Category: Women Entrepreneur

Women Entrepreneur: Get the latest news and updates on Women Entrepreneur, along with relevant information and material on Women Entrepreneur. Explaining bits and bytes of business, startups and entrepreneurship.

Munmun Ganeriwal, Nutritionist and Fitness expert wins accolades for her contribution to the health and wellness sector

For almost fifteen years now, nutritionist and fitness expert, Munmun Ganeriwal, represents health and wellness sector.

– Munmun Ganeriwal has been honoured as “Best Nutritionist” by FEMINA presents 5th World Women Leadership Congress & Awards (WWLC) 2018 on 17th Feb,2018

– Munmun has also been awarded “Most Impactful Healthcare Leadership Award” by World Health & Wellness Congress & Awards on 14th Feb, 2018

– Her enterprise Yuktahaar has been recognized amongst “50 Best Wellness Companies- Global Listing” by World Health & Wellness Congress & Awards on 15th Feb, 2018

– Munmun promotes the philosophy of “Local food, Global spirit” and helps her clients develop permanent lifestyle and behaviour changes for better healthy lifestyle

For almost fifteen years now, nutritionist and fitness expert, Munmun Ganeriwal, represents health and wellness sector. Famous for offering customized dietary and exercise plans to her clients, founder of Yuktaahar, Munmun is passionate about her profession with a clear objective of making a difference to the society because she believes “Health Matters”.

She has been the driving force behind her successful enterprise “Yuktahaar”. With her immense experience and passion, she has created a niche for herself in the health & wellness industry in India.

Her contribution has been recognized in the sector and she has been honoured as “Best Nutritionist” by FEMINA presents 5th World Women Leadership Congress & Awards (WWLC) 2018. The WWLC identifies and celebrates the outstanding leadership and achievements demonstrated by Women leaders that are reflected by the distinct innovations and initiatives brought in by them in various private and public sectors.

Munmun has also been awarded “Most Impactful Healthcare Leadership Award” by World Health & Wellness Congress & Awards. Also Munmun’s enterprise, Yuktahaar has been recognized amongst “50 Best Wellness Companies- Global Listing” by World Health & Wellness Congress & Awards.

Munmun received the honour for excelling in her efforts to help transform the lives of individuals and families and make them healthy, fit and disease free.

Related Post: Why India needs more women entrepreneurs

Speaking on the occasion, Munmun said, “I am honoured to be selected by both FEMINA World Leadership Congress as well World Health Wellness Congress for these awards. We need to be creative when it comes to finding the right nutrition options for ourselves and our families, while maintaining active lives. This recognition gives me even more inspiration to continue creating unique, individualized programs for my clients that are easily implemented and maintained throughout their lives.”

Nominees were measured against criteria like future orientation; past track record; compliance, integrity and ethics; working in interdisciplinary teams; employing evidence-based practice; applying quality improvement etc.

Through her unique tailored nutrition and lifestyle approach, Munmun promotes the philosophy of “Local food, Global spirit” and helps her clients develop permanent lifestyle and behaviour changes for better healthy lifestyle. Her consultation program is a good fit for all irrespective of age group, gender, profession, and work. She works with a range of clients with diverse goals ranging from weight loss to fitness, from knowing how to deal with diabetes to PCOD and thyroid, from blood pressure to cholesterol, from infertility to fighting cancer.

Related Post: Meet Anuradha Tiwari, the TEDx speaker who is changing the face of digital marketing



About Munmun Ganeriwal

Munmun Ganeriwal is India’s only professional to have acquired both a Master’s Degree in Dietetics and International Certification of Health Fitness Instructor from the American College of Sports Medicine. She has also been studying and practicing Iyengar Yoga.

Over the last 15 years, Munmun Ganeriwal has worked as a Nutrition and Exercise Consultant with a diverse set of clients from all walks of life, of all age groups, varying fitness levels and varying medical histories and it constitutes of business leaders, actors, and celebrities, sports icons, professionals, students and homemakers across the globe. She helps her clients achieve sustainable weight loss and fitness by using a combination of her unparalleled scientific knowledge in Sports Science, Exercise and Nutrition and the age-old wisdom of eating right in a balance. This enables her to better cater to the needs of new urban Indians keeping in mind their modern lifestyle.

Related Post: 5 Things men entrepreneurs can learn from women entrepreneurs

Munmun Ganeriwal is a sought-after speaker and expert panelist at health, fitness & wellness events. From time to time, she has been invited as an esteemed speaker along with other global healthcare leaders to discuss, deliberate and analyse the current national and international trends and innovation, challenges as well as the future of Fitness and Nutrition in India and outside.

Munmun Ganeriwal is a frequent contributor of diet and fitness tips and articles to leading newspapers, magazines and websites, both in India and abroad. A reputed nutrition and fitness consultant, her expert advice on a range of topics related to healthy living is much sought-after. As the Founder of Yuktahaar, a holistic lifestyle transformation consulting company, she also shares valuable insights from her entrepreneurial journey. A few of the publications that has covered her inputs/ articles are Economic Times, Indian Express, Vogue, Business Standard, Times of India, Mumbai Mirror, Hindustan Times, The Asian Age, Live Mint, DNA and Mid-day.

Related Post: Patricia Narayan: A success story of a woman who earned 50 paise a day





Why India needs more women entrepreneurs

For quite a few years now, we have known that there is a major problem with India’s labour force: the women are missing.

For quite a few years now, we have known that there is a major problem with India’s labour force: the women are missing. Indian women are not only staying out of the workforce, they are doing so in increasing numbers across the board. The World Bank’s latest development update for India reiterates these trends but also draws attention to an interesting insight: Women employers tend to hire a significantly greater number of women.

Of course, this is partly the result of the kind of businesses that women set up in what is already a heavily gendered labour force. For example, a beauty salon or a small tailoring unit owned by a woman can be expected to mostly hire other women. Also, many of these women-owned firms have only a single worker, which also skews the picture. But the trend holds true even in medium-sized firms. This lends credence to the idea that a targeted focus on women’s entrepreneurship might be the tool needed to improve the labour force’s gender balance.

The World Bank’s report builds on a working paper by Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami, Sari Kerr and William Kerr, Will Market Competition Trump Gender Discrimination In India?, which finds “a clear pattern of gender segmentation in both manufacturing and services, where, for instance, about 90% of employees in female-owned business in unorganized manufacturing are females”. Gender segmentation is a double-edged sword in the sense that just like female-owned or female-led firms tend to hire more female workers, male owners and employers have the same tendencies. A 2014 paper, Political Reservations And Women’s Entrepreneurship In India, by Ghani and others noted that “97% of working men are employed in male-owned enterprises”. In the long run, such extreme levels of gender segmentation are obviously undesirable and inefficient. But in the short term, it may help to view this trend as a catalysing opportunity that will bring more women into the workforce.

In this context, it is worth considering why the labour force participation rate (LFPR) for working-age women (15 years and older) is so abysmally low in India—at about 27%, it performs only slightly better than Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Experts offer a whole host of reasons—that young women are studying longer; that as incomes have increased, women who worked only out of necessity have retreated to their homes (the first phase of the U-shaped female labour force function described by economist Claudia Goldin); that as agriculture has come under stress and rural women have been squeezed out of their farm jobs on the one hand, educated urban women haven’t moved into the workforce in considerable numbers on the other, etc. The pressures of urbanization, social norms and biases, and infrastructure issues put these trends in context but they still do not fully explain why the numbers are so low. Specifically, why have urban women, who seem to be the big drag on women’s overall LFPR, not been able to find a place in the country’s supposedly booming women-friendly services sector?



One reason for this is the lack of jobs overall, paired with men taking the lion’s share. Another reason is the quality of jobs. Women want jobs that are well-paying, close to their homes, and have flexible working hours, according to World Bank research, and these are hard to come by. Also, there are many jobs to which women’s access is restricted by law, such as those in mines and hazardous industries. Resolving this mess will, of course, require a multifaceted response from regulatory changes to public awareness campaigns to improving law and order so that women feel secure outside their homes. But encouraging entrepreneurship in women can be a good starting point: Women will be creating jobs and opportunities for themselves, and bringing other women on board.

India currently ranks 70 out of 77 nations on the Female Entrepreneurship Index, but moving up that index might not be as difficult as it seems. Certainly, long-term, structural reforms are needed but in the short term there are a few examples from around the world that indicate how targeted policy measures can deliver specific goals even when the rest of the infrastructure (such as ease of doing business, access to credit facilities and affordable childcare) may not be in place.

A good example here is Bangladesh, where the export-oriented garment industry has brought a large section of women into the workforce. Indeed, the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2017 notes that even though Bangladesh fares poorly in terms of its ‘women’s advancement outcomes’, ‘knowledge assets’, ‘financial access’ and ‘supporting entrepreneurial conditions’, it ranks sixth among 54 countries on ‘women business ownership’, while India is at the bottom of the pile along with Iran, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Ultimately, it is important to keep in mind that improving female LFPR is not just a women’s issue, or only about ensuring gender justice and equality—though they are worthy goals in themselves. When women have productive, paying jobs, they have greater agency and that has a positive impact on their men and children, which reflects in higher human development indices. In economic terms, a low LFPR slows down growth, while bringing women into the fold is known to increase GDP. In short, if India’s growth story has to translate into shared prosperity for all its people, then it cannot afford to have one half of its population sit out.





