20 Awe-Inspiring Women Entrepreneurs In India

In today’s time, if we talk about entrepreneurship, then most people only come with the name of male entrepreneurs. But In India, Women Entrepreneurs are also highly successful in the business field and leading India’s most successful companies.

There is a gradual but steady global shift that will result in women being the inevitable future leaders of our societies. If not, at the very least the current imbalance will be redressed.

On a smaller scale there is also a huge opportunity for any business or organisation that can step out of its limited, “safe” traditions and bring forward a more rounded, holistic and balanced way of doing things. Women and their inherent creativity are uniquely positioned to do this.

But the game of business is a game created by men. That’s a procreation thing, governed by genetics. Men regularly used to venture forth and conquer other civilizations, raping and pillaging as they went.

They would kill the men and impregnate the women because it was a matter of survival – about the fulfillment of their bloodline. That’s what they used to do. Now they do it in business.

Fulfillment Expert

Men typically do business from a win-loss point of view. From their perspective “For me to win, you have to lose. The ‘pie’ of business is only so big, and my job is to go and carve out as big a piece of pie as I can.”

Read: How To Start A Business In India? Definitive Guide

Now the status of women has changed drastically in our country. They get more chances to explore themselves and achieve their dreams.

Not only men but also women made a big impact and got successful in every field.

Here I have shortlisted a list of the top 20 Famous Women Entrepreneurs, who have done something different. Along with getting successful they also inspire other women.

Top 8 Most Influential and Successful woman Entrepreneurs

  1. Wang Laichun.
  2. Oprah Winfrey.
  3. Shery Sandberg.
  4. Sara Blakely.
  5. Cher Wang.
  6. Folorunsho Alakija.
  7. Susan Wojcicki.
  8. Indra Nooyi. Indra Nooyi is an Indian American business executive and former CEO of Pepsi who got the title of the world’s 11th powerful woman in 2017.

The First Female Entrepreneur

Madame C.J.Walker, born Sarah Breedlove, is the original “self-made woman”. As a daughter to former slaves who was orphaned at the age of 7, Walker quite literally built her empire out of nothing.

Who is the youngest entrepreneur?

Cameron JohnsonCameron Johnson got his start at the age of nine, making invitations for his parents’ holiday party. Two years later, Johnson had made thousands of dollars selling cards through his company he called Cheers and Tears.

There were 244 women listed on the world’s billionaires as of 18 March 2020, up from 234 in March 2020. Since 2020, Alice Walton is listed as the world’s wealthiest woman.

Female Entrepreneurs Share Startup Advice for Women

  1. Tell everyone about your business.
  2. Network with other women business owners.
  3. Solve something meaningful.
  4. Be decisive.
  5. Identify and understand your audience.
  6. Have concrete goals.
  7. Don’t let impostor syndrome stop you.
  8. Don’t be afraid of pursuing an unexpected path.

List of 20 Famous Women Entrepreneurs In India

1: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Founder of Biocon

Name – Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Founder of – Biocon (India’s no. 1 Biotech Company)

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the female Indian billionaire entrepreneur. She was born on 23 March 1953 in Pune, Maharashtra state to Gujarati parents.

Friends, She is the chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited which is a biotechnology company located in Bangalore, India.

She is also the former chairperson of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Awards:

  • In 2014, she was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to the progress of science and chemistry.
  • She’s also on the Financial Times top 50 women in business list.
  • In 2019, she is listed as the 65th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
  • She has been selected for EY entrepreneur of the year 2020.

She is Precedent to the women of India. After completing her studies she started her own biotech company. In the initial stages, she suffers a lot in raising funds for her company. But she didn’t lose hope and successfully became India’s entrepreneurs’ billionaire woman.

2: Ritu Kumar – Indian fashion designer

Ritu Kumar is an Indian women fashion designer.

After completing her studies she started her fashion business in Kolkata, using two small tables and hand-block printing techniques. In 1960, 70 she began with bridal wear and evening clothes. Later she moved into the international market.

Read: 11 Ways To Earn Money Online In India (Genuine And Easiest)

Kumar’s company also started their shops in India, Paris, London and New York. In 1999 her company’s annual turnover was estimated at around ₹10 billion which was the highest of any Indian fashion outlet.

