Top Five Women Led Unicorn Startups of India Shaping Change.

Let us delve into the women led unicorn startups and find out how they are changing the business landscape in India and inspiring others with their tenacity and success stories. These women running unicorn startups inspire others and demonstrate the possibilities for gender diversity in creative businesses. Their impressive accomplishments highlight their particular abilities and change the narrative about women in leadership roles in the shifting startup ecosystem.

As the corporate world fades into the background, a new narrative highlights women-led enterprises not as exceptions but as formidable forces shaping innovation and prosperity. The recently unveiled ‘Women in India’s Startup Ecosystem Report’ (WISER) brings this transformative journey to light, revealing that women have claimed an impressive 18 percent stake in the startup landscape over the past five years.

According to WISER, an impressive 17 percent of India’s unicorn enterprises are now under the leadership of female entrepreneurs, marking a substantial increase from the modest 8 percent recorded in 2017. This surge signals a profound shift in the dynamics of gender relations in the business world, challenging preconceived notions and defying established norms.

Indiatechdesk takes a deep dive into the tenacity, innovation, and endurance of these female-led top five unicorns, crafting a vibrant portrait of the entrepreneurial landscape where gender serves not as a barrier but as a powerful fuel for remarkable success. Join us on this exploration as we navigate the intricate web of success stories, spotlighting India’s top five unicorn enterprises led by women and illuminating the unique tales of their triumphs.

Mabel Chacko, Open

Mabel Chacko is at the forefront of India’s fintech revolution, playing a pivotal role as the co-founder of Open Financial Technologies, a neobanking fintech venture. As the architect behind Asia’s inaugural SME neo-banking platform, Mabel and her co-founders steered Open towards unicorn status in April 2022 and spearheaded the company’s remarkable expansion.

With a rich entrepreneurial history spanning 15 years in finance, Mabel boasts a track record of triumphs. Her earlier ventures, including Touch2pay (India’s pioneering biometric payment firm), Cashnxt (a groundbreaking contactless payment platform), Neartivity Wireless (an NFC-based platform), and Zwith (a developer-centric payment gateway), underscore her innovative contributions to the industry.

Her leadership has propelled Open to success. Under her guidance, Open has amassed a subscriber base of 2.3 million, setting ambitious targets to reach 5 million internationally within the following year. The platform’s annual transaction volume surpasses $24 billion, and it consistently integrates 100,000 SMEs into its network every month.

Beyond her entrepreneurial pursuits, Mabel is deeply committed to nurturing budding entrepreneurs. Teaming up with co-founder Deena Jacob, she established a fintech accelerator in collaboration with the Kerala Startup Mission, showcasing her dedication to fostering the growth of emerging fintech enterprises.

Mabel’s contributions have garnered numerous accolades, with the Times of India recognizing her among the brightest corporate leaders and entrepreneurs under 40. Business World further honored her as the Most Influential Woman of 2023. Awards such as Startup Leader of the Year and Disruptor of the Year (DLAI Women) underscore Mabel Chacko’s significant impact on the finance sector.

In her unique blend of expertise, creativity, and commitment to nurturing the next generation of companies, Mabel Chacko has left an indelible mark on India’s fintech landscape, solidifying her position as a transformative leader.

Ruchi Kalra, Oxyzo

Ruchi Kalra is a visionary female entrepreneur showcasing her entrepreneurial prowess by co-founding two highly successful unicorns. Her transformative journey in business commenced after an impactful eight-year tenure at McKinsey, primarily in financial services. In 2015, Ruchi, alongside her spouse and three other partners, embarked on the entrepreneurial landscape by creating Ofbusiness. Her second venture, Oxyzo, emerged on the scene a year later.

Ofbusiness, a SoftBank-backed B2B marketplace specializing in raw materials and industrial supplies, experienced rapid growth, garnering investments from key players like Tiger Global and Norwest Venture Partners. In October 2022, this procurement platform achieved a remarkable feat, becoming the youngest unicorn with revenues totaling 70,000 million and significant profits. Having attained unicorn status in July 2021, Ofbusiness swiftly ascended to the pentacorn league, boasting a valuation of $5 billion by December.

Ruchi’s impact on Ofbusiness is undeniable, and her financial services expertise is now directed toward ensuring Oxyzo’s profitability. As a small business lender facilitating funding through online channels, Oxyzo has maintained profitability. In 2022 alone, the company generated 3.11 billion rupees in revenue and managed assets worth 30 billion rupees for nearly 3,000 Indian SMEs.