Style Storming: Nandini Goel’s brainchild which is looking to change the face of the Indian apparel industry

With hands-on experience from her family business combined with her love for garments, she found her calling.

Nandini Goel, the founder of Style Storming has always been passionate about the apparel industry. With hands-on experience from her family business which has designed clothes for big brands like Zara, F21 and Massimo Dutti combined with her love for garments, she found her calling. While working with numerous brands, she realised her potential of being able to set up something which would cater to the needs of the market.

Her main aim of setting up Style Storming is that she wants her customers to enjoy an amazing retail experience. Customization, mostly done devoid of extra charges, became her brand’s USP. She has made the efforts of helping out plus-sized women and making small changes like a wider A-lines and long sleeves because it has helped her cater to customer needs better. She also doesn’t believe in bringing down the prices to a level where the quality of the garments suffer.

The coming year will be an exciting one for the brand as it is launching two big collections: the spring and summer collections which together will account for tripling of the current catalogue. After having taken the first two years slow and understanding the market, Goel believes that it is now time to buck up. This means that the brand will be looking forward to a broader outreach and engage with customers in an offline space as well. Goel is also looking to introduce a men’s collection next autumn.

“Over the next few years, I am really looking to penetrating the Indian marketing deeper by using multiple portals to engage with my customers. I will also soon start shipping to a few select countries outside India.” -Nandini Goel

Goel’s vision to create a fast fashion label with a vertically integrated supply chain is a unique one as most Indian brands are well-known for faulty production practices. Her aim to create a high-quality workplace filled with happy workers does seem like ethics and sustainability might co-exist in the future!





9 women entrepreneurs who continue to inspire us

The list of women entrepreneurs below consists of savvy individuals who have faced several challenges and they will inspire you to some excitement.

Gender segregation has been continuously imposed in the world and it is hard to argue the fact that so are their respective works. There has been a stereotype view of gender segregation by considering man as the one looking after the house in monetary ways by going out working for bread and butter. On the other hand, a woman is supposed to be at home looking after how to make something useful out of the bread and butter.

But gone are those days, breaking the above view of woman’s profile, there are several successful women scripting their own success story. They are working hard enough to run from rags to riches and are truly influential and inspiring. These women snatched the opportunity to grow and made the best of it. And considering the numbers, between 2016 and 2017, the women-owned firms increased by 45%.

Over the past nine years, the number of women-owned firms is growing five times faster than the national average. The entrepreneurs are making important economic contributions to areas including hair salon owners, high-tech visionaries and everything in between.

The list of women entrepreneurs below consists of savvy individuals who have faced several challenges and they will inspire you to some excitement.

1. Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post

The founder of The Huffington Post, one of the largest digital media outlets in the U.S. She is a woman with strong views in life and an extremely successful entrepreneur. Later her site was acquired by AOL Inc. in 2011 at a value of $315 million, she still holds a strong position in its operation.

2. Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo

Indra Nooyi, born in Chennai, is the most well-known face amongst Indian women entrepreneurs, held several senior positions before joining PepsiCo. In 1994 she joined PepsiCo and was named the president and CFO in 2001. For her business achievements, she has been conferred with prestigious Padma Bhushan and inspired India’s corporate leadership. Within the last couple of years, she has helped her business accumulate 30 billion dollars worth of crucial deals.

Related Post: 5 Things men entrepreneurs can learn from women entrepreneurs



3. Shradha Sharma, YourStory

Shradha Sharma, from Patna, is the Founder and Chief Editor of YourStory, a website dedicated to entrepreneurs and startups. Her past experience was with Times of India and CNBC TV18 and was selected among the 500 LinkedIn influencers. Her struggle to stand up high is fruitful and has been an inspiration for other women.

4. Suchi Mukherjee, LimeRoad

LimeRoad, an e-commerce and lifestyle and accessories website was founded by Suchi Mukherjee in 2012. She has an idea of this when she was on maternity leave. The base was set as she worked in companies like Skype and Gumtree. Limeroad is conquering the world’s lifestyle products at a huge percentage by being discoverable by an approach thus making a mark in the social e-commerce span in India.

Related Post: 7 Indian women entrepreneurs who have carved a niche for themselves

5. Vicki Saunders, SheEO

SheEO is a global community of women to transform how they finance, support and celebrate female investors. Vicki Saunders is an American businesswoman, founder of SheEO. She has been named one of the 100 most influential leaders of 2015 from Empowering A Billion Women. She is a leading advocate for entrepreneurship as a way of creating positive transformation in the world.

6. Vandana Luthra, VLCC

VLCC has its presence in 11 countries across Asia, Africa and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). Vandana Luthra, born in Kolkata, West Bengal, initially, a homemaker started her journey in 1989 when the first of her two daughters was only 3 years-old. She had a good knowledge of beauty, skin care, fitness, food, and nutrition and was awarded the Padma Shri in 2013 and in 2015, by Fortune India, she was listed as the 33rd most powerful woman in business in India.

Related Post: How women didn’t let start-ups become the monopoly of men



7. Debbie Fields, Mrs. Fields’ cookies

Debbie Fields is the founder of the Mrs. Fields’ cookies, Debbie managed to break the image of a stereotype housewife. Though she had a sad story in the initial days without any sales, so she decided to give the cookies out for free. Later she started with her achievements and made a fortune with her baked goods.

8. Amanda Signorelli, Techweek

Amanda Signorelli, CEO of Techweek, which a multi-day conference held in multiple cities. The top goals of Amanda are diversity and tech week is weeklong celebration technology and entrepreneurship and a platform that brings tech startups.

Related Post: 5 challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in India

9. Shahnaz Husain, Shahnaz Herbals Inc.

Shahnaz Husain, known as the “Queen of Herbal Beauty Care” held a strong interest in beauty and cosmetic which made her discover Shahnaz Herbals Inc. The company has a collection of skin care products ‘without animal testing’. She was bestowed with Padma Shri award by the Government of India in 2006 and ‘World’s Greatest Woman Entrepreneur’ award by 1996 Success Magazine.

These women and much more have been a massive wave and they have shown the world that with determination and willingness to succeed, nothing is impossible. So, follow your dreams and you will do the best!

Related Post: Style Storming: Nandini Goel’s brainchild changing the face of the Indian apparel industry





Exclusive: Meet Anuradha Tiwari, The TEDx Speaker Who Is Changing The Face Of Digital Marketing

Anuradha Tiwari, a TEDx speaker, founder and CEO of JustBurstOut, among India Today’s Eight Unique Entrepreneurs of India, and much more.

Recently we had the chance to interview digital marketing veteran, Anuradha Tiwari. She is the founder and CEO of JustBurstOut, a digital marketing and branding agency. Anuradha is also a TEDx speaker and among India Today’s Eight Unique Entrepreneurs of India. She has helped more than 40 brands in India and globally to leverage the digital platform well to increase user growth. Her client list includes some big names like Apollo Hospital, FabIndia, Amity University, etc.

How did you get into branding and digital marketing?

I started my career in writing where I was involved in both creating campaigns as well as measuring its effectiveness. From there I went on to digital and brand promotion. From helping just one startup to taking care of 10 brands at the same time, it’s been an amazing journey. I have also kept myself educated since the SEO norms change in a span of months.

How do you make a strategy for a brand?

After getting a thorough idea about product or service, we focus on the target customer, which includes demographic information and customer who will walk through the door. My main motto is to carve out a distinctive identity of a brand.

What do you think is most important in branding?

I personally believe in not giving everything on a plate, but create some intrigue and allow customer to find more about your brand. Social media is a great way to reinforce your mission, but avoid indiscriminate discounting just to create new customers. Offer more, better.



How do you decide digital marketing budget?

It depends on what exactly client needs- do they need a complete inbound marketing plan or want to get the word out about the new service launch or simply looking for online conversions by 100%-200%. The goal helps translate how much do you spend- tools, SEM, email, social management etc.

Do you consider what your competitors are doing?

Of course. Well, I don’t follow their strategies, but I need to stay updated on industry trends. Are we ranking below in search? Are we out of date? With so many accessibility of tools, spying has become much easier. The best part is you can use their mistakes to figure out how to stand out.

What do you want to say to upcoming startups?

Branding strategy is the most important of a business plan but most startups opt for branding once they have everything in place, which results in taking a toll on an existing budget. So, it is crucial to get organized with the cold, hard numbers before you start planning your budget.

Related Post: Style Storming: Nandini Goel’s brainchild changing the face of the Indian apparel industry





5 things all entrepreneurs could learn from Kim Kardashian

Apart from being a sensation on Instagram, Kim Kardashian is also a very successful entrepreneur who has built a huge empire for herself.

Kim Kardashian is a popular model, actress and reality show star. Apart from being a sensation on Instagram, she is also a very successful entrepreneur who has built a huge empire for herself.

Here are five things every entrepreneur could aspire to learn from Kim Kardashian:

i. She started young

She might have gotten popular only after her hit reality show Keeping Up with the Kardashians but very less people know that she started engaging in business at a really young age. She worked at a drug store before starting her own business on eBay. She claims that her father had always taught them to earn money if they wanted money, so, that’s what she went ahead and did.

Related Post: Lessons entrepreneurs can learn from Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma

ii. The power of branding

Complain all you want to about Kim K selling lame stuff but that woman does know how to brand all the merchandise she sells. She makes sure her name and face (plus body parts) are there on all her products- lip glosses, tee-shirts, cups, posters etc. Whatever business you choose to look at, you will discover Kim K’s products with her name and stamp on them.

iii. Big on publicity

Not every superstar can claim publicity the way this woman does. She has created an empire out of a sex tape and through her reality show which features her and her family; she has managed to gain publicity across the world. From cutting her hair to taking a holiday, anything she does become international news instantly.

