Basudha Shrivastav: ExpressEarth Digital Services
Basudha Shrivastav co-founded Expres Earth Digital services, a travel agency that takes care of all your travel needs, in 2015. Her co-founder Himanshu Narula was also her classmate. Both were interested in starting a travel business. That's why they quit their jobs and threw themselves into business and marriage. Express Earth takes care of all your travel needs from hotels, cars, flights, insurance and more for both B2B and B2C clients. Basudha holds a degree from Delhi University and has experience working in the IT sector. Her company has won several awards for being an innovative travel company, including "Most Innovative Travel Management Company" by India Travel Award North. “Looking back, I see that whenever one door closed, another opened. I'm glad certain things didn't happen, otherwise I wouldn't know what I know today."
What is ExpressEarth? ExpressEarth has created a special environment for smart travelers. It is a unique channel that provides a variety of travel options that truly suit you and not the travel company or agent. They also provide travel options for corporate trips. They have won several awards including the NASSCOM 10k. The program and The Startup India has really helped the startup in its early days since its inception in 2015.
Chitra Gurnani Daga: Co-Founder, Trillophilia
Chitra co-founded Thrilophilia with her husband Abhishek Daga. She is a graduate of the Indian School of Business. She decided to go into it without any previous business experience because of her passion for it. Her family was not in business and neither was her husband. Together, they decided to follow their dreams in an unconventional way. She was driven by a passion for traveling and building the dreams of others. That's why she hired professionals with the same energy and enthusiasm for adventure as herself.
What is Trillophilia all about? Thrilophilia is an Indian adventure travel company that curates local experiences for unique and unconventional travel stories. Today, with 3.5 million monthly users, it has become one of the largest online platforms for travel experiences. With an active website, blog and social media, Trillophilia has been able to build a brand. They are one of the most famous travel companies in India.
Divya Gokulnath: Co-founder BYJU’S
Divya co-founded Byju’s an educational platform to help students learn better. She completed her engineering degree from RV College and was preparing for her GRE to continue her studies abroad. This is when she joined Byju Raveendran’s classes as his student. Soon Divya became a teacher at Byju’s and then got married to him. When it was time to launch the platform Byjus chose her to do it with. Today, BYJU’s is the most valuable ed-tech company in the world. Divya was featured as one of Linkedin’s top voices in 2019.hat is BYJU’s?
BYJU’s is the world’s most valuable ed-tech startup. It offers learning through an app and website for competitive exams like JEE, CAT, NEET and IAS and for students in classes 1-12. It launched its flagship product, the BYJU’S – The Learning App, for classes 4-12 in 2015.
Today, the app has over 42 million registered students and 3 million annual paid subscriptions. An average of 71 minutes is spent by a student on the app every day. The app is created with the vision to make learning fun through visual lessons. BYJU’S also has an early learning application for students of class 1-3. The company is backed by several prominent investors like Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Sofina, Verlinvest, IFC, Aarin Capital, TimesInternet, Lightspeed Ventures, Tiger Global, General Atlantic, Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Owl Ventures, Naspers, CPPIB, and Qatar Investment Authority. BYJU’S is also an official sponsor of the Indian Cricket Team. “There were two things Byju made people understand: nothing is as complicated as you think it is, and you are much better than you think you are. This confidence brought the eight of us closer and passionate about one goal and that’s also the reason why the bunch of us who got together right, in the beginning, are still at Byju’s tied to this passion for education” Divya Gokulnath net worth- 1800 crore.
Malini Agarwal: Founder and Creative Director of Miss Malini
Miss Malini Agarwal is the founder and the creative director of her own company – Miss Malini. She is one of the women entrepreneurs in India who truly started on the couch and has taken the path of being a host, a digital influencer, a best-selling author and then an entrepreneur. As her fame kept growing she kept on reaching new avenues. She is counted as one of India’s most influential women. She has also been featured in lists such as GQ’s 50 Most Influential Young Indians and Fortune India’s 40 Under 40. Today her company has established revenues and has become an entertainment establishment which covers lifestyle articles, celebrity news, tips and tricks and much more! Miss Malini’s net worth- $1 million- $5 million in 2019.
What is Miss Malini Entertainment? MissMalini has become a go-to platform for news about Bollywood, Fashion and Lifestyle. Today, it reaches over 40 million people each month and has several digital properties for different niches.
The platform receives 3-4 million unique visitors every month and even caters to an international audience from the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and South Africa. The Miss Malini Entertainment platform is predominately run by women and two-thirds of their audience is women. The platform has secured a funding of Rs 10.4 crore from Orios Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates.
Mehak Sagar: Co-Founder of Wed Me Good
Mehak Sagar co-founded Wed Me Good in 2014 along with her husband Anand Shahani. Today, the portal has become a go-to platform for Indian brides and grooms. Wed me good is a curated portal for everything related to weddings. They personally recommend services and products and take pride in their curation. She has a masters in economics. Things changed when her blog Peaches and Blushes took off which led to her building a platform for weddings. She says that the heart that they put into things is truly what sets them apart.
Quotes“Superwomen are just women who accept and love themselves and understand that it takes sacrifices to achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself in life.”
What is Wed Me Good? Wed Me Good is the largest wedding portal in India. It helps you discover, book and review vendors. Currently, they earn revenues through their WMG featured vendors, however, in the future will explore monetisation through advertising and wedding planning.
