Women’s numbers in business are showing significant growth. Inspiring women entrepreneurs in India are running multi-million dollar industries. They are creating a lasting impression by revolutionizing the industry. Female leadership is setting an example of creativity, tenacity, and boundless potential.
Significant work from successful businesswomen to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations shows that women’s workforce is at the forefront. They have paved their paths and acquired recognition through perseverance and hard work. They are ideal role models for women and are motivating.
Importance of Women entrepreneurs in India
Women entrepreneurs are famous and play a vital role in advancing empowerment and gender equality. Indian women face socio-cultural barriers restricting access to decision-making, education, and economic opportunities. These barriers are easy to dismantle by supporting women to do business in society and contribute to the economy.
The importance of successful women entrepreneurs in India is due to their significant contribution to job creation and economic growth. The entrepreneurial ecosystem in India enjoys the benefits from the diversity of skills, perspectives, and ideas that women are now tapping, driving economic progress.
Female entrepreneurs promote gender equality, address societal challenges, drive economic growth, and inspire future generations to dream big, manage finances, and save money. Empowering women helps unlock their potential and create a prosperous society.
Here is a list of the top 10 women entrepreneurs in India, Dive into the content:
1) Roshni Nadar Malhotra
Roshni Nadar raised and born in Delhi, acquired her degree in communication, showing explicit interest in television, radio, and film. Her graduation with an MBA brought her to join as chairman of HCL Tech. She founded India-headquartered IT Consulting and Services, an international provider. She contributed to the HCL Group’s brand development.
She focuses on education as she is the Shiv Nadar Foundation trustee. She also launched some of the top schools and colleges in India. She is also a trustee and founder of The Habitats Trust, which works to protect habitats and indigenous species.
2) Kiran Mazumdar
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is a billionaire Indian tycoon. She is the chairwoman and managing director of Biocon Ltd, a Bangalore-based company. Born on March 23, 1953, into a Gujarati family, She graduated in 1975 with a master’s in brewing from Melbourne University of Ballarat and wished to carry on the legacy of her father. She had to face technological difficulties with inadequate infrastructure, her inexperience, her unproven business approach, and her gender early in life for business, all of which hindered her from raising funds.
No matter how many challenges and setbacks she faced, she persevered in her goal to build Biocon. She is one of the top 10 female achievers in India. The company became a global pharma player, specializing in diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune diseases. She earned numerous accolades. Her entrepreneurial success and her journey transformed India and the biotech landscape and inspired women to pursue STEM careers.
3) Richa Kar
Richa Kar did her engineering at BITS Pilani. She is now one of the female entrepreneurs with her offline and online lingerie brand, Zivame. She recognized the need of women looking for discreet shopping for lingerie.
In 2011, Richa Kar embarked on her entrepreneurial journey and is now a booming brand across Indian locations. Richa has created a women’s space to explore their bodies in confidence. Richa’s pursuit of commitment to empowerment and innovation makes her choose a range of lingerie, and she is an e-commerce market leader for the established firm, Zivame.
‘Zivame in Hebrew’ means ‘radiant me.’ She aimed to provide privacy, dignity, and extensive women’s lingerie options. Her collection had 50 brands, 5000 designs, and 100 sizes. She quickly gained the attention of women seeking lingerie to meet specific needs. Zivame expanded her product range, including fitness wear, women’s clothing, and sleepwear. Her strategic decisions and consideration of quality, price, etc fostered trust. Zivame is highly popular. She launched it in 2016 as Zivame Studios. She aimed to offer an omnichannel experience, and her presence was also in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India.
4) Indra Nooyi
Indra Nooyi acquired her graduation degree in chemistry in 1976 from Madras Christian College. Born on October 28, 1955, she was the first to diversify the Pepsi Co.
Later, she completed her MBA from the IIM, Calcutta. In 1980, she got her second master’s degree in private and public management her second master’s degree from the Tale School of Management.
In 1994, Nooyi joined PepsiCo as senior vice president. In October 2006, she became the CEO, and the same year, she was in the board chairman position. Nooyi was to head the huge snack food and Soft Drink Company.
Indra Nooyi was the first immigrant and the first woman entrepreneur in India to head a Fortune 50 company. She completed 24 years with PepsoCo and retired in 2019. She introduced environmentally friendly practices and healthier products. In 2019, she joined the Amazon board.
5) Falguni Nayar
Born in a Gujarati family in Mumbai, Falguni Nayar received her degree in business administration from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics. She did her postgraduate work at IIM, Ahmedabad. Her father had a bearings firm.
Falguni joined Kotak Mahindra Capital for the investment banking division as managing director and, in 2005, became Kotak Securities director. In 2012, she resigned and, with her funds of $2 million, launched Nykaa. Nayar’s Nykaa’s is the talk of the town, with her company value increasing to $2.3 billion.
Her vision of transforming beauty shopping resulted in Nykaa’s launch. A one-stop destination for expert advice and beauty products has made her rank for her fortune. Her entrepreneurial journey makes her an inspiration across the country for aspiring entrepreneurs.
6) Suchi Mukherjee
Suchi Mukherjee, the LimeRoad.com founder, began offering various products, ranging from shoes and dresses to accessories. The LimeRoad business idea came to her when she was on maternity leave and came across a jewelry piece that she wanted to buy.