Very few entrepreneurs can actually claim to be able to it but putting themselves out on a public forum.

Related Post: 6 Lessons every entrepreneur should learn from Mark Zuckerberg

iv. Social media marketing

Nobody uses social media platforms as well as Kim Kardashian does. It all started with her sex tape being leaked on the internet but she turned it around to receiving followers and building and engaging with her audience on social media. She understood the power of social media and used it well to converse with her audiences. Currently, a single tweet by Kim Kardashian is estimated to be around $20,000.

v. Continue being in the spotlight

Kim Kardashian is aware of the fact that she is a public figure and treats the media with civility. She graces the paparazzi by posing outside restaurants and public events. By pausing and posing for a minute, she gains a million followers each day.

Related Post: 5 entrepreneurial lessons from Bill Gates





Meet Uppma Virdi: Australia’s businesswoman of the year

Uppma Virdi, a 26 year old girl, from Chandigarh, recently made the whole country proud by winning the coveted Australian Business Woman of the Year for her tea business called Chai Walli.

Uppma Virdi, a 26 year old girl, from Chandigarh, recently made the whole country proud by winning the coveted Business Woman of the Year at the 2016 Indian Australian Business and Community Awards (IABCA) in Sydney last week. She achieved this great feat by simply turning her love for Indian tea (chai) into a business she wanted to propagate across continents.

“My grandfather is an Ayurvedic doctor and he used to make this Ayurvedic tea at his medical dispensary. He taught me the art of Ayurvedic tea. Wherever I go I make tea… My parents’ number one request is ‘Uppma, make some tea.’ When my brother got married, I think I would have made a thousand cups of tea for all the guests. Even when I went overseas to Austria on a scholarship, I used to make tea for everyone. It was a way of bringing people together.” – Uppma Virdi

Related Post: Anjana Reddy goes all WROGN with Virat Kohli to pocket Rs 100 crore

She was working as a lawyer at a firm when suddenly the idea of opening up her chai shop appealed to her. She started her tea business called “Chai Walli” which translates to female tea seller almost two years back. Proud of the Indian style of making tea, she wanted to share her culture with everyone across Australia as well. Slowly, her business started gaining popularity and soon became one of the biggest in the country. That propelled her to become one of the most successful business people.



Currently, Virdi has an online store from which people worldwide can make purchases. All the blends on the website are natural, organic, devoid of sugar, vegan, gluten-free, ayurvedic and grown organically. The lists of products available on the website include:

  • Organic Assam Tea
  • Chai
  • Chai Caffeine Free
  • Herbal Tea
  • Jaggery
  • Chai Pot
  • Kettles & Strainers
  • Chai Candles
  • Chai greeting cards
  • Chai apparel
  • Monsieur Truffe Chai Chocolate

She also conducts “The art of Chai” workshops which help people learn the correct way of brewing chai.

To avail wonderful blends and know more about chai, log on to https://chaiwalli.com.au

Related Post: Success story: Nina Lekhi and her struggles to make Baggit reach the pinnacle of success





Anjana Reddy goes all WROGN with Virat Kohli to pocket Rs 100 crore

Anjana Reddy, Founder of Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd (USPL), which owns the brands Collectabillia, Imara and Wrogn is not your usual girl.

They say that breaking away from legacy is the hardest thing to do for the fourth generation individual in a business family. These individuals cannot survive in an environment governed by age-old structures that do not move with the times. It is only honourable that these young seekers who are soul-searching and looking for a place in the business universe go out and ruffle some feathers in industry.

Anjana Reddy, Founder of Universal Sportsbiz Pvt Ltd (USPL), which owns the brands Collectabillia, Imara and Wrogn is not your usual girl. She is a go-getter who works 18-hours a day, loves cars, cares for eight dogs and builds Lego sets to ease her mind after a hard day’s work. If one meets this 28-year-old on the street they would not be able to tell that she runs a Rs 61-crore business well on its way to becoming a Rs 100-crore business by the end of this financial year. Nevertheless, her tenacity to succeed is what made her to break away from the beast of legacy that kills many a fertile mind in business families.

Related Post: 5 challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in India

She’s so unusual

It’s 9 am in the morning and Anjana is already wrapping up her first meeting with her marketing team.

After that she is constantly in meetings with her design teams and vendors. She minces no words when she commands them to meet “delivery timelines” of the clothing lines on order. She has at her beck and call over 100 factories that make clothing for her brands Wrogn (men’s clothing line), and Imara (women’s clothing line). By late afternoon she is working out the sales projections for the next quarter and is readying the launch of her third brand soon.



Anjana loathes slow progress. The recent lock-outs in Bengaluru because of political unrest has got her concerned about her delivery schedules. “I cannot have my trucks waiting at the border. It delays my supplies to the consumer and I cannot lose the consumer,” she says.

Related Post: Why Bangalore is the perfect breeding ground for entrepreneurs

By evening she has a coterie of celebrities that she has to handle. “Yes, I will get it done,” she says to a high-profile person, who is the wife of a south Indian superstar. “I cannot ignore her,” she adds. Late in the evening she has several phone calls with investors and then reclines in her chair deep in the knowledge that it is only 9 pm and she still has four more hours of work to catch up on.

Image credit: chaibisket.com

With the likes of Virat Kohli and Shraddha Kapoor as her brand ambassadors Anjana Reddy has her schedule blocked for the next six months. This entire bustle is part of a plan to build the most well-known brand in the country for the youth. No wonder no one knows the face behind the brands other than the famous people representing them.

Related Post: 10 Lessons every entrepreneur and startup should learn from Virat Kohli

“There is a reason I do this. There is no brand that is youth-focussed and aspirational,” says Anjana Reddy. She adds that to create a brand one must understand aspiration, the quality of the material and the styling, and not just playing to discounts. She makes it very clear that the GMV game played by e-commerce companies is not sustainable. To scale up she followed a 60:40 offline-to-online strategy, which has worked to bring in revenues.

Her brands sell in 73 Shoppers Stop stores, as a shop-in-shop, and retails in e-commerce sites like Myntra. She has six offline stores owned by her company of her brands and is planning to launch at least 100 more stores by the end of next year. Currently, the company retails around 15 lakh units a year and is in the process of closing its Series-C round. Anjana reveals that she is expected to close a large round of funding, which will go into adding four more warehouses across the country to the current one and in strengthening the brand along with the supply chain.

Anjana and her 350-member-strong team are all set to become a Rs 500-crore business by 2019. But that’s not how the story began back in 2010.

Related Post: 5 ways Amazon is nailing the e-commerce business in India



Breaking free from legacy

After finishing her graduation –in 2011 and her post graduate studies in the US, Anjana had three options. She could join her family’s media business, take up a corporate job in the US or do the most difficult of all things, which was to become an entrepreneur. Eventually, she chose to become an entrepreneur. Interestingly, she founded a company called Collectabillia in her final year in college. The premise was to source sports products and paraphernalia owned by super stars and sell them online.

Since her family owned the cricket franchise team called Deccan Chargers at one time – and the fact that in the USA, where she was studying, branded sports merchandise was a big business – Anjana conceived this idea around sports memorabilia. She began sourcing goods from sports agencies that handled the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and footballers playing in the English Premier League. “Again I was obsessed with building a brand and I went all out to work with the best sporting names,” says Anjana.

Eventually, in 2012, Sachin Tendulkar became one of the co-investors in a Series-A round in Collectabillia, when the company raised $2.7 million. At the time Anjana was over the moon because she had chased Sachin for over a year for his involvement. “It’s not easy to get people to back a youngster with an idea,” she says. Accel Partners had partnered in that first round too betting on the fact that there was a room to build brands away from the usual e-commerce businesses. They eventually put in $7.26 million to build this company.

Related Post: 8 signs you might be cut out for entrepreneurship

Just when she thought she had it made, the sports memorabilia business did not scale up. The company had burnt close to a million dollars and Anjana had to make a quick decision to turn around the business. She noticed that branded apparel – endorsed by celebrities – was selling very well on the platform. In late 2013 she met investors and explained to them that she could make a turn around by launching two apparel brands. There were people within the industry who wrote the youngster off. With just 30 people on board at the time she brought in some designers to build a clothing line. She quickly launched two brands – Imara and Wrogn.

Things were not easy, as the factories that USPL approached in 2014 asked them to provide huge guarantees and did not want to supply small quantities. Anjana made USPL take that bet and worked on her masterstroke business strategy.

Related Post: Top 5 pitfalls Indian e-commerce sellers should look out for



The bet on Virat

In the summer of 2014 she made an unprecedented bet that could have made her business or killed it. Virat Kohli was going through a tough series in England and all the punters had written him off, saying his best had passed. Even Virat himself was not sure of signing up with a brand called Wrogn especially after failing to perform in the England series. However, the persistence from Anjana’s team prevailed over the cricketer’s reluctance and they convinced him that he was signing up with a brand that was catering to his fan base.

The next thing you know, it all played out like a fairy tale. The brand became a runaway success and Virat became a bigger star than before because of his exploits in Australia in late 2014. In six-months’ the youth began to look at the brand as a clothing line owned by Virat Kohli.