Founded in 2016 by OfBusiness co-founders Asish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra, Oxyzo is pivotal in providing cash flow and working capital loans to manufacturing and contracting businesses. The platform’s assets under management have experienced a phenomenal 100 percent year-on-year growth, reaching $350 million. Over 2,500 Indian SMEs benefit from loans disbursed by Oxyzo, totaling INR 4,000 crore annually.

Oxyzo’s distinguished investors include Alpha Wave, Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and Creation Investments. The company achieved unicorn status after a groundbreaking Series A funding round that raised $200 million. Ruchi Kaira’s strategic leadership has propelled Ofbusiness and Oxyzo to the forefront of India’s unicorn scene, establishing her as a female entrepreneur in the country’s entrepreneurial landscape.

Srividhya Srinivasan, Amagi

Srividhya Srinivasan is a broadcast technology entrepreneur who has built and launched multinational enterprises. She assists Amagi’s global customers with cloud deployment architecture, customized solution design, and the seamless transition to cloud broadcast models. She enjoys proposing creative solutions to complex engineering problems.

Srividhya started her career as a software engineer at Texas Instruments and has been a digital entrepreneur for 23 years. She co-founded ImpulseSoft, a wireless audio technology company acquired by NASDAQ-listed SiRF, before joining Amagi. Srividhya believes her mission is to pursue her initial interest, engineering.

In 2008, Srividhya, Baskar Subramanian, and Srinivasan KA founded Amagi, a cloud-based media SaaS company headquartered in Bengaluru. Amagi achieved unicorn status in 2022 by developing, delivering, and monetizing solutions for live, linear, and on-demand channels on cable, OTT, and free ad-supported streaming TV platforms. Accel spearheaded the company’s $95 million funding round, which marked a significant milestone. Amagi LIVE, the live orchestration platform, was recently improved.

Srividhya Srinivasan’s leadership enabled Amagi to become a unicorn, cementing her status as a pioneering woman in India’s startup sector.

Rajoshi Ghosh, Hasura

Rajoshi Ghosh, Hasura’s co-founder and COO, heads an IT venture revolutionizing the Indian startup scene. In 2018, she and Tanmai Gopal founded Hasura, a pioneering GraphQL API data access and flow solution that accelerates product and data delivery. GraphQL APIs built automatically by the company provide users with secure, real-time data access.

Hasura became a unicorn in 2022, after receiving $100 million in a Series C round sponsored by Greenoaks Capital. Previously, Nexus Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Vertex Ventures contributed. This happened after Hasura raised $25 million from significant investors in its Series B round.

Rajoshi Ghosh co-founded 34 Cross, a product development company, and brings substantial experience to Hasura. Her strategic product development and innovation expertise assisted 34 Cross in transforming Fortune 500 businesses from monoliths to microservices.

She established Tech Saloon, Find A Kadai, and Owlink in addition to her business. Her World Economic Forum Global Shaper role, demonstrates her commitment to influencing technology and innovation issues. Rajoshi Ghosh received a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Computational Biology from the National University of Singapore and attended Stanford University Graduate School of Business and UC Los Angeles.

Smita Deorah, Lead

A financial specialist turned educator with 22 years of experience, Smita Deorah is a prominent female edtech pioneer in India. For nine years, she held top financial, strategy, leadership, and education positions for Procter & Gamble in Singapore and India.

Smita founded Sparsh, an NGO that improves government childcare facilities, to start her education startup career because she believed high-quality school systems might impact educational outcomes for years. Sparsh created ‘pre-school in a box,’ which enhanced student preparedness, reduced dropouts, and raised attendance.

Her 2012 co-founding of LEAD Schools with Sumeet Mehta transformed Indian education. LEAD, an edtech company in Mumbai, employs technology to promote school instruction in non-metropolitan locations. Smita’s leadership has made LEAD India’s leading school-based edtech enterprise, solving tough education challenges.

LEAD offers edtech solutions for schools and wants to reach 25 million students in 60,000 schools by 2026. The company serves over 2 million students in over 5,000 schools in 500 Indian cities as of 2022-23. The startup raised $100 million at $1.1 billion to become the third unicorn of 2022, a milestone for Indian entrepreneurs. LEAD received $166 million in successive stages from WestBridge Capital, Elevar Equity, and GSV Ventures.

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