Last year has been a difficult time for everyone around the world. It has seen economies struggle and businesses taking a hit due to the pandemic-induced lockdown restrictions Amidst these tough times, we saw entrepreneurs rising above challenges and innovating real-time to cater to their audiences in a never-seen-before ecosystem. With the new normal leading to newer market challenges, women entrepreneurs across various industries ranging from retail-tech, agri-tech, alco-Bev, eCommerce, and communications stepped up to design new businesses, products with an aim to impact the ecosystem and make lives for consumers easier.
Here is a list of six women entrepreneurs to take inspiration from
- Ms. Arjita Sethi, Co-Founder, Indiarath & Equally
Arjita is the Co-founder of Indiarath, India’s largest borderless incubator program that works as an advisory to Startup India. Indiarath is an organization that builds tools and resources for entrepreneurs in India to create impactful startups and in turn empowering Grassroot entrepreneurs. Arjita has worked with over 500+ startups & VCs and continues to work with Unicorns, leading VCs, emerging startups, global initiatives, and policy think-tanks. Her expertise lies in guiding and supporting young and aspiring entrepreneurs to help them unleash their true potential. Being an immigrant entrepreneur herself, Arjita also understands the need-gaps of budding immigrant entrepreneurs and is helping them with her startup in Silicon Valley- Future Founders School. She is also the founder and CEO of Equally, a universal platform to ignite the curiosity of kids. Equally is operational in 12+ counties with 20,000 users onboard.  Additionally, she is currently serving on the Advisory Board of Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center, San Francisco.
- Ms. Upasna Dash, Founder & CEO, Jajabor Brand Consultancy
Upasna is the Founder and CEO, Jajabor Brand Consultancy and she is also the Co-Founder of Indiarath, India’s largest borderless incubator program. Upasna has worked with over 500+ startups & VCs and continues to work with Unicorns, leading VCs, emerging startups, global initiatives, and policy think-tanks. Her expertise lies in unleashing the power of branding & communication to move the business to the next level. In the pandemic, she has spoken to several founders & VCs and has successfully implemented communication strategies for companies for raising funds, building brand image, and most recently navigating the COVID crisis and continuing to impact the business in a positive way beyond what is happening.
- Ms. Sonakshi Nathani, Co-Founder & CEO, Bikayi
Ms. Sonakshi co-founded the e-commerce startup ‘Bikayi’, causing a disruption in the startup ecosystem. A headstrong leader and strategic thinker, Sonakshi was inspired by a real-life experience and built Bikayi which became profitable in under one year! Using in-depth Bharat insights, Sonakshi introduced merchants to e-commerce via WhatsApp – a platform they are adept with. By minimizing the challenges of setting up an online store, Bikayi is empowering local merchants in earning sustainable revenue and becoming microentrepreneurs. Integration with Whatsapp enables these merchants to run, manage, and market their business with ease. From 25000 merchants in July, Bikayi now has more than 1 lakh merchants onboard, doing transactions worth more than Rs 2 Crores daily on the application. Using her platform, the founder aims to solve the problem that the COVID lockdown created for these small businesses and merchants. The company’s revenues have also grown exponentially during this period, from around 25 %month-on-month growth, the startup has been clocking around 125 % month-on-month revenue growth since July.
- Grassroot/micro-entrepreneursÂ
Ms. Soumya Kapoor Mehta, Head, IWWAGE comes with an enriched experience in the development sector, spanning research around gender, women’s empowerment, poverty reduction strategies, social inclusion challenges, and policy levers to alleviate them around the world. She continues to be a guide and leader for the Grassroot/micro-level women entrepreneurs who become a strong part of the Indian workforce.