Now combined with the success of Imara, the company began to increase its revenues and it closed the financial year 2014-2015 with Rs 24 crore in revenue. The last financial year it more than doubled its revenues to close at Rs 61 crore.

Related Post: Why do Indian entrepreneurs ignore the Indian-Ness of their customers?

“We invested in Collectabillia when most others were wary of a brand-centric model,” says Mahendran Balachandran, partner at Accel Partners. He says that there was a clear white space in the 16-to-35-year-age group fashion category. “While some of the international brands were able to enter the market early, there were still gaps when it came to product and style assortment at affordable price points,” says Mahendran.

So the bet paid off for Anjana when she decided to create high-quality, celebrity-led fashi

“Building a brand is what we set out to do more than a decade ago and it is important for every entrepreneur, regardless of the industry that they cater too, to think of building a brand,” says Kishore Biyani, Chairman and MD of Future Group. He says it was very important to understand young India’s aspiration to build a fashion brand.

Mahendran adds that building a brand had inherent challenges and risks. “It was our strong faith in the founding team that hedged our risk,” he says.

Related Post: Style Storming: Nandini Goel’s brainchild changing the face of the Indian apparel industry



The company is yet to turn profitable. If you look at all retail businesses they work on high volumes and low margins. The average break-even period for a brand is five years. USPL has all the right ingredients to launch multiple brands and it will focus on reaching consumers in smaller cities.

For Anjana the future is only secure when she knows that she has built multiple brands that associate with the consumer, and the celebrity is the face of it. She is happy to be sitting back and making things work at the corporate level as a leader. Her younger brother Vikram Reddy supports her in running the operations of the company. No doubt her qualities are bestowed upon her by the blessings of her parents and grandparents, whom she considers as her inspiration.

This article was originally published in YourStory

Image credit: Pocket News Alert

Success story: Nina Lekhi and her struggles to make Baggit reach the pinnacle of success

She was featured in Fortune Magazine’s list of Most Powerful Women in 2015 and received the Woman Entrepreneur of the year award in the same year.

“When you are passionate about something, you won’t leave”

A firm believer of the statement above, Nina Lekhi is the founder of Baggit and a very successful entrepreneur. She was featured in Fortune Magazine’s list of Most Powerful Women in 2015 and received the Woman Entrepreneur of the year award in the same year. In 1984, when she was merely 18, she got an idea to make bags with attitude which is she worked towards achieving.

Once she started designing bags, she believed that she had it in her to become an entrepreneur. With support from extremely encouraging parents, she decided to become an entrepreneur and sell bags which exuded attitude. She also believes that the challenges she faced were more internal than the ones the external environment forced her to face. Her attitude was one of a winner which inspired her to never quit despite all the failures that she faced in her business initially. As the business progressed, she also learnt that direct interaction with customers helped her gain a lot of insights about the business.

“My greatest achievement is that my design and creativity has led to a large product portfolio and growing business. But this alone would not have been enough. I also have a loving and balanced family life. And I have managed this with a great work-life balance approach.” -Nina Lekhi

She also believes that women can multitask better which is the success of her business. Baggit won the PETA Vegan Fashion Awards 2014 for the Best Brand in Women’s Wallet category.

Currently Baggit has its presence in 61 cities across India with 40 exclusive Baggit outlets and presence in 300 multi brand retail stores.

Related Post: How Vijay Shekhar Sharma started – Life of Paytm’s founder

Image credit: Getty Images





Richa Kar founder Zivame: Making her way to glory and success

Lingerie for the longest time has been a taboo topic in India. However, with Richa Kar starting up her own e-commerce portal which deals with different types of lingerie, women are coming forth to buy new and more cutting-edge brassiere.

Lingerie for the longest time has been a taboo topic in India. However, with Richa Kar starting up her own e-commerce portal which deals with different types of lingerie, women are coming forth to buy new and more cutting-edge brassiere.

Richa Kar had an engineering degree from Pilani post which she worked in an IT firm. However, she was always interested in learning how businesses worked which is why she went ahead to get a MBA degree from NMIMS. After completing her MBA, she worked in the retail sector where studying a global lingerie brand was her job. This got her thinking about the category in India which was underdeveloped and unexplored due to various reasons like presence of male salesmen, unavailability issues etc.

Related Post: How Vijay Shekhar Sharma started – Life of Paytm’s founder

However, this idea wasn’t completely accepted by her parents initially as selling bra-panties in the country isn’t considered to be a respectable profession. With passing time, the apprehensions started wearing off and her idea started blossoming.



In 2011, Kar started the website called Zivame with 35 lakhs which were her own savings and contributions from friends, however, soon she got funding from Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures. Post the initial funding, Zivame has been able to raise $48 million from Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Zodius Technology Fund, Unilazer Ventures, IDG Ventures India and Kalaari Capital. This money has been used to up the ante when it comes to customer service by developing new products and marketing.

Related Post: Success story of Sachin Bansal: The entrepreneur who almost shut down Flipkart

Zivame, in Greek, means the radiant me and has grown leaps and bounds in the past five years with sales rising by 5x in 4 years. Currently, the brand has a fitting salon in Bangalore and plans to launch many more across the country. In the future, she plans to make the company bigger and fill the existing gaps in the lingerie sector.

Related Post: Inspiring stories of Indian women entrepreneur: How they stood against the society and worked against the odds





5 challenges faced by women entrepreneurs in India

It isn’t very easy for women to break the age-old stereotypes and work as effortlessly as they’d like to.

With changing times, women in India have broken the household stereotype and are boldly starting up businesses. The start-up scene which mostly saw men innovating is now experiencing a paradigm shift where women are coming forth to give them stiff competition. However, it isn’t very easy for women to break the age-old stereotypes and work as effortlessly as they’d like to.

Here are a few challenges business women face in the country:

1. Prioritization

Constantly caught between household chores and the business they’d like to dedicate their life to, women are struggling to dedicate all their time to a business. Prominent in tier-II and tier-III cities, women are often chained back due to the responsibilities they owe to their families. This poses as a hindrance to their professional growth.

Related Post: 7 common mistakes made by new entrepreneurs

2. Marketing problems

To enter a field which has been dominated by males, is a daunting task for women. Men have also ruled over the marketing zone for many years which is why women find themselves lagging behind in this area. They have to rely on middlemen and outsource these tasks to capture bigger markets which eat up a major chunk of their profits.



3. Limited access to resources

Women are often looked down upon with suspicion in this country when they ask for a space to run their business. The attitude of the society in general towards a woman trying to compete in a man’s world is deterring. This also results in women receiving lesser access to varied resources like raw materials, labour, machinery etc.

Related Post: 5 things every entrepreneur can learn from Chak De India

4. Funding issues

Venture capitalists look to invest in businesses which are promising. However, they have the general pre-conceived notion that women aren’t dedicated towards the cause and might leave the business any time. This belief leads to lesser capitalists investing in women-run businesses. What is worse is that their scope of funding via angel investors also gets limited due to the same reason.

5. Male-dominated society

The constitution and social media speak of equality between the sexes, but, no one can deny the fact that the country is still a patriarchal and male-dominated society. Due to this regressive belief, women are considered weak and economically unstable which hinders their chances of starting up a successful venture. Any deviation from this belief isn’t treated very favourably which is why women have to work doubly hard to make things happen.

Related Post: India’s 15 most successful female entrepreneurs

However, many women have come forth to overcome these difficulties and have carved a niche for themselves in the Indian entrepreneurial scene. A few of the powerful women entrepreneurs are Upasna Taku, founder of Mobikwik, Sabina Chopra, founder of Yatra.com, Richa Kar, founder of Zivame, Falguni Nayyar founded Nykaa etc.





Women-focused jobs portal Sheroes gets $1.8 mn from Lumis Partners, others

Sheroes, a career platform for women, has raised Rs 12 crore in a Series A round of funding led by Gurgaon-based investment firm Lumis Partners.

Sheroes, a career platform for women, has raised Rs 12 crore in a Series A round of funding led by Gurgaon-based investment firm Lumis Partners.

The HR Fund, angel investor Rajul Garg and existing investor Raghav Bahl-led Quintillion Media also participated in the round, according to a press statement.

The transaction is part of a larger commitment, it said, without elaborating.

Sairee Chahal, founder of Sheroes, said the startup will use the funds to invest in technology, resources and growing its business.

Utkarsh Joshi, CEO of The HR Fund, said Sheroes is the fund’s fifth investment and is a “perfect fit” for its portfolio.



As part of the investment, Sandeep Sinha, co-founder and managing partner of Lumis Partners, and Pankaj Bansal, a promoter and director at The HR Fund, will join the board of Sheroes.

The startup, operated by Applied Life Pvt. Ltd, had last year raised angel funding from Quintillion Media, 500 Startups and a clutch of investors including Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Google’s Rajan Anandan and Flipkart’s Binny Bansal.

Related Post: Why Big Bazaar tied up with Paytm

Launched in January 2014, the startup works with companies to provide support for their workforce needs and helps them build women-centric channels. It claims that about 12,000 companies actively use the platform. It also runs a career support helpline via phone and app.





How female co-founders can be a tremendous asset to any startup

Female co-founders could serve as a tremendous asset for any startup because it brings a diversity of views, experiences and thought processes into the board room.

Entrepreneurship does not come easy and more so when it comes to startups. While trust and synergy between founding members is a fundamentally important thing, gender diversity within core teams are also crucial in building successful businesses.

