Gone are the days when women in India were confined to households. Along with being excellent homemakers, Indian women have ventured in almost all the areas and excelled. They symbolise the new image of India, which is courageous, persistent and keen to learn from its mistakes.
From making a social impact to being a pro in technology to opening up new vistas of thought and expression, these women entrepreneurs are changing the face of India’s business.
Stories of all the women who have jumped into entrepreneurship are sure inspiring for us Indians. Here are seven pathbreaking tales of success which are a must know for everyone. We wanted to write 70, as there are so many!
Falguni Nayyar
CEO, Nykaa
After completing a grand and successful career of over 25 years in financial services, in Kotak Mahindra Group as a Managing Director, Falguni Nayyar took an entrepreneurial plunge in 2012. She launched Nykaa.com, which is a premium beauty and wellness e-commerce platform for women.
She is an IIM Ahmedabad graduate and with her amazing skills, she has made Nykaa a substantial success in few years. It is already boasting of retail partnerships with the world’s high-end personal care companies like Unilever, P&G, L’Oreal, Beiersdorf, Johnson & Johnson. Also, it is looking forward to raising funds and expanding to new technologies, coming up with a mobile app and opening physical stores in India.
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal
Co-Founder & CMO, ShopClues.com
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal was fortified with a decade of marketing experience in various industries like retail, e-commerce, fashion & lifestyle, advertising & public relations before she co-founded Shopclues.com.
Shopclues is a fully managed marketplace with more than 7 million visitors every month. It serves nine thousand cities, towns and villages in India. Radhika has previously worked with Nordstrom, Goldman Sachs and Menlo Park, USA. She has an MBA degree from Washington University and also is a post graduate in Advertising and Public Relations.
Richa Kar
Co-founder & CEO, Zivame
Richa Kar is the co-founder and CEO of an online lingerie store, Zivame.com. Zivame is famous for being the first web platform having about two thousand styles to choose from. It was established in the year 2011 in Bangalore and has earned a great amount of success since then.
Richa conceptualised Zivame, as a place where women can explore and understand their lingerie needs, browse through various styles, sizes and get the goods delivered at their doorstep. Her attempt to make women’s shopping hassle free has indeed succeeded in India.
Sabina Chopra
Founder, Yatra.com
Sabina Chopra is the co-founded the famous online travel commerce platform; Yatra.com as her entrepreneur plunge. Before starting Yatra, she was the head of India’s operations of eBookers, Europe’s leading online travel company. She has also been employed with airline companies such as Japan Airlines.
Yatra has been her successful venture, and Sabina has been honoured during the second annual Women Leaders in India Awards, 2010 and was the winner in the Travel & Tourism group.
Shradha Sharma
Founder & CEO, YourStory Media Pvt.Ltd
Shradha Sharma is born and brought up in Patna. She is the founder of YourStory.com; India’s top media platform established for entrepreneurs for promoting and reporting about startups and entrepreneurial ecosystem.
She has previously worked renowned publications like The Times of India and CNBC TV18. While working, noticed that the young entrepreneurs had fewer platforms to voice their side of things freely. Then one night during her job, she started YourStory as a blog applying all the business skills which she had learned from working with newspapers and TV channels.
In the following years, this YourStory evolved as a referential and go-to platform for all entrepreneurs and investors in India to read about themselves or and their pears.
Shubhra Chadda
Co-founder, Chumbak
Shubhra Chadda is known for her co-founded brand Chumbak. It is an exclusive store selling Indianised, customised, funky apparel and home decor. The founders of Chumbak are husband and wife, who love to travel. During their travels, they both noticed that almost all other countries have adorable special souvenirs to offer, however, India has a less specialised variety of souvenirs beyond the typical Taj Mahal key chains.
This gave birth to the idea of Chumbak and bringing forth interesting Indian souvenirs. They started with quirky fridge magnets and made their way to establishing over 120 quirky retail stores across India.
Aditi Gupta
Founder, Menstrupedia
Indians still lack the awareness and proper mindset regarding menstruation. In spite of being in the modern age, there are many Indian women who cannot enter their kitchen, the temple or even their houses during menstruation. They are not allowed to bake, touch the pickle, and mostly have no clue about why they are being isolated from their own belongings. Amidst this situation, Aditi Gupta stood up with an innovative venture.
She had witnessed these situations herself while growing up in Jharkhand. Aditi started a Hindi comic book with her husband Tuhin Patel. This comic book is illustrated for educating girls and women about menstruation and making them aware that it is not a taboo. Now Aditi and Tuhin’s venture has developed and became a whole website called Menstrupedia.com. The website has a section of the comic book which simplifies the phenomena of menstruation, guides girls on hygiene, health tips, plus – answers to frequently asked queries. It sure is a venture which blends in profit and social wellbeing.
We are extremely proud of our talented women of the modern age who have utilised the power of technology, digital tools and used them innovatively for starting and developing their ventures.
At Deshpee, we too believe in the ability of Indian women to get ahead. Our team consists of a lot of women, and we’re very proud of them!