Ritu Kumar designs focus on natural fabrics and traditional printing and weaving techniques. She has also included Western elements in her work.

Her clothes have been worn by celebrities such as Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone, Madhuri Dixit Nene, Dia Mirza, Soha Ali Khan and Jemima Goldsmith.

Awards

  • In 2013 she was given the Padma Shri award by the Government of India.
  • She also won the Achievement Award in 2012 at L’oreal Paris Femina Women’s Awards.

She become the India’s successful entrepreneurs women with ₹10 billion turnover.

3: Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat

Founder of – Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad

Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat is one of the creators of Lijjat papad. She started out on the terrace of a small building with 6 of her friends. She made 4 packets of papad and then went to a local market to sell in Bhuleshwar local grocery shop.

A group of seven women started this venture to create a sustainable livelihood using the only skill they had, cooking.

Read: 50+ Excellent Small Scale Business Ideas To tart

They borrowed Rs 80 from Chhaganlal Karamsi Parekh who is a member of the Servants of India Society and a social worker. They took over this loss-making venture and bought the necessary ingredients and the basic equipment required to manufacture papads.

Within three months, the group of 7 women grew up to 25 women. After that these women bought some equipment for the business, like utensils, cupboards, stoves, etc. In the first year, the organisation’s annual turnover was Rs. 6196. Remaining broken papads were distributed among neighbours.

Fast forward – Started in 1959 by seven women in Mumbai with a seed capital of only Rs.80. Now in 2002, Lijjat had a revenue of Rs 3 billion and exports worth Rs. 100 million. They have 42,000 people employed in 62 departments all over the country.

Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat is an incredible women entrepreneurs in India.

3: Sneh Sharma – Founder of IttisaSneh Sharma is Founder & CEO of Ittisa. She was awarded top 50 Indian entrepreneurs by Cosmopolitan magazine and top digital entrepreneur by iiGlobal.

Ittisa was founded in June 2014. Ittisa is one of the most reputable design and digital marketing enterprises in India. Sneh Sharma is known for her objectivity, creativity, and relentless pursuit for perfection. She is trying to bring Marketing, Technology and Analytics together into one single structure.

Sneh Sharma is always embracing user experience design & growth hacking principles. So they can create products that people love and love to share.

Now Sneh Sharma’s Company Ittisa has an annual turnover of $5.7M, she is the highly successful women entrepreneurs in India.

5: Richa Kar Founder of Zivame

Richa Kar is the owner of Zivame was born in Jamshedpur. After completing her studies she worked in the IT sector for a few years. She worked for Spencers and SAP retail consulting. SAP allowed her to gain valuable retail experience that helped her in her entrepreneurship startup journey.

Interactions and the experience of working with clients made Richa realize the distressing reality of lingerie shopping in India.

Read: Top 8 High Income Skills To Earn Upto $10,000 Per Month

Then she came up with an idea of an online retail store for the same and founded Zivame. Richa Kar exceptionally incredible entrepreneurs women of India with 200 crores in turnover.

Zivame is an online lingerie store featuring hundreds of styles tailored for the Indian population. Today’s Richa Kar is seen as one of the most influential womenpreneurs in India.

6: Manisha Raisinghani founder of loginext

Manisha Raisinghani founded loginext in 2014 with her partner Dhruvil Sanghvi. She leads the technology and product side at LogiNext Solutions. She has been inspired by two women — Ginni Rometty who is the CEO of IBM, and Shreyl Sandberg.

LogiNext is amongst the fastest growing SaaS companies. Which provides solutions to manage and optimize logistical and field service operations.

Read: Business Ideas To Earn 1 Lakh Per Month

LogiNext’s iconic products are its cloud based Last Mile Delivery and Route Optimization software. Also their Field Service and Field Workforce Optimization software are their main lead products.

7: Kanika Tekriwal Founder of Jetsetgo

JetSetGo Started In 2014 by Kanika Tekriwal- The Delhi-based entrepreneur Kanika runs JetSetGo.

Her inspiration was the aviation industry to do something for the betterment of the services. Kanika Tekriwal pursued B.A. in Economics from the University of Mumbai. After that she moved to the United Kingdom for her M.B.A.