There is no universal plan for creating a perfect startup team. However, the general sentiment is that female co-founders could serve as a tremendous asset for any startup because it brings a diversity of views, experiences and thought processes into the boardroom.

“A woman brings a fresh approach to problem solving and distinctive leadership styles that can bring in different viewpoints to a particular task or activity,” says Zappfresh, co-founder, Deepanshu Manchanda.

“Encouraging diversity in perspectives is key to making better decisions and attracting top talent,” he adds. Manchanda co-founded Zappfresh, an online meat delivery startup along with Shruti Gochhwal in July 2015.



“Shruti comes with an analytical bend of mind to our operations. Women are known to be adept at multi-tasking, which is a big plus in a small team,” says Manchanda. “Our team is also well balanced, with me being more aggressive in daily operations and she infusing calmness in the most chaotic parts of our supply chain,” he adds.

Since women make up 70% of the startup’s target group, understanding them is key to good business for Zappfresh, feels Manchanda. “Right from food tasting to understanding the right quality of meat, Shruti understands the pulse of the normal homemaker,” he adds.

Calling Shruti ‘the engine’ of the company, Manchanda says, “We see her coming up with great negotiation deals with vendors. Managing the cash outflow is also one of the most crucial parts of running a successful startup.”

Greater role

Female co-founders could also be great assets in other businesses like healthcare and education, feels PurpleHealth.com, CEO, Vikram Nair, a digital health platform that gives people greater control, choice and flexibility in connecting with doctors and healthcare providers. Nair co-founded the startup in 2014 along with Prakash Sathyapalan and Mini Balaraman.

“In healthcare, it is vital to have a female viewpoint because women health issues are very different than that of men and more often than not, they are the main health decision makers for the family,” says Nair. “Having a woman as a partner can be helpful in understanding these issues in detail, so that better products can be designed. This kind of diversity improves our ideas as a company and only makes us stronger and better,” he says.

Nair goes on to add that any startup would benefit from having female co-founders. “In Mini’s case, she manages our entire operations very well. As a co-founder, she is intrinsic to our success and brings stability, dedication and a wealth of experience at both technical and operational levels. In fact, I would go as far as to advice all startups to look for women co-founders, if they already do not have them,” he explains.

Poyni Bhatt, COO at the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) feels that given the skewed gender proportion, women as entrepreneurs or in leadership roles bring immediate visibility to an organization. “It is said that women are more intuitive and better in soft-skills. This helps them in networking, negotiation and in relating to people much faster.

Having played different roles, women entrepreneurs are emotionally stronger, good at multi-tasking as well as bringing order and discipline in any organization. Thus, they are better equipped to deal with the startup chaos,” she says. SINE manages a technology business incubator at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay.



The calmness

Bhatt says that conflicting situations in a startup are better dealt with when there is a female cofounder, considering their less fragile ego. “By virtue of gender, women come across as more sensitive than men. Organization culture is much more humane and people-friendly under women leaders. My personal observation is that women look at a work problem much deeper than men, and try to work on it end-to-end,” she adds.

Cofounders at Mydala, a mobile coupon and discount marketing platform site, CFO Arjun Basu, and CTO Ashish Bhatnagar feel that having CEO Anisha Singh as a co-founder makes for a complete startup team.

“Anisha is a quick decision-maker. She is an energetic and spontaneous person. She is also a good leader who leads by example. Her thought process is particularly useful in our area of specialization – which is related to the health and beauty vertical. She is also very good at thinking about what the user is looking for – the customer perspective,” says Bhatnagar.

“She brings balance and perspective. She will point out key points that none of us may have thought about or tend to miss. We joke that her attention limit in any meeting is 20 minutes, but what we do not tell her is that those 20 minutes tend to be the most productive because of her intuitive nature,” he adds.

Basu finds Anisha very bold and creative, which, he says, is a rare combination. “She is very comfortable with change and keeps a tab on what is going on in the market. That makes Mydala a place that is always trying out new things and ‘innovation’ is the norm here. She brings a lot of energy to the conversation, is self-deprecatingly funny and always has an eye on the future,” he adds.

This article was originally published in ET Tech

Image Credit: indiaspeaksnow.com



Inspiring stories of Indian women entrepreneur: How they stood against the society and worked against the odds

As these women are succeeding in their ventures, they are also making it clear to the society that hard work, determination, ambition and leadership are not the traits limited only to men

“If You Are Determined, No Hurdle Is Big Enough To Stop You From Achieving What You Want”

After having been kept away from showing their talent to the patriarchal society for generations, women have now started coming out of their homes and no wonder, they are actually taking things to an altogether different level. Be it politics, sports, sciences or even startups, women have won quite a lot of applause and exhibited notable skills everywhere. Burdened with both responsibilities, that of the home and of their startup as well, women are proving themselves efficient, besides, for long, being the caring family members.

As these women are succeeding in their ventures, they are also making it clear to the society that hard work, determination, ambition and leadership are not the traits limited only to men. Shyness, fear or hesitation is not a part of women’s personality anymore. They are confident, intelligent and ready to take on the challenges of the world.

So, sit back, let the femininity flow and read the inspiring stories of these Women Entrepreneurs.

Anisha Singh

With a master’s degree in political communication and an MBA degree in Information Systems from the American university in Washington DC, Anisha started her first job with the Clinton administration where she helped women entrepreneurs raise funding for their ideas. Later, she worked at Centra software in Boston before returning to India.

After working for years, she got into entrepreneurship when she founded mydala.com in 2009. Her idea and her efforts reaped sweet fruits as her startup is now amongst the leading online portals of the country.

The company’s name is derived from the Sanskrit word “dala” which means group. It’s a marketing portal which connects merchants and consumers and allows users to purchase offers from Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Docomo and Aircel via ecommerce. Headquartered in New Delhi, the company which she co-founded with Ashish Bhatnagar and Arjun Basu has already received two rounds of funding i.e. INR 1.1 Cr. from angel investors and in 2011 it raised a total of $6 Mn.

Swati Bhargava

At the age of 16, while other students of her age were still figuring about their school examination preparations, this girl from Ambala had already obtained a scholarship to study in Singapore. A determined Swati later graduated from London School of Economics and for the next 5 years worked with Goldman Sachs in London.

But, soon she realised clocking in and out for others was not what she wanted to do. And then she founded Pouring Pounds with her husband Rohan Bhargava in July 2010. Pouring Pounds is a B2B startup used by the brands to manage cashbacks and vouchers. Continuing her entrepreneurial streak, Swati ventured into the Indian startup ecosystem by launching a cashback website, Cashkaro.com, in November 2012. With over 500 partners including the likes of Myntra, Yatra, Snapdeal, Flipkart and Jet Airways, Cashkaro.com, today, is one of the leading coupon portals of the country. Headquartered in Gurgaon, the company has reportedly received a funding of $750,000 from angel investors. Associated with various startup and tech initiatives such as the Nasscom 10,000 girls in tech, Sheros and TiE, Swati is also amongst the most active entrepreneurs on social media.



Richa Kar

After acquiring her degree in Engineering from BITS Pilani and Master’s from Narsee Monjee Institute of management studies, Richa worked with several global retailers before starting Zivame.com.

Zivame, a web portal which got its name from the Hebrew word, ziva meaning radiant, offers over two thousand lingerie products.

It was founded in 2011 in Bangalore and from six thousand users in the first year, Zivame now caters to over seventeen lakh users, 85% of whom bought lingerie online for the first time.

Richa does seem to have started an all new genre in the online fashion industry.

Priya Maheshwari

Priya got her masters’ degree from University of Pennsylvania and worked as a policy expert in New York before she moved to Bangalore and co-founded Properji.com along with IIT Alumni Guruprasad Bangle, Umesh Rangasamy and Naveen Galithoti.

With the aim of introducing transparency and professionalism in the market of property, the startup was brought to life in August 2013. The startup claims to provide research based facts to guide the buyer to buy the perfect house of their dreams.

The startup had received over 500 sign ups from the users and the total value of the property they have dealt in, sums up to a massive INR 19 Cr.

Radhika Aggarwal

An MBA from Washington University, Radhika has been a part of an executive program at Stanford University. Before co-founding Shopclues.com in 2011 with Sanjay Sethi, Devesh Rai G, Vishal Sharma, and her Husband Sandeep Aggarwal, she ran a fashion blog out of US known as fashionclues.com.

With 14 years of diverse marketing experience, she started one of the highest growing online marketing portals. Shopclues experienced a growth of over 600 percent in the year 2012 alone. Backed by Helion Venture Partners, Nexus Ventures and Netprice’s CEO Teruhide Sato, the startup has recently raised $100 Mn in series D funding. They have close to 33,000 partners and are expanding at a fast rate. Also, reports continue to roll in about a possible acquisition of shopclues.com by flipkart.



Falguni Nayyar

Falguni has a degree in economics from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics and Post graduate diploma IIM Ahmedabad. A veteran in the field of financial planning with an experience spanning over 25 years, Falguni eventually quit her job to be an entrepreneur. In April 2012, she launched Nykaa, a women centric ecommerce portal providing beauty and wellness products. Focused on providing the best beauty and wellness products, the startup targets the urban women of the modern India. Last year, Nykaa.com raised undisclosed sum through private investors including NRIs and HNIs. They aim to utilize this money for their expansion plans.