She realized the need for consumer technology, and in 2012, LimeRoad emerged into the digital revolution of India. She made it more engaging and interactive, allowing the users to create catalogs, promoting women’s entrepreneurship asking them to share them on social media platforms.
She had sound family support and enough experience in her career, as she held significant positions across many companies. In 1998, she completed her master’s and moved to Virgin Media. She gained more insights after joining eBay. She nurtured her skills, and the entrepreneurial spark was ignited in her. Thus, LimeRoad emerged, and she was an under-40 global leader, also winning NDTV Unicorn Start-up and ET Start-up. She is a role model to entrepreneurs of the current day. Women wishing to win through the digital area may find her inspiring.
7) Ankita Bose
Ankita Bose is the co-founder of Zilingo, the online store. She was on the 2018 Under 20 list and on the Under 40 list in Fortune in 2019. She started her career with Sequoia Capital and McKinsey & Company her career in Bangalore.
Bose observed that the fashion market had enormous potential, and there was a need to penetrate and expand the market. She noticed that medium- and small-sized businesses were struggling to scale up or lacked financial support.
She quit her job in 2015 and came up with Zilingo, her own business, at 23. She relocated to Singapore in 2016 and created the software and supply chain. In 2019, her company, Zilingo, rose in Series D funding $226 million and generated over $970 million market value. In 2019, there were more than seven million people using this platform worldwide.
8) Savitri Jindal
Born in Tinsukia, Assam, Savitri was from a Hindu household. In the 1970s, she married Om Prakash Jindal, the big man behind Jindal Group, the steel and power company. Savitri Jindal was the Haryana government minister and Hisar district representative in the Vidhan Sabha. She was popular for her simplicity. After her husband’s death, she joined politics.
Her husband was the then minister in the government of Bhupinder Singh Hooda. He met with a helicopter crash and later that year, she won the by-poll from Hisar and became the Hooda government minister. She also won 2009 Haryana Assembly election and became the Haryana government minister in 2013. In 2014, she lost the Hisar polls and in 2019, she did not contest the elections in the Haryana Assembly.
O.P. Jindal, her husband, suddenly died in 2005 in a helicopter accident and she was the chairwoman. She slowly took over the company and increased the revenue to fourfold, proving her power as a woman entrepreneur in India. Her assets of Rs. 43.68 crore now in 2014 are Rs. 113 crore, and she took a contest from Hisar.
Savitri Jindal’s net worth is $33.6 billion, according to Forbes. She achieved a financial milestone in 2023 by surpassing the growth of the net worth of leading industrialists. She gives all the credit to her husband, Om Prakash Jindal for his hard work that has created wealth for her.
9) Devita Saraf
Saraf, at 16, started working under her father’s supervision for Zenith Computers and at 21, she became the director of marketing. In 2006, she acquired the position of CEO.
Devita, at 24, started her business with Vu Group in California, a high-end consumer electronics pioneer. Vu is the best-selling TV Company that is Indian-owned. It was her enthusiasm for innovation, leadership, and technology that led to this business path. Later, she also founded the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry division, The Young Bombay Forum.
Devita Saraf is from Mumbai. She belonged to a business family and was keen on doing business. After joining the TV Company, she noticed that foreign companies made premium products and Indian manufacturers were looking for cheap products. Devita Saraf began using high-quality products and started competing in the market with big companies.
Devita Saraf created the TV with a combination of TV and computer features. It has D2H channels that one can enjoy on OTT platforms and YouTube. It was an awesome introduction, took enough time to show results and was not bought in India by many.
10) Divya Gokulnath
Divya Gokulnath, an educator and Indian entrepreneur, is the director and cofounder of BYJU’s. Her journey started at age 21 in 2008, when she began her teaching career.
Divya, in 2012, with Byju Raveendran, her husband, founded in Bengaluru the educational technology company. She was from a middle-class family and had technological skills that she effectively integrated into the education sector.
Her contributions and leadership to the field were recognized when she became the EdTech Taskforce leader in March 2022 by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
Final thoughts
The start-up world since the 2000s has come a long way and so have the female entrepreneurs in India in their entrepreneurship roles. Women founders have exemplary leadership and are demonstrating by leading businesses with grace. This transition helped the female workforce shift labels and be recognized as investors, businesspeople, or scientists.
Women entrepreneurs are the stars of India and are living in a time of change. This has helped women entirely and holds the potential for more aspiring women to become entrepreneurs. It is not more of a men’s area, yet women have fewer opportunities than men. But women are persistent in facing the challenges of the startup ecosystem and are proving to be the change bellwethers.
India is now shifting towards being supportive of women and their socioeconomic environment. The biggest advantage is that women-led businesses constitute over 20% of the MSME sector in the country. The majority of women entrepreneurs are increasing in number. They are running microenterprises and are wading undeterred into this ecosystem.
The entrepreneurial ecosystem shows remarkable change and the landscape reveals a paradigm shift towards empowerment and inclusivity. Women are receiving good government support and it reflects consistently on women founders outperforming expectations. They are showcasing their business acumen and resilience.
It is time to celebrate International Women’s Day by addressing the Indian women founders. The above-mentioned top 10 female entrepreneurs in India list represents their significant strides across various industries, breaking barriers and inspiring other women through their excellence.
Source: Cosmo Politian
