The startup landscape has evolved significantly since the early 2000s, witnessing remarkable contributions from women entrepreneurs. Trailblazing figures like Vineeta Singh of SUGAR Cosmetics, Ghazal Alagh of Mamaearth, and Falguni Nayar of Nykaa have exemplified exceptional leadership, showcasing how businesses can be led with grace.
Preeti Nellore Sampat, the co-founder and managing partner of Eximius Ventures, highlights that this transition has empowered women in the Indian workforce, including entrepreneurs, to move away from labels such as “women in tech,” “women in investing,” and “women in science.” Instead, they are increasingly recognized simply as businesspersons, investors, or scientists.
Preeti Nellore Sampat expressed that rather than being defined by gender, women are now increasingly acknowledged for their roles and contributions. She emphasized the positive shift happening in the present era, where the future holds significant potential for everyone.
Despite persistent challenges such as gender bias, limited diversity within VC funds, and fewer opportunities for women, these obstacles have not prevented women from showcasing their capabilities and emerging as significant drivers of change in the broader startup ecosystem.
Remarkably, the current positive shift in India’s socio-economic environment for women is largely driven by women themselves. Recent statistics indicate that 14% of entrepreneurs in India are women, and businesses led by women make up over 20% of the country’s MSME sector.
Although many of these women entrepreneurs operate microenterprises, an expanding cohort of them is venturing into India’s dynamic tech startup ecosystem, demonstrating resilience in the face of the challenges it presents.
Aarti Gill:-
Aarti Gill is the co-founder and CEO of OZiva, a plant-based wellness startup established in 2016. Alongside Mihir Gadani, the direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand offers a range of products encompassing women’s health, skincare, haircare, and general wellness.
Having graduated from IIT Roorkee and INSEAD, Aarti Gill initially started her career with the financial services company Capital One. However, she later shifted gears and ventured into entrepreneurship.
In 2015, Aarti Gill and Mihir Gadani co-founded FitCircle, a startup that operated as a Facebook messenger-based fitness consulting platform. The platform connected members with experts to assist them in achieving their fitness goals through personalized workouts and diet plans.
Recognizing a significant gap in the ‘clean’ nutrition products market, Aarti Gill and Mihir Gadani launched the direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand OZiva in 2016. In 2022, FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever announced the acquisition of a 51% equity stake, followed by the remaining 49%, in the startup through a combination of primary infusion and secondary buyouts.
Ashwini Asokan
Ashwini Asokan is the CEO and co-founder of Mad Street Den. She, along with her husband Anand Chandrasekaran, founded the AI startup in 2013 and registered it in the US in 2016 as Mad Street Den Inc.
The startup’s flagship platform, Vue.ai, combines seven different products — VueTag, VueModel, VueStyle, VueCommerce, VueMail, VueFind, and VueStudio — to offer retailers a unified system.
Vue.AI uses image recognition and data science to extract retail catalog data, analyze it with user behavior, and help retailers make better and faster decisions.
Divya Gokulnath
Divya Gokulnath, an Indian entrepreneur and educator, is renowned as the co-founder and director of BYJU’S. Her journey began in 2008 at the age of 21 when she embarked on her teaching career.
In 2012, Gokulnath, along with her husband Byju Raveendran, founded the educational technology company in Bengaluru. Hailing from a middle-class family, she acquired technological skills and effectively integrated them into the education sector.
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Ghazal Alagh
Ghazal Alagh is the co-founder of the listed D2C unicorn Mamaearth, which she founded in 2016 with her husband Varun Alagh. The brand sells a range of beauty and personal care (BPC) products across various categories, including hair care, body care, and makeup.
An active angel investor, Ghazal Alagh holds a bachelor’s degree in computer application from Panjab University. Before establishing Mamaearth, she founded a fitness platform, Diet Expert, which ceased operations in 2013.
She is also better known for her stint as a Shark on the maiden season of the popular Indian TV show Shark Tank India. In 2022, she backed 14 startups, including names such as Humpy Farms, unScript AI, Wishlink, BlissClub, HumpyFarm, and Uvi Health.
Hardika Shah
Hardika Shah is the founder and CEO of Kinara Capital, a Bengaluru-based fintech startup. Founded in 2011, the platform offers collateral-free business loans between INR 1 Lakh and INR 30 Lakh to MSMEs via its app myKinara.
Before founding Kinara Capital, Shah received a degree in computer sciences from US-based Knox College and then spent almost two decades as a management consultant, executing projects globally.
Under her leadership, the startup has so far raised $117 million in funding from multiple investors, including Gaja Capital, GAWA Capital, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and Patamar Capital.
Manju Dhawan
Manju Dhawan co-founded the logistics powerhouse Ecom Express in 2012, alongside TA Krishnan, K Satyanarayana, and Sanjeev Saxena.
Before founding Ecom Express, Dhawan spent nearly 25 years at Blue Dart Express, rising up the ladder to become the company’s head of customer care.
Ecom Express offers logistics solutions, including first-mile pickup, processing, and last-mile delivery. Since its inception, the logistics giant has expanded its operations to encompass over 3,000 delivery centers, spanning 9.6 million square feet.
Minu Margeret
The founder and CEO of the startup established the brand due to her struggle to find suitable athleisure wear. Faced with the challenges of limited functional, technical, and innovative options, she took matters into her own hands to create a solution for the gaps she identified, paving the way for Blissclub.
Today, the Bengaluru-based fashion apparel startup has expanded its offerings to include 50 products.
Blissclub began operations as an online platform selling activewear products for women. Since then, it has expanded its product line and also opened a few offline stores as well.
An alumna of ISB, Margeret is also a CA. Before joining Blissclub, she worked with firms such as PhonePe, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Unilever, and Wipro Technologies.
