India has seen a surge in women entrepreneurship over the years, with many successful women entrepreneurs making their mark in various industries. Here are some of the top successful Indian women entrepreneurs:
Namita Thapar – CEO – Emcure Pharmaceuticals
She was born in Pune on March 21, 1977. Namita was offered the post of Business Finance Lead in the financial department of Guidant Corporation, a medical device firm in the United States, shortly after completing her MBA. She worked for the company for around six years in various jobs before resigning. After that, she began her career with Emcure Pharmaceuticals. She began as the company’s CFO, but was quickly promoted to Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals.
Namita is currently the Executive Director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, a multinational pharmaceutical firm headquartered in Pune, Maharashtra. Namita’s life story is really encouraging; she has accomplished everything she has ever desired through her hard work and perseverance. Namita Thapar is one of India’s most successful entrepreneurs. She is a well-known businesswoman who rose to prominence thanks to Sony TV’s popular business reality show Shark Tank India.
Suchi Mukherjee – Founder and CEO of Limeroad
Women face incomparable obstacles, sufferings, and experiences throughout pregnancy, all of which take a toll on their bodies. It’s remarkable that someone hasn’t come up with a novel company idea during this period.
While pregnant with her second child in London, Suchi Mukherjee came across the concept of a social fashion shopping platform. She returned to India alone in 2011 shortly after his birth to pursue her entrepreneur dream.
Apart from the early business obstacles of building up infrastructure, banking processes, company filings, and so on, Suchi also had to fly to London once a month to see her children and husband.
Her experience working for eBay, Skype, and Virgin Media, on the other hand, had only strengthened her resolve. Suchi and her partners, Prashant Malik and Ankush Mehra, founded Limeroad in 2012 with an initial capital of USD 5 million dollars.
Radhika Ghai – Co-Founder of Shopclues
Radhika intended to study the e-commerce setup in India while pursuing her MBA in the United States in 2012. She returned to the country after constant encouragement from her partner Sandeep, only to compete against huge e-commerce sites. Not to mention overcoming the uncertainties brought on by Amazon’s entry.
Radhika and Sanjay Sethi founded Shopclues as a platform that connects buyers and merchants with relatively less cash compared to their competitors. Within five years, it had grown into a unicorn with a valuation of US$1.1 billion. It was purchased by Qoo10, a Singapore-based e-commerce company, in 2019.
Radhika is the Founder and CEO of Kindlife, a new age beauty and wellness marketplace with 150+ selected companies in the beauty, nutrition, and home care categories.
Vani Kola – Founder of Kalaari Capital
She is renowned as the ‘Mother of Venture Capitalism in India,’ having been named one of India’s ‘Most Powerful Women in Business’ by Forbes and Fortune publications.
Vani Kola has the most experience with both the former and the latter.
Vaani returned to India in 2006 after attaining her goals in Silicon Valley following a two-decade career as a recognised entrepreneur. She wanted to learn more about the venture capitalist market and the country’s start-up ecosystem. However, the scenario felt a bit old and ambiguous.
Vani began to notice signals of exciting start-ups that could change the future and help her build exceptional assets after conducting comprehensive market research.
In the same year, she formed Indo-US Venture Partners (IUVP) with Vinod Dham, a fellow Silicon Valley entrepreneur, in collaboration with New Enterprise Associates (NEA).
She chose to go solo after four years in business and renamed the company Kalaari Capital. The firm now has over 200 assets under its management, with a total capital raised of USD 740 million under Vani’s leadership.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw – Founder of Biocon India
When Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw established her enzyme manufacturing company, Biocon, at the age of 25, she faced similar biases.
Her determination to succeed led her to obtain a small loan from Canara Bank, form a small team, and begin researching bio enzymes. Her extensive expertise of fermentation, gained via her work in Australia, aided us in improving R&D and scaling efficiently.
She took a significant step forward in 1998 when she entered the pharmaceutical sector, where she worked on drugs such as statins, insulin, immunosuppressants, and monoclonal antibodies. Mazumdar-Shaw eventually increased her business not only in terms of items but also in terms of production capacity.
Biocon’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2004 was oversubscribed 33 times, resulting in a market capitalization of $1.11 billion, making it the second Indian firm to reach the $1 billion milestone on the first day of trading.
Mazumdar-Shaw has received various awards, including the Othmer Gold Medal, and Forbes ranked her as the world’s 68th most powerful woman in 2019.
Falguni Nayar – Founder – Nykaa
A woman is expected to stop her job after having children, according to the stereotype. Consider getting a career after the kids have grown up.
Falguni Nayar has never had to deal with such pressures.
After a successful corporate career spanning two decades, she founded Nykaa at the age of 49.
Falguni Nayar learned the ins and outs of business and networking at a young age, growing up in a commercial milieu supported by her driven father.
She began her second innings in 2012, after securing her professional career with the Kotak Mahindra Group, by launching an e-commerce portal that sells women’s beauty items.
Nykaa has progressively grown its footprint not only as a major e-commerce platform, but also with 80+ physical locations across 38 cities, thanks to a team that is predominantly female. It quickly reached another milestone after hosting over 2000 brands and establishing in-house labels.
Hemalatha Annamalai – Founder & CEO of Ampere Electric Pvt. Ltd
In 2008, Hemalatha Annamalai, who had run a successful HR consulting firm in Singapore called Uni Connect, returned to India with her husband and children to create Ampere Electric.
She got the concept after visiting a conference in Japan with her husband Bala Pachyappa in 2007, where one of the speakers mentioned that electric transportation is the way of the future.
She was successful in designing the first electric scooter from the ground up after rigorous R&D, planning, and brainstorming. Hemalatha chose to market her innovation to customers in rural and semi-urban areas rather than major metropolitan hubs across the country.
Her vision received support from none other than Ratan Tata himself. Kris Gopalakrishnan, another co-founder of Infosys, became another key early investment in the company.
The company has sold over 20,000 vehicles and has a production capacity of 30,000 vehicles per year.
Khushboo Jain – Impact Guru
Khushboo Jain, the co-founder of ImpactGuru, is a youthful and sassy Indian woman entrepreneur. She developed the company as a platform to assist NGOs, social companies, startups, and people with worldwide crowdfunding solutions. Khushboo, who holds an MBA in Marketing from the Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, has been a driving force behind Impact Guru’s success. She is in charge of the marketing, communication, and design departments at the organisation.
Ghazal Alagh – Founder – Mama Earth
Ghazal Alagh, the founder of MamaEarth, has become one of the most popular faces on the Indian version of the business reality show Shark Tank. The event was a resounding success.
Ghazal is one of the country’s most successful businesswomen. With her husband Varun Alagh, she co-founded MamaEarth, a beauty brand, in 2016. MamaEarth claims to be the first Indian cosmetic business to create products that are free of hazardous chemicals and ingredients.
In 2021, she was named one of the seven judges on the reality show “Shark Tank India,” in which prospective entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas and models to investors in order to convince them to invest in their venture.