Aditi Avasthi

OMG! Its exam time! That’s the reaction of every parent, tutor and teacher when the exams are nearing, and that multiplies manifold if the exam is for entrance to some high level institution with a next to nothing selection ratio. But, in this chaos, everyone joins the rat race and nobody bothers to think about the solution.

After facing similar challenges during her exams back in 1999 and graduating from Thapar University, Aditi got an MBA from the University of Chicago and founded Embibe, in 2012. Embibe focuses on technology and data combination to help students prepare better for the competitive examinations. The startup focuses on creating a personalized preparation routine for the user and it raised $4 Mn from investors Kalaari Capital and venture fund LightBox.

Preeta Sukhtankar

When several years of experience in media and branding was combined along with a desire to start something new, that was when an ecommerce company called The Label Corp was founded. The company focuses on celebrity expertise for suggestions and acts like an “editorial” brand. The genius behind this idea is Preeta Sukhtankar, a graduate from St. Xavier’s College.

Sporting brand tie-ups with celebrities like Suzanne Khan, Malaika Arora Khan and Bipasha Basu, the startup has plans of further expanding its celebrity portfolio and also of creating virtually real-time environment for its users with the expertise of top celebrities in the industry. Label Corp has reportedly raised $1-2 Mn from Kalaari Capital.

Pranshu Bhandari

Available as a website, as well as iOS and Android app, CultureAlley provides audio-visual lessons to help its users learn language from the comfort of their homes. Personalized in real-time to serve to the needs of the user, it can be accessed even while browsing Facebook or Twitter.

Pranshu, a grad from NMIMS, Mumbai, co-founded the startup along with Nishant Patni and a team of six others in December 2012.

CultureAlley has received a total of $345,000 from angel investors in three rounds of funding. The startup has a userbase of over 400 thousand users in 220 countries around the globe.

Rashi Narang

After she checked out local markets for her dog Sara, Rashi found out that they were below par and that was when the idea of found HUFT hit her head.

Launched in 2008, Heads Up For Tails is an initiative which aims to serve to the needs of dog owners who wish to pamper their little source of joy. From dog beds and apparels to healthy food and nutrients, the online pet store provides a wide range of accessories for the pets. Rashi has a masters’ degree in human resource management from the London School of Economics and has also spent several years working in the banking industry.

The company is an all women team and Rashi works along with Shreya and Tanya. Apart from this, they also provide services such as party organizers and planners for your pets.

Sairee Chahal

Due to several reasons like marriage and family extension, many women leave their established careers with a desire to return back later. But, only a handful of them actually return to pursue their career.

Sairee, the founder of Sheroes.in, established the company in January 2014 with a mission to empower women and help them find a suitable job which they might have been deprived of due to several reasons. Sheroes.in by getting the women a job, tries to provide them with an opportunity to get back on their feet again.

Sairee also runs Applied Life, a firm focused at connecting women to their careers. Apart from an entrepreneur, she is also a renowned speaker on workflex, social entrepreneurship, women development, media and branding.

Sakshi Tulsian

Sakshi has an engineering degree from Bharatiya Vidyapeeth College of Engineering, New Delhi and has worked with several software companies including Sapient technologies, Technoapex and Web sanchar before she finally co-founded Posist with her husband, Ashish Tulsian in September 2011.

Posist is an SaaS-based eatery management system for the country’s growing restaurant industry. The main features include customer relationship management, inventory, delivery, take-away and table orders. The web-based service provider had raised approximately INR 3 Cr. via LetsVenture and plans to expand its user base over the country.

Suchi Mukherjee

Limeroad is a well known fashion discovery portal which provides the users with the latest range of products and accessories, 80 percent of which are unique to their own portal. With a product listing of over 200,000 products,

Limeroad was started in 2012 by Suchi along with Manish Saksena, Ankush Mehra and Prashant Malik. Suchi has been named 1 of the 15 ‘Rising Talent, high potential leader under 40’ worldwide. The company has raised a funding of $20 Mn in rounds A and B from Lightspeed venture partners, Matrix partners and Tiger Global.



Upasana Taku

Upasna, after graduating from NIT Jalandhar, pursued her masters’ in management science and engineering from Stanford University before she started a career in payments and financial services which spanned a period over eleven years.

Apart from being Director and CEO at Zaakpay.com, Upasna co-founded MobiKwik with Bipin Singh in 2009 and has reportedly raised $30.3 Mn in 2 rounds of funding.

It is an e-wallet app which allows you to make all the transactions through the wallet itself.

Valerie Wagoner

Valerie, who has earned both her bachelors’ and masters’ degree from Stanford University has been a part of companies like eBay, Ning and SayNow. In 2013, she was also named as the top innovator under 35 for India by MIT.

In 2010, she founded ZipDial which is a leading mobile analytics and marketing platform. It enables global brands to connect to 100 percent of its users and the consumer intelligent platform drives solutions such as offers and couponing.

The company has received an undisclosed amount of funding in three different rounds and before getting acquired by Twitter.

Shubhra Chaddha

Shubhra Chadda co-founded the Bangalore-based startup Chumbak with her husband, Vivek Prabhakar, in the year 2010. The company offers attractive products which include accessories, phone covers and other lifestyle products.

These products are inspired by the everyday things that we see around us. The India-based theme of the company allows a better understanding of the products and also led to innovation.

Initial investment was fulfilled by Shubhra and Vivek after they sold off their house to raise INR 45 Lakh. After receiving funding from seedfund in 2012, the company had also raised money from Matrix partners.

Priyanka Gill

After completing her graduation from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Priyanka worked as a fashion journalist for several years before getting a Masters’ degree from Kings College, London.

In late 2012, Priyanka met Namrata Bostrom and since both of them were looking for digital content space for women, they co-founded Popxo.com in early 2014, a digital lifestyle magazine for women.

The startup has raised approximately INR 3 Cr to expand its base and speed up operations. Currently a team of 10, this startup is based out of Mumbai and Delhi.

According to the projections, Popxo will have 300 Mn women users by the end of 2020.

Malini Agarwal

Malini is India’s first and well-known celebrity blogger. After graduating from Delhi University, she worked with several media giants which include Radio One and Channel V.

In 2008, she started her own blog missmalini.com, which covered all the gossips from the world of fashion, entertainment and Bollywood. The blog was started as a hobby to fulfill her writing needs which Malini was fond of. But soon, she left her job to concentrate on the blog full time.

The blog reportedly has 500,000 monthly visitors and 2 Mn followers across social media platforms. 60 percent of her readers are Indian while others belong to one of the 120 countries; hence, she is renowned globally. The startup raised an initial angel funding in early 2012 and looks forward to another raise this year.

Neha Behani

In 2011, Neha quit her full time job along with Kumaran Mahendran in order to start a mobile advertising network based on the Concept of SoLoMo (Social, Local and Mobile) but after 2 years of rejection, one day they were at a bar when the idea for Moojic came up and rest is history.

Neha Behani, Co-founder, COO and CMO, Moojic has graduated from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore and has received her MBA from Asian Institute of Management, Phillipines.

After working for several years, the entrepreneurial side of Neha showed up and finally led her to Moojic. The startup had raised an angel round of investment whose investors included Rajan Anandan, MD, Google India. They are also planning a pre-series A round of investment.



Aparna Rao

Aparna Rao, an artist by profession and a TED fellow who has been creating mechanical art with Soren Pors since 2005, started Phantom hands in 2013 along with her husband Deepak Srinath.

Phantom hands is an online store which offers antiques, rare furniture articles and collectibles for sale.

Aparna’s love for art was a major factor in the startup besides her husband’s entrepreneurial skills.

Aditi Gupta

One the most common taboos is Menstruation(oops! I said it), but with time it is getting the attention that is needed for the society to accept the fact and talk openly about it. One such initiative has been taken by Aditi Gupta who is an electronics and instrumentation engineer and also has a post graduate diploma in New Media Design from National Institute of design.

Aditi got her first period when she was 12. But, because of the unpleasant experience and lack of information she had during her puberty, she decided to spread awareness about the same. Along with Tuhin Pal and Rajat Mittal, Aditi launched Menstrupedia and also created a comic which was applauded for its initiative. Aditi has even received offers for the publication of the comic strips and create an interactive environment based app.

Sabina Chopra

With over 16 years of work experience, Sabina Chopra, who headed operations for ebooker (Europe’s largest travel company) in India, launched Yatra.com in 2006 along with Dhruv Shringi and Manish Amin.

Yatra is an online portal to book flight tickets and hotels in India and abroad. The startup by Sabina has raised funds in 4 rounds of funding with a total exceeding $50Mn.

Sabina has a degree in Bachelor of Arts from Delhi University.

Chitra Gurnani Daga

With the vision of bringing in a hub for adventure sports, Chitra Gurnani co-founded Thrillophilia Adventure Tours Pvt. Ltd. with Abhishek Daga in May 2009. Thrillophilia an online marketplace for tours and activities. On the platform, one can discover, compare and book tours and activities.

The startup based in Bangalore was started in 1bhk apartment and they moved into a commercial office seven months later which was a result of unprecedented hard work and determination. The website has more than 1 million visitors every month and is growing at 200% annually. Her startup raised angel round of funds in Sep 2013.

Ashwini Asokan

A bachelor’s degree from MOP Vaishnav College, Madras University and Masters’ in Interaction design wasn’t enough for Ashwini Asokan to pursue her passion for Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence.