After coming back from the U.K. She started to think about her dream to turn them into reality. She felt the need for an aggregator in the private jet space.

So She started the company JetSetGo in 2014 and aimed to serve a wide clientele. JetSetGo offers exclusive ground services, the highest aircraft dispatch rate, unparalleled personalized inflight services, state-of-the-art technology, and ensures 100% safety.

Read: Ultimate Guide To Earn 1000 Rupees Online Per Day?

Jetsetgo is referred to as the Uber of the Skies delivering the utmost pleasure of private aviation.

Jetsetgo has been generating revenues of Rs 20+ crore annually with 12-15% net margins. She is the pride and women entrepreneurs of India.

8: Falguni Nayar founder of Nykaa

Nykaa is an Indian retail seller of beauty, wellness, & fashion products. Falguni Nayar founded Nykaa in 2012. She started with the vision of building a multi-brand omnichannel which focuses on beauty retail business.

Nykaa has come out as India’s leading beauty retailer playing a critical role in developing the beauty market in India. Today heading a team of over 1600 Nykaa-ites and available online and across 68 stores in India.

Nykaa’s sales exceeded Rs. 1200 crores in revenue in FY19. And is on the way to exceed Rs. 2000 crores in FY20.

9: Shubhra Chadda Co-Founder of chumbak

Shubhra Chadda is the co-founder of chumbak. The journey of the Chumbak brand started with an idea to create a creative, well-designed, affordable gifting brand for the Indian market.

Shubhra Chadda with her husband Vivek Prabhakar was living a luxurious life. She was on a trip in his recent days and seeing items that they have brought from the forign trip. Then suddenly they realized that nothing of this kind of stuff is available in India.

They realize when we give someone a gift  on any occasions. We have only a few options like showpiece, handicrafts or shawls. But not that particular thing that represents our culture of india.

Read: Business Ideas To Earn 1 Lakh Per Month

Shubhra Chadda understood this gap and reviewed this idea to create something colourful, magnetic and attractive gifts. Her husband fell in love with this idea and immediately accepted to start working on it. The idea seems so good to them that without taking any reconsideration they sold their house for 45 Lakhs to seed fund for their business. They named it Chumbak in 2009.

They started with selling attractive fridge magnets. But now a brand is offering a wide range of lifestyle products such as wallets, Chains, Keys, Phone covers, bags, jewellery and many more.

Today, this Indian gifting brand Chumbak has become the famous gifting brand having more than 150 stores worldwide.

Now Chumbak has 40+ crore turnover and she along with her husband become the successful women entrepreneurs in India.

10: Upasana Taku founder of mobikwik

MobiKwik was founded in 2009 by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku. They were husband and wife. His husband was a 2002 graduate of IIT Delhi. He saw an opportunity to improve mobile recharge options.

They funded the company with USD $250 thousand of his own money. They developed the website and payment options. After That they rented office space in Dwarka, Delhi.

In initial days their primary source of service was a website with a closed wallet facility. But over the years, they extended their service to mobile apps. In the first place, The company partnered with online merchants to make their wallet available as a payment option on e-commerce sites.

According to Forbes India Magazine, In April 2015, MobiKwik was used by 15 million users and claimed to be adding one million new customers every month.

They provide the facility of doing online payment, mobile recharges, loan payment etc. They also provide small loans for Indians like 500, 1000 and more.

11: Swati Bhargava – Co-founder of CashKaro

Swati is the CEO and also the Co-Founder of Cashkaro.com which is India’s fastest growing Cashback site proving  cashback and coupon site. You can get cash back and save more on ordering via CashKaro.

She is from Ambala, India and she is India’s one of the most awarded and famous young women entrepreneurs. She along with her friend who is now husband of swati together founded India’s leading cashback portal called CashKaro & PouringPounds.com in April 2013.

For now, CashKaro provides cashback on online shopping transactions to 3.5 millions and more of users in India.

She has also featured in Fortune 40 under 40. Swati Bhargava is the highly successful women entrepreneurs in India with 22.48+ crore turnover.