Namrata Asthana
Coming from a background in communications, Namrata Asthana’s life took a different turn after she witnessed a dearth of good places that served coffee in Delhi. Partnering with Matt Chitharanjan, she founded Blue Tokai Coffee in 2012.
The startup sources single-estate Arabica coffee beans from premium Indian estates, roasts these beans on order, and sells them online directly to consumers and businesses.
Neha Singh
Neha Singh co-founded the market intelligence platform Tracxn, along with Abhishek Goyal, in 2012. The startup offers a SaaS-based tool that tracks company financials and cap tables of entities. It has customers in over 50 countries.
Singh also serves as the chairperson and managing director of Tracxn.
Tracxn raised a total funding of INR 139.22 Cr ($16.8 Mn) before getting listed on the Indian stock exchanges in 2022.
Prukalpa Sankar
Prukalpa Sankar co-founded the SaaS startup Atlan, along with Varun Banka, in 2018. The enterprise tech platform allows teams to collaborate on projects and helps create a single source for all data assets on its platform.
Before launching Atlan, Prukalpa Sankar co-founded SocialCops in 2013, a web and mobile platform aimed at fostering connectivity and collaboration within cities.
As a World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer, Prukalpa Sankar also aspires to become a published author. Her writings cover various topics, including data teams, culture, metadata & data governance 3.0, startups, and leadership. She holds an engineering degree from Nanyang Technological University Singapore.
Rajoshi Ghosh
Rajoshi Ghosh is the co-founder and COO of Hasura. Established in 2018 by Tanmai Gopal and Ghosh, the enterprise tech platform creates real-time GraphQL APIs, allowing businesses to instantly access their data via secure APIs.
Rajoshi Ghosh is the co-founder and COO of Hasura. Established in 2018 by Tanmai Gopal and Ghosh, the enterprise tech platform creates real-time GraphQL APIs, allowing businesses to instantly access their data via secure APIs.
Hasura achieved unicorn status in 2022 after securing a substantial $100 million in a Series C funding round led by Greenoaks Capital.
Before incorporating Hasura, Ghosh cofounded a product development company called 34 Cross.
Ghosh played a key role as a founding member of Tech Saloon and held the position of founder at Find A Kadai and Owlink. Beyond her contributions to the tech industry, Ghosh was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community.
Ruchi Kalra
Ruchi Kalra is an investor and cofounder of two unicorn startups – OfBusiness and Oxyzo
After obtaining a degree in chemical engineering from IIT-Delhi, Kalra pursued her MBA at the Indian School of Business. Before founding OfBusiness, she gained experience working at McKinsey & Company.
In addition to her role as an entrepreneur, Kalra is an active angel investor. She has invested in various startups, including Captain Fresh (a seafood marketplace), TyrePlex (a tire marketplace), FableStreet (a women-led lifestyle brand), and Saveo (a B2B pharmacy marketplace).
Sahradayi Modi
Sahradayi Modi is one of the co-founders of Pratilipi, a self-publishing and reading platform for Indian languages. The startup was founded in 2015 by Sahradayi Modi, along with Ranjeet Pratap Singh, Sankaranarayanan Devarajan, and Rahul Ranjan.
The storytelling platform Pratilipi connects readers and writers in 12 languages, boasting an extensive readership and listener base of up to 15 million subscribers. The platform is home to over 9.5 lakh writers.
Saumya Singh Rathore
Saumya Singh Rathore co-founded the gaming startup WinZO in 2018, along with Paavan Nanda.
WinZO collaborates with third-party developers to host games on its mobile app. The platform offers games in 12 languages and has garnered over 100 million users.
In the past, she has worked with the Times Group across various verticals, including television, distribution, radio, and publishing. Her focus was on driving growth and supervising execution.
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Shreedha Singh
Shreedha Singh co-founded The Ayurveda Co (T.A.C) with her husband, Param Bhargava, in July 2021. She currently serves as the CEO of the startup.
T.A.C. (The Ayurveda Co.) was inspired by Shreedha Singh’s experience with Ayurveda. After struggling with a skin allergy for about three years, Singh and Param Bhargava decided to start their research and founded the D2C brand Khadi Essentials in 2019.
Khadi Essentials is renowned for its diverse range of handcrafted, curated, and designed Ayurvedic beauty and wellness products, promising a transformative experience in beauty and body care.
Smita Deorah
Smita Deorah, along with Sumeet Mehta, co-founded the edtech unicorn LEAD Group in 2012 to provide innovative tech solutions to schools.
A chartered accountant turned educator, Deborah has over 22 years of experience in finance, leadership, and education. After completing her bachelor’s degree in commerce from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce & Economics, she worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) before her eight-year-long tenure at the FMCG major P&G (Procter & Gamble).
Srividhya Srinivasan
Srividhya Srinivasan, along with Subramanian and Srinivasan KA, is the visionary behind the media-focused SaaS unicorn Amagi, which the trio founded in 2008.
A serial entrepreneur, she also cofounded wireless audio technology brand Impulsesoft (now SiRF) in 1998.
She commenced her career as a software engineer at Texas Instruments after completing her B.Tech in computer science from Bharathiar University, Tamil Nadu. She specializes in software architecture and technical marketing.
Upasana Taku
Upasana Taku cofounded MobiKwik, along with Bipin Preet Singh, in 2009. Taku currently serves as the chairperson and chief financial officer of the fintech unicorn.
MobiKwik is a digital banking platform that offers a suite of financial products for both consumers and merchants. It offers online checkout, Kwik QR scan and pay, MobiKwik Vibe (Soundbox), MobiKwik EDC Machine, and merchant cash advance, among others, to businesses and merchants.
