in the footsteps of the influential women entrepreneurs in India mentioned above and build the next leading venture.
17. Divya Gokulnath (Co-founder of ‘BYJU’s – The Learning App)
Education: Biotechnology undergraduate
Prior Work Experience: Teacher
“I believe that education is one of the most powerful tools that shapes and molds the way our youth think.”
Divya Gokulnath is the co-founder and director of the educational technology and online tutoring firm, ‘BYJU’S – The Learning App’, based in Bangalore. She has effectively blended her passion for teaching with her students’ needs and turned this enterprise into an education giant.
Having been brought up in an academic environment, Divya wanted to pursue Science and Maths for her higher studies. Her dream of studying overseas was overcome by a more powerful passion for teaching. She started teaching at the young age of 21, at the coaching classes conducted by Byju Raveendran. Soon they joined in wedlock as well as founding a company together in 2011.
Divya’s vision involves a deep respect for each student’s unique learning journey. She emphasizes the importance of ‘how to learn’ instead of ‘what to learn’, as according to the estimates of the Economic Forum, about 65% of primary school students will end up in jobs not properly defined yet.
More about BYJU’S:
The idea to shift to online classes materialized in 2015, to make a greater impact on students. During the lockdown period the popularity and significance of Byju’s app shot to unparalleled heights. A recent report states that Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath have been ranked 46th on an India Rich List and have amassed a net worth of $3.05 billion (approximately INR 22.3 thousand crores) in 2020.
18. Isha Choudhry (Co-founder of ZoloStays)
Education: MBA Graduate
Prior Work Experience: Senior Analyst
“I am a young and enthusiastic person who believes in taking up challenges and solving them in the most logical and structural manner.”
Isha Choudhry Isha Choudhry co-founded the company ZoloStays along with Dr.Nikhil Sikri, Akhil Sikri, and Sneha Choudhary in 2015. She brainstormed the novel concept of a tech-driven co-living space along with her teammates. The idea of making it easier for people hunting for accommodation gave wings to this concept. She is one of the many successful women entrepreneurs in India who are transforming the way people live and work.
She is presently working along with her crew members to standardize the paying guest segment in India for a customer using technology. Within three months of operations, she and her team have received excellent reviews from customers. Their clients now find booking a branded Zolo paying guest very simple and reliable with guaranteed quality of service.
More about ZoloStays:
ZoloStays strives to beat the common hassles faced while searching for a paying guest accommodation or apartment. It provides affordable yet comfortable living options. Additional facilities include delicious meals, a dedicated support team, free maintenance, and fun-filled Zo-Tribe events. HQ at Bangalore, it presently serves 10-plus cities across India, including Chennai, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, and Kota.
19. Jaya Jha (Co-founder of InstaScribePothi.com)
Education: B.Tech (IIT Kanpur), MBA (IIM Lucknow)
Prior Work Experience: Product Management Consultant
“Integrity is essential. Honesty is over-rated.”
Jaya Jha is the co-founder of InstaScribePothi.com alongside her partner, Abhaya Agarwal. The whole idea behind this publishing platform was to make it easier for budding authors to publish their work.
An author and speaker herself, Jha has 3 Hindi poetry collections and one novel to her credit. In 2007, she was looking for a suitable way to publish her work. Upon discovering the tedious nature of traditional book publishing she came up with the idea of a self-publishing platform for aspiring writers.
More about InstaScribePothi.com:
While Pothi.com is a publishing platform, InstaScribe helps people create professional e-books. Once one has the e-book file, one can take it to any publishing platform including Kindle, Kobo, Nook, iBookstore, etc. According to Jaya, “The idea here has not been to displace traditional publishing, but rather provide an alternative to people for whom traditional publishing does not work. And we have been successful in doing that.”
20. Khushboo Jain (Co-founder of ImpactGuru.com)
Education: MBA in Marketing
Prior Work Experience: Fashion Marketer
“The journey from education to persuasion has been a challenging one.”
Khushboo Jain co-founded the crowd-funding platform ImpactGuru.com along with Piyush Jain in 2014, with a focus to make healthcare more affordable in India. Aside from acting as the Chief Operating Officer, she also heads the company’s marketing arm and communications and design teams.
She has recently featured in the Fortune 40 under 40 lists in India and was among the top 15 women ranked in the NITI Aayog & United Nations 2019 Women Transforming India Awards. Previously engaged in fashion marketing, Jain launched her entrepreneurial career by co-founding ImpactGuru.com.
“Every minute, 100 people get hospitalized in India and 30 health insurance claims are filed. 7 out of 10 from the middle-class population in India do not have any health insurance and those who do, are typically underinsured as the average coverage in India is 5 lakh. High out-of-pocket expenses stand at 60 percent – 3 times the global average,” said Khushboo.
More about ImpactGuru.com:
The company has a mission to aid patients suffering from critical illnesses by seeking crowd-funding solutions. It helps people to draft a fundraising appeal that is informative and emotional. Crowdfunding helps people to meet high treatment costs without any payback liability. According to a recent report, ImpactGuru.com raised over INR 15 crores to help daily wage laborers amidst the difficult circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusion
In conclusion, women entrepreneurs in India have shown great potential and achievements in various fields. They have overcome many challenges and barriers to create their own identity and success. The 20 most successful India women entrepreneurs are inspiring examples of how women can lead and innovate in the business world. They are role models for future generations of women who aspire to be entrepreneurs.
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