Women entrepreneurs have amassed huge business empires featuring products with unique characteristics. In this era, we can see more bold women entering this business world, more opportunities are given to them to prosper on equal standards with other corporate giants. The following list of influential women entrepreneurs in India and their backstories will motivate you to conquer your dreams.
Divya Rathod, Founder of Silverynanos Innovation
Silverynanos foundation is an enterprise that primarily aims to develop products to help prevent UTIs and Divya has shared a personal story connecting her to the notion behind this enterprise. Divya started this company in February 2019 and has further diversified segmentation into Hapidry sprays, protecting fragments from germs and stains.
Vineeta Singh, Founder and CEO of sugar cosmetics
Sugar Cosmetics is a brand that believes in empowerment and provides wide-ranging cosmetic products for every event. Vineeta founded Sugar cosmetics in 2012 and is well known as a cruelty-free makeup brand. Some of their trending makeup kits include a Makeup starter kit, Everyday makeup kit, Matte attack, etc.
Aditi Gupta, Co-founder of Menstrupedia comic
Menstrupedia comic is a collection of stories about puberty to educate and empower the teenagers. Aditi founded Menstrupedia comic in 2014 and shares a very touching backstory of her childhood connecting to menstrupedia comics. She has taken the initiative to distribute the comics to the rural schools in India and has conducted workshops on menstruation. Further, this comic also includes creative craft ideas like homemade sanitary pads etc.
Falguni Nayar, Founder of Nykaa
Nykaa is a famous beauty and e-commerce platform that sells beauty and fashion products across the world. It was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Mumbai. This brand was well celebrated among female entrepreneurs as it was founded by a self-made female Indian billionaire and her success story has stood as an inspiration to every female entrepreneur in India.
Ankiti Bose, Founder and CEO of Zillingo
Zillingo is a technological and commerce platform in the fashion sphere that offers services like Z Trade, Z Connect, Sell on Zillingo, etc. It was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Singapore and has operations spanning in India, US, Australia etc. Ankita’s story has stood as a source of inspiration for e-commerce platforms across any industry.
Namita Thapar, CEO of Emcure Pharmaceuticals
Emcure Pharmaceuticals is an Indian multinational company involved in developing, manufacturing a wide-range of biopharmaceutical products worldwide in the form of capsules, pills, injectables etc. It was founded in 1981 by Satish Ramanlal Mehta and headquartered in Pune. Namita has become a role for every female entrepreneur by earning the title of CEO at Emcure.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Founder and Executive chairperson of Biocon
Biocon Limited is a biotechnology company that manufactures and develops affordable biosimilars, novel biologics, etc. Biocon was founded in 1978 and headquartered in Bangalore, India. It is well-known for addressing global medical needs with its innovative products.
Swati Bhargava, Founder of CashKaro
CashKaro is India’s largest cashback and coupons site and is funded by Ratan Tata. It offers discount codes for e-commerce platforms like Amazon India and offers on every online order on fashion, travel, food, and medicine. CashKaro was founded in 2013 and its parent organization is Pouring Pounds Ltd.
Vani Kola, Founder of Kalaari Capital
Kalaari Capital is a venture capital firm that concentrates on investing in information technology, software products, e-commerce, mobile, healthcare, etc. It provides early, mid-stage funding to start-ups in India and helps them grow their business. Kalaari Capital was founded in 2012.
Kamiya Jani, Founder of youtube channel Curly tales
Curly tales is India’s number 1 food and travel discovery channel and gained attention through its exclusive celebrity interviews and street stories. Before launching Curly tales, Kamiya was working as a Business Reporter and Television Anchor with ET NOW, CNBC TV18. Initially, it was started as a personal blog and now airs as a youtube channel featuring adventurous stories of travel, food, and celebrities.
Karishma Mehta, Founder and manager of Humans of Bombay
Karishma Mehta is the author of the book Humans of Bombay which covered untold stories of the inhabitants in Bombay. Later on, it was titled as her blog, which is now India’s largest blog, now it lends voice to the voiceless, connecting strangers with the emotion of togetherness. It was started in 2014 as a simple Facebook page.
Nandini Shenoy, Founder and CEO of Pinkvilla
Pinkvilla is an Indian online entertainment website that features stories about gossip, fashion in Bollywood, Tollywood, Hollywood, and Korean industries. It was founded in 2007 by Nandini, who was an ex-Microsoft employee and alumni of NIT, Karnataka.
Malini Agarwal, Founder of Missmalini Media
Missmalini Media is India’s number one source for the latest Bollywood gossip, Indian TV news, trends in the fashion world, lifestyle ideas etc. Malini is a digital influencer, author of “To the moon: How I Blogger my way to Bollywood. She started Missmalini Media in 2008 as an extension to gossip columns.
Chinu Kala, Founder Rubans Accessories
Rubans accessories is the fastest growing jewelry brand in the country and have emerged as India’s most loved Jewelry brand offering handcrafted collections. Chinu Kala founded Rubans 2014 and currently sets a new benchmark for the virtual market place. Their vision is making a woman believe that she is her favorite, every single day.
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, Co-founder of ShopClues
ShopClues is an Indian online marketplace for shopping and has become the largest merchant base of over 3.5 lakhs. Radhika is India’s first woman to enter the Unicorn club and currently serves as the Chief Business officer of the company. ShopClues was founded in 2011 and headquartered in Haryana, India.
Swetha Kurada, Head of bakery and Confectionery Compass Group India
Swetha is an experienced executive chef with a history in European breads and Patisserie in the hospitality industry. She is the youngest female executive chef in India and believes that food is more than just fuel.
Sairee Chahal, Founder and CEO of Sheroes
Sheroes is a women-only social platform, counseling helpline, resources, market place and is a community where women can start a safe conversation in matters ranging from health, career, and relationships. Sheroes was founded in 2013 and headquartered in New Delhi. It aims to deliver women a secure and trusted space to voice address their issues.
Ashwini Asokan, Founder and CEO of Mad Street Den
Mad Street Den is a computer vision, artificial intelligence company with a mission to make people all over the globe A.I natives. It renders services to empower new start-ups in the IT field. It was founded in 2013 and headquartered in Chennai.
Divya Gokulnath, Co-founder and director of Byju’s
Byju’s is an educational tech company that provides students with e-lessons on academic-related topics and are famous for their unique team of excellent teachers. She began her career as a teacher with 100 students and taught mathematics, English etc. Byju’s was founded in 2011 and headquartered in Bengaluru, India.
Ghazal Alagh, Founder of Honasa Consumer Private Limited
Honasa Consumer Private Limited is a private company that creates natural products safe for everyone and does business as Mamaearth, providing e-commerce service. The company primarily offers baby, hair, skincare products like creams, etc. It was founded in 2016 and is classified as companies limited by shares in the stock market.
The list isn’t over yet, there are more to come and you might even be one of them. No dream is too late to come true, just believe in yourself, find the right resources and begin your entrepreneurial journey. We are born to win no matter how many times we fail, if there’s still hope within you, nothing can ever stop you from reaching your destination.