12: Nikhita Shankar Co-founder of shoppree.com

Startup – Nikhita Shankar

Location – Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Website – ShoppRe.com

Education – Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) in Electrical and Electronics from National Institute of Technology Calicut.

&

Data Analytics Programme from Indian Institute of Management Rohtak

They are into international shipping and consolidation. What they do is, they provide their virtual address to people living abroad. So that they can use that address for free to access indian ecommerce platforms like amazon, flipkart, myntra, jabong etc and shop.

Because these indian ecommerce websites don’t deliver their products abroad for now. So their items go to their facility and they give them free storage for 20 days, within which they can accumulate as many items as they want. After that they finally put all these items into one box and send it to their doorstep abroad within 3 to 6 working days.

13: Yeshoda Karuturi – Co-Founder – Rose Bazaar

Name – Yeshoda Karuturi

Startup – Rose Bazaar

Website – rosebazaar.in

Education – Masters in Accounting and Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Washington University in St Louis.

They started rose bazar on 14 feb 2019. Rose Bazar startup focusing on flowers. Their vision is to make flowers a way of life for urban indians. They do this by providing subscription boxes. They localise this for the indians by providing pooja flowers subscription boxes and also for home decor.

Friends, They make it easier for many people. If they need flowers every day or weekly they can get them.

They are in contact with local farmers and as soon as the harvesting of flowers has been done they pick them up and pack them into boxes to extend their lifespan and freshness. After that they dispatch the order and deliver with the help of swiggy, Dunzo, daily ninja.

14: Seema Bhattacharjee – Founder, Aasma Technology Solutions

They create mobiles and web based technology solutions for clients as well as generate their own in-house products.

Her startup idea was opening a unique platform to cater all parenting needs. Their target customers are parents with 2 to 18 years old children.

She and their team provide age appropriate content; it can be anything that any child needs as he grows. They ease all the parenting needs from choosing to school for their children then college, nutrition, health, vaccination, health anything.

She said this idea came in her mind when she was struggling to choose the best school for her daughter. It’s a painful process for parents so they make it easy by converting it into a business.

15: SangeetaYadav Founder & Director of Portflip

This idea startup is the same as Ola but for trucks and tempos. Sangeeta Yadav found logistics very unorganized and scattered. She wants to make logistics easier for people. Furthermore she said as technology has taken over almost every aspect of life, then why not also logistics.

They are operating in Mumbai and Pune at the moment. Anybody who needs a truck or tempos can book by using their app, website or directly call their customer care team.

So anytime and anywhere (mumbai and pune) you need a tempo or truck you can call and get in touch with them.

16: Sindhu Raju – CEO – Winzy Inc

Sindu Raju and her team have developed a live trivia gaming app where they give real-time cash, deals, products & vouchers to the players of Winzy.

In this online world everyone is looking for deals & discounts so they make it easier to provide them all the deals that are best for them.

At winzy you can win and get all the deals at one place. You don’t have to make a list of every site to find deals as winzy does it all for you at a single place.

They bridge that gap between the deal and people. So whenever you go shopping just scan a QR code and you will get a deal that is happening around you at a time and you can utilise that deal at the spot.

17: Shubhi Agarwal – Co-Founder at LocoBuzz

Name – Shubhi Agarwal

Co-founder – LocoBuzz

Their business explains the dynamics of customer experience like what they like and dislikes. All they do is use technologies like AI, Big Data Analytics, and Automation to measure customer experience.

Basically they help other businesses to grow their customers and fulfil their needs and expectations.

They allow you to understand your customer, your influencers, ecosystem, and establish a relationship with your consumers which will help you to increase their lifetime value.

They are a complete customer experience platform.

It’s really important to understand your customers and keep them with you and drive through all the stages and strategies. She said whenever a customer buys something he does not just buy a product he actually buys a company’s product and also he’s expecting service to be given by that company.

The division of departments doesn’t exist. To help with this, a startup is creating an ecosystem for the brands which enables brands to understand the requirements of their customers.

So, instead of working in silence, they can work together and create a complete experience for the consumer.

18: Shahnaz Hussain – CEO, Shahnaz Herbals Inc

Shahnaz Husain is the founder, president & managing director of The Shahnaz Husain Group in India.

