From Inclusion to Influence: Top 10 Women Tech Start-up Founders in India
To celebrate tech women, Analytics Insight has listed the top 10 Indian women tech start-up founders
Technology can change the world for good, so are tech women! Women who are taking the roller coaster ride in the disruptive trends are coming up with innovative solutions to every worldly problem. Embracing technology comes with a handful of benefits from every aspect. Women have done it very well in recent years. With the influence of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science, women have taken the lead to step into the start-up sector. Especially, India, with a high population is cheering for tech women who want to score big. Even though 2020, the pandemic year was not very positive for women entrepreneurs as tech start-up funding plummeted, we expect a ray of hope to shine bright in 2021. To celebrate the women who stood by their minds and never missed a chance, Analytics Insight has listed the top 10 women tech start-up founders in India.
Falguni Nayar, Founder of Nykaa
Falguni Nayar is the Founder of Nykaa, one of India’s biggest online fashion and lifestyle portals. Nayar secured an MBA in Finance from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. She hails from a Gujarati family, but was born and brought up in Mumbai. Nayar served as a venture investor and merchant with Kotak Mahindra bank before starting her own company. Attracted towards the scope of beauty and skincare products online, she steered herself towards Nykaa and out came a platform that fulfilled customer’s expectations. Since its inception in 2012, Nykaa has emerged as India’s largest omnichannel beauty destination with millions of happy customers in the country.
LinkedIn: Falguni Nayar
Niki Khokale, CEO and Co-Founder of Fountain9
Niki Khokale is the CEO and Co-founder of Fountain9. Before putting her interest in starting a company, she was working as the head of strategy and analytics at Google. She also has experience working with companies like American Express, Sears Holding Corporation and others. Khokale secured an Engineering degree from KJ Somaiya College of Engineering, Vidyavihar and a Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University. Bringing the same vigour and culture to Fountain9, she aspired to build a company that truly stands for doing well in the world and solving problems that matter. Fountain9 is building AI-powered enterprise analytical products that will automate knowledge discovery and democratize analytics, helping companies extract more value from their data and reach their full potential.
LinkedIn: Niki Khokale
Anisha Singh, Founder and CEO of Mydala
Anisha Singh, the Delhi-based entrepreneur is the Founder and CEO of online coupons platform Mydala. She is also the brain behind venture capital fund SheCapital. Singh acquired an undergraduate degree from the College of Art in Delhi. At the time, she interned with the Discovery Channel and happened to meet someone who had studied Political Communication. Inspired, she applied to the American University for Masters in Political Communication. There, she met Julie Holdren, the women she credits her success to. Singh relocated to Delhi and started Mydala in 2009. Mydala is India’s largest local services marketing platform for large brands, SMEs and MSMEs involved in providing consumer products and services.
LinkedIn: Anisha Singh
Anu Acharya, Co-founder and CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions
Anu Acharya is the Co-founder and CEO of Ocimum Biosolutions. She is also the CEO of Mapmygenome, India’s pioneering personal genomics company with a vision to touch 100 million lives. Since founding the Ocimum in 2000, she has led the company through three strategic international acquisitions, two capital raises for equity investments and the launch of several innovative products, solutions and services through its proprietary platform called RaaS ( Research as a Service). Ocimum Solutions is a leading integrated genomics company providing comprehensive Genomic Reference Databases, Life-Science Lab, Information management Solutions, GLP compliant Microarray Services and essential research consumables.
LinkedIn: Anu Acharya
Upasana Taku, Co-Founder of Mobikwik
Upasana Taku is the Co-founder of Mobikwik and Founder of Zaakpay. Taku secured a B.Tech degree from the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar in Industrial Engineering. She ended her education by completing master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. Taku founded Mobikwik in 2009 to make payments easier through mobile phones. Now, the app is India’s largest independent mobile payments network that connects over 30 million users with 75,000 retailers. Mobikwik allows users to stop at their favourite shop, pay bills, recharge, send money and accept payments with one-tap.
LinkedIn: Upasana Taku
Sairee Chahal, Founder and CEO of SHEROES
Sairee Chahal is the Founder and CEO of SHEROES, a community platform for women offering support, resources, opportunities and interactions via Sheroes.com and the SHEROES app. She went to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for the Russian language course. Chahal started her first entrepreneurial experience in 1999 with Newslink Services. Later, she started SHEROES aiming to impact 100 million women. SHEROES is a platform-centric model that helps connect businesses to women professionals. These include digital product, channel programs, hiring initiatives, employee branding, custom and special projects.
LinkedIn: Sairee Chahal
Anusha Shetty, Founder of Plopnow
Anusha Shetty is the Founder of Plopnow, a global interactive fiction entertainment platform. Anusha along with Vineet Shetty started Plopnow to entertain and educate millennials and GenZ in a format they understand namely immersive and bit-sized fiction. Plopnow was incubated at IIM, Banglore and is a part of the Goldman Start-up program. Plopnow is spread across multiple media like text, video, audio, simulations and role-playing to offer an interactive content experience, at the apex content and gaming.
LinkedIn: Anusha Shetty
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, Co-founder and CBO of ShopClues
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal is the Co-founder and Chief Business Officer (CBO) of ShopClues. Radhika is an Indian entrepreneur who established a digital marketing place. Radhika Aggrawal dropped the shutter of her advertising agency to pursue an MBA from Washington University in 1999. She also did post-graduation in advertising and public relations. ShopClues.com is India’s first online Management Marketplace that connects buyers and sellers online and offers a trusted and safe online shopping environment.
LinkedIn: Radhika Ghai
Pooja Rao, Co-founder and Head of Qure.ai
Pooja Rao is the Founder of Qure.ai, a Mumbai-based healthcare start-up. Pooja is a doctor as well as an AI scientist. When she thought about starting a healthcare start-up, she figured out that it is time to change the status quo in healthcare. She works closely with partner medical institutions and AI scientists to strike a balance between medicine and tech at Qure.ai. Qure.ai was founded in 2016 with a mission to use AI to make healthcare more accessible and affordable.
LinkedIn: Pooja Rao
Sabina Chopra, Co-founder of Yatra
Sabina Chopra is the Co-founder of Yatra Online, Inc and serves as its Chief Operating Officer of Corporate Hotels. Chopra has sixteen years of work experience and has been through knowledge of all facets of the travel BPO industry and an extensive network within the Indian travel community. Yatra, incepted in 2006, is a leading online travel company in India providing ‘best in class’ customer experience with the goal to be India’s travel planner.
LinkedIn: Sabina Chopra