The platform has everything from Mehandi artists to candid photographers with reviews and ratings. This helps a family find the best fit for them. They have secured a funding of Rs 2.7 crore in its seed funding round led by Hemant Kanakia and Alok Mittal of Indian Angel Network (IAN).
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal: Co-founder and CMO, Shopclues.com
Radhika Ghai founded Shopclues after a decade of experience in industries such as retail, eCommerce, fashion and lifestyle, advertising and public relations. This tech-savvy entrepreneur earned an MBA from the University of Washington. She is definitely a remarkable woman entrepreneur in India. She was the first Indian to join the Unicorn Club. Radhika also holds a post graduate degree in Advertising and Public Relations. Radhika worked with Nordstrom on strategic planning and with Goldman Sachs in its Wealth Management group in New York and Menlo Park, USA. She founded Shopclues in Silicon Valley in 2011 with her co-founders Sanjay Sethi and Sandeep Aggarwal.
What is Shopclues? Currently, Shopclues is India's first and largest fully managed marketplace with over 7 million visitors every month. It is currently in nine thousand cities, towns and villages in India. Shopclues is known for providing utility items for kitchen, home, fashion and electronics. Although the company has seen controversies regarding fake products, it is still popular and a great marketplace for several e-commerce brands.
Ritu Kumar: Fashion designer
She is an extremely popular fashion designer who runs her boutique named 'Ri' along with the brand 'Ritu Kumar' which is handled by her son. Ritu is a leading fashion designer in India. She is also a recipient of the Padma Shri Award, the Achievement Award in 2012 at the L’oreal Paris Femina Women’s Awards and the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award for her role in the development of the fashion industry. She started her career with two small tables and a hand printing technique. Her use of traditional patterns and contemporary implementations has really set her apart in the country's fashion world. Today she is a recognized fashion designer with several achievements.
She is usually credited with her online fashion store, but she also had an influence on India's boutique culture. Ritu is an entrepreneur in India who has truly revolutionized the fashion industry. Her work has been worn by leading Bollywood actresses and several international celebrities. Quotes: “When women wear denim, they (derriere) have to look elegant. It's the second thing every woman looks at in the mirror, but it's the first thing she cares about. A half turn, arched back and extended head will do it. If the jeans are right, the experience changes like putting on a magic cloak.”
What is Ritu Kumar Label? Ritu started her brand with bridal and fashion wear. In his designs, he focuses on natural fabrics and traditional methods of printing and weaving. Ritu launched a sub-brand of her company called Label in 2002 with her son Amrish Kumar. Together, they targeted foreign markets and local fashion markets with their traditional yet contemporary fashion oriented outfits. It is a brand that is created to target a younger audience. The annual turnover of the company is estimated at 1 to 5 million USD.
Sairee Chahal: Founder, SHEROES.in
Sairee is one of the serial entrepreneurs in India. She co-founded Fleximoms and Newslink. In addition, she is the founder of Sheroes.in. She is also a TED speaker and was voted Most Powerful Women in Indian Business in 2012. She has been honored with Devi Awards, Femina Achievers Awards, Cartier Award, Editor's Choice for L'Oreal Femina Women's Award, Business Today and Most Powerful Women in Indian Business. In 2018, she was ranked 53rd in Onalytica's "Future of Work Top 100 Influencers". "I never asked for permission. If it felt right, I went ahead and did it.”
What is Sheroes.in? Sheroes is the only platform for women that offers support, resources, opportunities and interactions. In addition, SHEROES hosts the #SHEROESSummit, a flagship event and #theshift series that helps change the gender narrative and organizes community gatherings across the country. They mostly earn through B2B businesses paying them to rent or market on their platform. The platform mainly focuses on empowering women to talk and learn from each other about various topics.
Their core philosophy is to help women navigate career stages and find work that fits their lives.
Upasana Taku: Co-founder of Mobikwik
Upasana Taku is the co-founder of Mobikwik with her husband Bipin Preet Singh. Mobikwik is a virtual wallet that is tied to a huge network of companies and services. It allows people to recharge and pay virtually at registered locations through their app. It also rewards its customers for using their wallet through a concept called SuperCash.
Upasana graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Management Science and gained a strong fintech background by working as a senior product manager at PayPal. In her interview, she mentioned that even though she was already working with very high budgets, she didn't feel satisfied. This prompted her to return to India and contribute to the ecosystem here. In the company's first six months, she simply assisted founder Bipin Preet Singh until her confidence in the idea grew. She then joined Mobikwik full-time as a co-founder.
Quotes “MobiKwik was very simple and needs based. We launched MobiKwik as a recharge platform and soon it became every Indian's mobile wallet. I am proud to say that MobiKwik was the first mobile wallet in India,”
What is Mobikwik? Mobikwik is a fintech startup that was founded in April 2009. It is a phone payment system and digital wallet. It helps bridge the digital divide between consumers and companies. It also enables bill payments, DTH, data cards and much more through their app. This helped Mobikwik to earn INR 19-184.6 cr in FY 2019. MobiKwik won several awards such as the mBillionth Award South Asia in the Mobile Business category for socially valuable contributions to South Asia's digital infrastructure.