Before she co-founded Mad Street Den with her husband Anand Chandrasekaran, Ashwini worked as a mobile portfolio manager at Intel and at Imprint Colour Graphics.

The company, founded in 2013, focuses on AI and its flagship product is a visual search engine which can be used by fashion based e-commerce websites. The startup has several visions to deliver life changing experiences to its consumer base. The startup recently raised $1.5 Mn from Reservoir Investments’ Exfinity Fund and GrowX Ventures.

Ankita Gaba

Ankita Gaba is an entrepreneur and a specialist in brand management and marketing for businesses and celebrities.

After pursuing her graduation from Wilson College, Mumbai and getting an MBA in marketing from Welingkar Institute of Management she started her first entrepreneurial project called SuperChooha which was a business and celebrity social media management firm. But after trying her hand at several other things including social media consultation and artist and movie marketing, Ankita co-founded SocialSamosa with Aditya Gupta in November 2011. This portal aims to be the one stop shop for all the news.

Neeru Sharma

Neeru Sharma is the head of corporate and business development and co-founder at Infibeam.com partnering with Vishal Mehta, Vijayakumar Subramanian and Sachin Oswal.

The company was founded in 2007. Being an engineer with an MBA degree from Carnegie Melon University, Neeru has worked with Amazon, US in the department of corporate development and media retail and played an important role in $850 Mn Zappos acquisition.

The self-funded startup was initially funded by Vishal Mehta with a sum of INR 10-15 Crore. The firm has done two acquisitions so far which include picsquare.com, a personalized photo printing website in 2008 and odigma, a digital marketing company for $5 Mn in 2014.

Neetu Bhatia

An investment banker turned entrepreneur, Neetu Bhatia who is also a state level cricket player wanted to represent the country in the sport. But, she ended up getting an engineering degree from Govt. College of Engineering, Pune and then went on to pursue her Masters’ at MIT, USA.

In July 2007, she co-founded KyaZoonga.com with her brother Akash Bhatia which is an online ticketing platform mainly focused on sports and entertainment. It provides easy access to tickets for all sporting events with multiple payment options at the ease of the customer.

The startup has been funded by New York based Hedge fund worth over $22 Bn.

Pankhuri Shrivastava

Two years of fellowship at Teach for India along with an engineering degree in Computer scienceis what turned an engineer Pankhuri into a bright and smart entrepreneur.

She is the co-founder of Mumbai-based startup known as Grabhouse.com which is an online portal used to search for roommates with similar requirements and budget.

Prateek Shukla is Pankhuri’s partner and the co-founder of the firm. The startup had initially raised capital from Chetan Bohra and Navin Ranka of RB Partners. Recently, they have reportedly raised an undisclosed amount from India Quotient and MV Krishnan, VP Deutsche Bank.

Rashi Choudhary

The team of Rashi Choudhary, Karan Mehrotra and Amit Naik launched LocalBanya.com in May 2012 which is Mumbai’s first online supermarket store. They aimed at delivering the best quality products with the widest range.

Rashi, an MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management Studies started off her career with Ernst and Young and switched few companies during her professional career until this startup happened to her.

With further expansion plans the company is looking at raising $20 Mn in series B funding after getting an investment of $5 Mn from Karamvir Avant Group and an undisclosed amount from Bennett and Coleman.



Surabhi Dewra

Apart from being an electrical and electronics engineer from BITS, Pilani, she has also been a fellow of the Startup leadership program which is a world class training program.

After working as an engineer at Freescale semiconductors and as a promoter at Catalog Educational Services, she decided to implement the idea of exploring the education sector and providing a better quality of education. But career counseling was missing and this is what inspired her to start Meracareerguide.com in 2009 and in 2011, Love Chopra joined hands.

An undisclosed amount has been invested by Vishal Gondal and Ronnie Screwvala in the venture.

Suruchi Wagh

Suruchi founded Jombay.com in 2010 along with Mohit Gundecha. Jombay is a talent research and analytics company designed by research analysts and data behavioral scientists from Stanford University and University of Southern California, Los Angeles among others.

The company provides data-driven results to the employers based on competency, leadership, engagement and retention along with a 360 degree feedback. Suruchi completed her engineering from College of Engineering, Pune in India and moved to the states to pursue her masters from University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Her startup Jombay has been listed twice in ‘India’s most promising companies’. Jombay works with companies like Nestle, Kotak Life, Taj Hotels and Tata AIA among others and has analyzed over 1 Mn professionals. Their investors include Nirvana Venture Advisors, a Patni family anchored Venture Capital firm. Apart from the entrepreneurial streak, Suruchi enjoys a passion for Bharatnatyam.

Prukalpa Sankar

The flair of entrepreneurship and a wish to do something for the society pushed Prukalpa to cofound SocialCops, a data technology company that uses technology to turn citizens into key decision makers and to make data driven decisions in public health, education & infrastructure. Currently based out of New Delhi, Prukalpa graduated in Biomolecular Engineering and Entrepreneurship from the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore. She has also worked with Goldman Sachs and Exxon Mobil.

At an early age of 10, Prukalpa coded an HTML website for Harry Potter Fans around the world. During her graduation, she founded the Singapore Entrepreneurship Challenge, an event which sees participation from over 150 startups every year. The flair of entrepreneurship and a wish to do something for the society pushed Prukalpa to cofound Social Cops, which raised $320k in its first round of funding led by 500 Startups, Rajan Anandan (MD, Google India) and Manoj Menon (MD, Frost & Sullivan APAC).





What entrepreneurs can learn from Shradha Sharma, founder of YourStory

Shradha Sharma, founder of YourStory is a rare species of entrepreneur. She is indeed the Elon Musk of entrepreneurship fraternity.

There aren’t many entrepreneurs who break the conventional mode of thinking and embrace the radical innovation. An entrepreneur who has taken the road less travelled is a rare species. Shradha Sharma, founder of YourStory is a rare species of entrepreneur. She is indeed the Elon Musk of entrepreneurship fraternity. Her venture, YourStory stands for a promise and exists for a purpose beyond just topline and bottom line growth. She set the ball rolling by challenging the status quo. YourStory.com is India’s no.1 media platform for entrepreneurs, dedicated to passionately championing and promoting entrepreneurial ecosystem in India.

Here is what entrepreneurs can learn from Shradha Sharma, founder of YourStory:

1. Make your choice:

Life is a harried race where nothing is absolute. To achieve preposterous goals, one has to make tough choices. Shradha Sharma opted for a tough choice. Many opined that a venture covering the stories of entrepreneurs cannot become a commercial success. However, she listened to her heart and made it big.

Related Post: 7 Indian women entrepreneurs who have carved a niche for themselves

2. Stay relentless:

Entrepreneurship is a rat race where only the determined, dedicated and dutiful survive. At times, Shradha Sharma questioned herself and the credibility of her venture. However, she found spots of solace by keeping the action plan simple- She did what Einstein asked us to do “Learn the rules of the game and then play it better than anyone else.” Her relentless efforts yielded rich dividends. In August 2015, YourStory completed seven fruitful years.



3. Belief in karma:

Life is enmeshed deep within our lives where circumstances are closely entwined. We are all gifted with imperfections. Burgeoning expectations have made us all selfish. Being selfish is not necessarily the only way to begin. A strong belief in karma gives us all a window to our thought process. Having faced the rapacious corporate world, Shradha Sharma quipped, “I believe in good karma. I have seen good gestures being returned 100 fold, if not more. I have seen many entrepreneurs change and I have tried very hard not to (helped by my team who I can always rely on to bring me back to earth). But having said that, I know that everything around me will keep changing. As long as I can feel my ‘centeredness’ – acutely, deeply and vehemently, I know I will be fine.”

Related Post: Success story: Nina Lekhi and her struggles to make Baggit reach the pinnacle of success

4. Live your experiences:

Sometimes, mistakes in our lives become unpardonable. Quite clearly, the prevailing ‘war for being the supreme’ will leave us with encumbrances where the road ahead seems replete with hindrances. The incessant struggle to meet the seemingly insurmountable deadlines and delusive expectations will never be an easy one. Shradha Sharma reveals the most startling secret- “Live your experiences. Learn from good and bad. Your career will never be decides by an ugly spat, a heated argument or a disagreeing opinion. It depends on how you take life.”

For budding entrepreneurs equipped with unduly theoretical knowledge and markedly low practical exposure, Shradha Sharma’s success story provides food for thought.

This article was originally published in myventure.in

Image credit: riseconf.com





Passion, Compassion and Profession: Inspiring stories of 20 women entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur and writer Prachi Garg offers her collection of 20 such stories in her new book, Superwomen: Inspiring Stories of 20 Women Entrepreneurs.

From e-commerce and creative firms to library networks and online support agencies, women entrepreneurs are blazing new trails in India. Entrepreneur and writer Prachi Garg offers her collection of 20 such stories in her new book, Superwomen: Inspiring Stories of 20 Women Entrepreneurs.

Prachi Garg is an entrepreneur and writer, and founder of GhoomoPhiro.com (for corporate tours) and Anmol Uphar (gifts based on currency notes). She graduated from Miranda House and Great Lakes Institute of Management, with a background in computer science.

The 197-page book is packed with stories of 20 startups founded by women. Here are some brief vignettes from the book; the author is working on another startup sequel as well.