She is the queen of herbal cosmetics and beauty industry. She was born in 1940 and the daughter of Justice Nasir Ullah Beg. Shahnaz studied at St. Mary’s, Allahabad and was married at an early age to Nasir Husain.

Taking the concept of Herbal Care and Cure, she opened her first herbal clinic in 1971 and over the next few years she formed The Shahnaz Husain Group.

She developed remedial products for specific skin and hair problems. As well as premium ranges for skin care, such as 24 Carat Gold, Diamond, Oxygen, Plant Stem Cells, Pearl and Platinum Range.

Her company also sells their products online at Sahnaz.in.

Now her Shahnaz Husain Group has over 400 franchise ventures across the world. The first franchise clinic she opened in Calcutta in 1979. Within a year, it grew to 80 Shahnaz Herbal franchise clinics in India.

She also has received several reputable international and national awards for her contribution in the beauty industry.

19: Ravina Raj Kohli Founder & Executive Director, JobCorp

Ravina Raj Kohli is founder and Executive Director of JobCorp. After a long career as one of India’s most notable media professionals she came into entrepreneurship.

She is the believer of continual growth and education. Ravina Raj Kohli is numbered amongst India’s top female professionals and is married to Bollywood personality Kunal Kohli.

She worked with many media productions. After working for one year with Star News. Then she finally began her ambitions of being her own BOSS, and she started her entrepreneur journey.

She started and created her own production house and multimedia company for creating films and television content. She named it Sundial Creative Media.

As a humble and charming personality. She didn’t only make herself one of the most successful entrepreneurs. But she also wanted to do the same for the youth especially the college graduates. So they can find themselves a potentially strong place in the workforce.

So, she founded JobCorp which helps people in the country to find jobs and employment opportunities.

20: Sheila Sri Prakash – Founder of Shilpa Architects

Sheila Sri Prakash born on 6 July 1955. She is an architect and urban designer of Indian origin. She is also the founder of Shilpa Architects and is the first woman in India to have started and operated her own architectural practice.

As a child, she practiced in classical Indian dance, music and the arts. She gave her first on-stage Arangetram performance in 1961, she gave performances as a dancer of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi.

Sheila Sri Prakash received her architectural degree from the Anna University School of Architecture and Planning in Chennai. Then completed an Executive Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

She founded Shilpa Architects 1979 in Chennai, India. The firm was established as a proprietary firm. This is the first architecture firm that was founded independently by a woman and has been continuously operated in India. They operated in Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai (in India )and in New York City and Chicago in the United States.

They provide urban design and master planning services. Shilpa Architects provide services of designing and shaping the physical features of cities, towns, and villages.

Conclusion

Female entrepreneurs are women who organize and manage an enterprise, especially a business. Female entrepreneurship has steadily increased in the United States during the 20th and 21st century, with female owned businesses increasing at a rate of 5% since 1997.

These were the most famous and many of them are the youngest women entrepreneurs in india. Like any other entrepreneurs, they also faced many problems in their initial years of becoming successful. But the only common thing in these women, they don’t get demotivated in bad times.

In contrast, the attitude that was generally taken by women is, “Well here is a pie that’s only so big. Why don’t we see how we can make that pie go further? Or why not share the pie and enjoy it? Or why don’t we work at making another pie – then I can have a pie, and you can have a pie and we’ll have more pie.” So it’s very much about win-win.

Over the last 25 years, it’s been my observation that better business is done by people who are playing win-win.

Men will go to extreme lengths to compete and win while women want a completely different business experience. The critical challenge for women comes when they go out into the world and declare “I want to play win-win in business”, and all the men go “Yes, we want to play win-win too!”

But the reality is that the men are still playing win-lose. This will overwhelm every time. This is because if somebody is playing win-lose but telling you that they are playing win-win, as a win-win player you’ll trust them. You’ll go along with it and be taken advantage of every time.

So what do most women do? Some will play along with the men’s rules, but many will start their own businesses. Women can (very slowly) change corporate culture from the inside, or they can change the world by starting their own companies. Becoming an entrepreneur doesn’t require any shifts in corporate culture.

Now the result is in front of you and teaching and inspiring other women to chase their dreams.