India saw its 100th unicorn in 2022. The startup sector is one of the few industries where women are making a huge impact. We bring to you a list of a few women from the startup club who have achieved big. These women have not only successfully managed to establish startups, but managed to take them to new heights. With each passing year, we are seeing an increase in unicorns led by women. With each passing quarter, the entrepreneurial endeavour is embraced more enthusiastically than before.
Her Circle brings to you a list of 9 such women who are successfully leading Indian unicorns.
1. Falguni Nayar – Nykaa
Valuation: $12.86+ Billion
Year Founded: 2012
Unicorn Status: 2020
IIM Ahmedabad alumni Falguni Nayar quit her job in 2012, at the age of 49 to start Nykaa, a beauty and lifestyle retailer, which quickly gained popularity in India. Starting off as an e-commerce brand, Nykaa has more than 100 stores across the country, and sells over 4,500 brands. Nykaa is the only unicorn to be founded by a solo woman entrepreneur.
According to the Forbes list 2022, Nayar is amongst the 100 richest people in India, and India's richest woman, as per the IIFL Wealth Hurun India rich list 2022.
2. Ghazal Alagh – Mamaearth
Valuation: $1.2+ Billion
Year Founded: 2016
Unicorn Status: 2022
With a goal to make the beauty industry chemical toxicity-free, Ghazal Alagh founded Mamaearth with her husband Varun Alagh. The 34-year-old completed was a corporate trainer with NIIT and trained managers and engineers from various IT companies in SQL, J2ME, and Oracle.
It was their smart marketing that promoted Mamaearth products as an alternative to homemade remedies. Alagh was recognised as one of the Business World 40 under 40, and Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2021 by Entrepreneur India.
3. Smita Deorah – LEAD
Valuation: $1.1+ Billion
Year Founded: 2012
Unicorn Status: 2022
Co-founder and co-CEO of LEAD, Smita Deorah is chartered accountant-turned-educator with over 20 years of experience in finance, leadership, and education. With an aim to change the education system and provide high-quality education to children in India, LEAD has partnered with over 3,000 partners affordable private schools in some 400 cities across the country to provide innovative full-stack school ed-tech solutions.
4. Upasana Taku - MobiKwik
Valuation: $1+ Billion
Year Founded: 2009
Unicorn Status: 2021
A B.Tech graduate from NIT Jalandhar and MS from Stanford University, Upasana Taku joined PayPal and learnt a lot about payment systems in the west. While life was comfortable in America, she did not want the corporate life, and returned to contribute to the Indian startup ecosystem.
It was a time when India could not imagine online transactions and a cashless world. That’s when Taku grabbed the opportunity and joined her husband at Mobikwik as its co-founder. In a very short span, the company became the face of mobile wallets in India. She received the Best Woman Entrepreneur Award 2017 from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
5. Rajoshi Ghosh - Hasura
Valuation: $1+ Billion
Year Founded: 2017
Unicorn Status: 2022
Co-founder and COO of Hasura, San Francisco-based software technology company, Rajoshi Hasura is a seasoned businessperson. She began her career as a published bioinformatics researcher in the field of genomics at the Genome Institute of Singapore and is now the founder of five additional firms.
Hasura is a graduate of the Ignite Global Innovations Program at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and the National University of Singapore.
6. Ruchi Kalra - Ofbusiness
Valuation: $1+ Billion
Year Founded: 2016
Unicorn Status: 2022
Ruchi Kalra is an IIT Delhi and ISB, Hyderabad graduate who worked as a consultant with McKinsey for 9 years, before stepping into the startup game. She, along with her husband Ashish Mahapatra co-founded Ofbusiness - one of the best raw materials supplying startups in India. Ofbusiness offers a wide range of products at the lowest prices.
7. Dr Garima Sawhney - Pristyn Care
Valuation: $1.4+ Billion
Year Founded: 2018
Unicorn Status: 2021
A Gynecologist by profession, Dr Garima Sawhney along with Harsimarbir Singh and Vaibhav Kapoor founded Pristyn Care. With Pristyn Care, their aim aimed to avail secondary-care surgeries and treatment to the remotest parts of the country which lacked infrastructure, and patients had to travel long distances for high-end surgeries.
Today, with over 500 hospital partners across the country, the health-tech startup has managed to treat over 1 million patients.
Dr Sawhney’s journey is a classic example of a young woman conquering the world