Madhavi Gandhi founded Happy Hands to preserve and revive traditional handicrafts and art, and empower rural artisans. She was active as an art enthusiast from the age of 22, and was inspired by thought leaders like Kamla Devi Chattopadhyay. She received strong support from family and well-wishers, and spends extensive periods of time helping artists with capacity-building workshops. Her vision is to ensure that children of artisans do not feel embarrassed about their parents’ work, and find pride and livelihood in Indian culture.

Ria Sharma founded the NGO Make Love Not Scars to help acid attack survivors. Though she studied fashion in the UK, she felt a stronger attachment to social justice, and become devoted to the cause of acid attack victims after completing a project on the issue. Her NGO has supported hundreds of victims with social, financial, legal and medical aid. “I thought I was going to save them. But I eventually realised they were the ones saving me,” she says, describing the emotional upliftment she herself has received.

Richa Singh founded Your Dost to provide online counseling to those in depression or seeking emotional support for well-being. She graduated from IIT Guwahati, but was deeply affected when a friend committed suicide after a bout of depression. She also noticed that there were deep taboos in India about seeking psychological help, and decided to launch an online site with peer support, help lines, and inspirational stories. Though her family was not excited about this track, they later supported her when they saw her determination. The site has raised funds from Milaap, and has received enthusiastic endorsements from online users.

Masoom Minawala founded StyleFiesta as an online destination for fashion jewellery and accessories. Though she was regarded as a tomboy in childhood, she gravitated later to fashion when she realised how popular one of her fashion blogs became. She studied fashion in London and launched her startup in 2012, riding the e-commerce wave – particularly in smaller cities of India. Women are blessed “with an undeniable charm” and it would be “foolish not make use of it,” she jokes, describing the blend of creativity and commerce in her work.



Richa Kar founded Zivame as an online lingerie retailer to improve the experience of lingerie shopping for Indian women. She combined experience, opportunity and insight to launch her venture, which claims to sell a bra every minute. Her background in engineering and business, along with work as a consultant to global retailers, led her to e-commerce as a way to overcome the misinformation, misconceptions and taboos about the lingerie industry in India. Educational content, discreet packaging and a fitting lounge in Bengaluru are some of Zivame’s innovations in this space. But the journey was not easy, with lots of challenges in setting up her venture – and her mother was also initially shocked with the idea of the venture, Richa recalls.

Sneha Raisoni started Tappu ki Dukaan in the Fort area of Mumbai to sell quirky and unique Indian objects. Though she began in investment banking, she decided to pursue her own passion “instead of someone else’s dreams.” She sources products which have “utility with a twist” from Happily Unmarried, Mixed Juice, Pop Goes the Art, and other creative firms. She sees copycats and competition merely as drivers to further evolution.

Sunita Jaju and Swati Maheshwari co-founded Rustic Art as a portal selling eco-friendly products for body care. Growing up in Nainital and Mysore, respectively, the duo blended their environmentalist passions with entrepreneurial drive. Without passion it would have been impossible to sustain the venture, the co-founders recall, as they continue to expand to new areas like pet care.

Alicia Souza is an independent illustrator and communications designer, with clients such as Google, Yahoo, Penguin, Cadbury and AOL. She spent many of her growing years in the Middle East, and branched off into independent design. She recalls that she would give herself pep talks in her early years, and draws inspiration from everything around her. She overcame the early skepticism from her parents via a ‘show and tell’ attitude to prove she was on the right track. “Real learning comes with experience out in the real world,” Alicia says.

Anisha Singh founded Mydala.com as an online discount site, after her earlier e-learning venture, Kinis Solutions. She grew up in a joint family in Delhi and worked on women entrepreneurship during her US stint. Inspired by the collective business model in Chinese e-commerce, she started Mydala after her return to India. The early office space was shared with a dentist, and today the company employs over 400 people.

Charnita Arora launched Perfect Life Spot to help with language skills and overall development of young students. It goes beyond rote-based learning to offer mindfulness and emotional intelligence support. The company is now offering skills to corporate audiences as well.

Falak Randerian founded My Little Chatterbox to help children develop healthy reading habits, as well as lending library The Reading Room. She launched the venture at age 30, combing her own passion for books with her affection for children. “I take criticism as a serious source of learning,” she says, recalling her journey into the field of phonics.

Pankhuri Shrivastava founded Grabhouse as an online platform for landlords and tenants. The basic listing is free, but other options are charged for, such as moving services. She graduated with a BE in computer science from Bhopal, and founded her venture at the age of 23. “Basic things like outsourcing to a third party can make you lose control of things,” she says, as words of advice. Each new user or funding milestone is regarded as a reason to excel even more.

Saumya Vardhan launched ShubhPuja as an online portal to offer religious and astrological consultancy services. She worked for KPMG and EY, but was deeply affected by the death of a close friend and the struggle the family went through during the rituals. She spotted an opportunity in making the fulfilment of these rituals more convenient as well as more transparent to remove misinformation and malpractices. She took a course in Vedic astrology, and brought on board a team of pundits as experts for online consultation. TV channel partnerships have helped extend their reach and brand.

Dr Surbhi Mahajan founded Dermatocare to offer online consultation on skin care and cosmetic products. She began with a blog, whose popularity led to forming a full-fledged venture in 2012. She sees her work as going beyond short-term solutions for glamour.

Tina Garg founded creative communications agency Pink Lemonde. Her degree was in computer science, but she also had a flair for writing, communication and design. “Every day in the creative field is like delivering a baby,” she jokes. She had to work extra hard to establish her space as a woman in a male-dominated field. Her firm sustains a creative and cool culture via initiatives like Fun Fridays and Pink Holiday monthly draws for a free holiday for an employee.

Vidula Kantikar Kothare founded ThinkCreative Ad Solutions as an end-to-end provider of marketing, advertising, branding and event management. She grabs every opportunity to learn, and regards every single milestone as significant; she also celebrates the power of women as “multi-tasking geniuses.”

Other entrepreneurs profiled in the book are Rachana Nagranee (founder of Pitaara, for handcrafted bags and accessories), Geetika Chadha (founder of image consultancy Imagenie), Rashi Narang (founder of pets merchandise store Heads up for Tails) and Sneh Sharma (founder of the only-girls digital media agency Ittisa). It would have been great if the book also offered tips and advice in a concluding chapter, which would have been useful for other aspiring entrepreneurs.

You can now have your own copy of Superwomen from Amazon.com

This article was originally published in YourStory



5 Ways the Stand Up India scheme could benefit aspiring women and SC/ST entrepreneurs

The Stand Up India scheme, launched on April 5, ensures that women and SC/ST entrepreneurs have a fair chance at setting up their own businesses.

In January 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Start-Up India scheme, which gave new entrepreneurs a chance at making it big. Under the scheme, entrepreneurs could get loans from banks to kick start their businesses. Now, a new scheme, launching on April 5, will shift the focus to SC/ST and women entrepreneurs, to promote inclusivity.

The Stand Up India scheme provides loans to entrepreneurs of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes, as well as women. The loans range from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore. According to the government, these are sectors of the population that are often underprivileged or under-served. Both these sectors are upcoming, and fast. The scheme helps them out by facilitating loans for non-farm sector entrepreneurship.

Loans for Women Entrepreneurs

Women entrepreneurs in India find it difficult to get funding for their startups. Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI) published a global ranking that looked at how female entrepreneurs fare in the world. India was placed in the last five among the 30 countries that were analysed. It stated that about 73% women entrepreneurs failed to get funding from Venture Capitalists (VC). A study based in Karnataka found that about 90% women had only their own funding to rely on, while 68% found it tougher to get bank loans. All that is set to change once the Stand Up India scheme comes into action.

Refinancing Options

The scheme helps not just those who are in the initial stages of their entrepreneurial plans, but also those who have already set up their company but still fall under the startup category. Under the scheme, the government has opened refinancing options through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), at an initial amount of Rs 10,000 crore. Along with that, a corpus (principal amount) of Rs 5000 crore would be created, to ensure credit guarantee through the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company. Along with the composite loan, they will also be provided with a debit card.



Support and Knowledge

A research done by YourStory in 2014 indicates that about 54% women have no idea what a startup should work like or how to work on problem solving. About 58% women need to be educated about entrepreneurial resources and techniques. However, provisions under the scheme also includes support for both women and SC/ST borrowers, all the way from pre-loan stage to operating stage. Besides familiarising them with bank guidelines and terminology, they will also know about registering online and how to use e-markets, and entrepreneurial practices. To bring together all the information related to the scheme, the government will be setting up a website for Stand Up India.

Substantial Reach for Maximum Benefit

While self-employed women working in the low-skill sector (such as manual labour or street vending) has increased to almost 1 crore between 2000 and 2010, the number of women in higher income entrepreneurship still remains low. To increase this number, the intention of the scheme is to get at least two entrepreneurial projects started in every bank branch in the country. The Stand Up India scheme is expected to benefit about 250,000 potential borrowers, according to its official statement.

Connect Centres Near Home

The number of SC/ST entrepreneurs is growing. For instance, according to The Hindu, there’s been an impressive rise in SC/ST entrepreneurs in Andhra Pradesh. The number of organisations set up by them went from 319 in 2004 to 2275 in 2012. To cater to the growing demand, Stand Up Connect Centres would be established at the offices of SIDBI and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD). With country-wide presence of more than 15 regional offices and 84 branches accommodating more than 600 clusters, the reach of SIDBI is massive. The SIDBI would join hands with the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI), among other institutions, to facilitate the loans.

This story was originally published in The Better India

Image credit: http://www.narendramodi.in/