The recent paradigm shift in the Indian corporate landscape of India is heart warming. Entering the economic wave, Indian business women have established a titanic empire of their tribe. Demonstrating emphatic strides, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with their male counterparts, the sheer confidence emanated by them radiates a glow of change. One might say, the Indian corporate boardrooms accommodate only 14 percent of women, but that’s not what we’re really concerned about now. We’re past it. Today, we witness women business owners who have registered Crores in revenues. Women Entrepreneur India has short listed 4 such women entrepreneurs who are counting revenues in 9 figures. Let’s meet them.
Disha Singh, Zouk
At her second year of MBA at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), Disha Singh, Zouk Disha Singh knew entrepreneurship was her calling. She was on a trip to Kutch. As customary goes, most people visiting this part of India, explore local handicrafts. This is where Disha realised that though her friends loved the designs and the craftsmanship, they did not buy them; simply because the products lacked functionality. She then decided to give a modern and functional spin on these crafts through Zouk, a B2C startup and a vegan brand for bags, wallets and accessories, in 2016. She also observed that most bags and accessories were replicas of foreign brands sold at cheaper rates and introduced a range of office bags made from ikat, jute, and khadi fabric with a contemporary and unconventional appeal. With 20 Lakh as the initial investment in 2017, Disha launched Zouk’s first product and sold in more than 50 exhibitions before entering the online marketplace. As of today, Disha’s firm is backed by 24 artisans working from the startup’s manufacturing facility in Dharavi, Mumbai. Talking figures, the vegan handmade products have raked in annual revenue of Rs 5 crore.
Pallavi Mohadikar Patwari, Karagiri
Pallavi Mohadikar Patwari, Karagiri is the daughter of a weaver. Pallavi has a keen eye for quality sarees and has considerable knowledge sourcing chikankari sarees and selling them on Ebay to meet her daily expenses as a student at IIM, Lucknow. In July 2017, the former TATA and Goldman Sachs employee took the leap toward entrepreneurship and laid the foundation to Karagiri. She set sail on this journey along with her husband Dr Amol Patwari with an initial investment of Rs 3 lakh. Over the last three years, the startup has expanded from just five weavers in Maharashtra to working with 1,500 weavers across India and aims to onboard 5,000 weaver families by the end of 2020. Having successfully sold more than 50,000 units in 11 countries including Dubai and the US in the financial year 2019, Karagiri has registered a growth revenue of Rs 12 crore, i.e. 400 times the initial invested sum. Further, the entrepreneur-duo show promises to be on track to generate revenue of Rs 20 crore for the current financial year, Rs 50 crore in 2021 and Rs 150 crore in 2022.
Sally Lad, Volksara
Sally Lad stoof up and walked to start up on her own, instead of joining her family business, Krystal Group of Companies. Post achieving a bachelor’s degree in Strategic Management and Consulting from Nottingham Trent University and completing her master’s in Business Consulting from Royal Holloway, University of London, Sally established Volksara in 2014 as a surveillance security business solution, which has now transformed into a full-fledged IT business. Volksara has been very instrumental working with smart cities and towards cybersecurity development and has been associated with cities like Gondia, Matheran, Nashik, Namchi, and Pimpri-Chinchwad. One of its large-scale worth-mentioning projects include tech deployment at the Kumbh Mela. We all know it’s one of the largest festivals in the world.
Deepmala, The Visual House
Deepmala is a Radio and TV journalism graduate who experimented with production and filmmaking by freelancing with several production houses calling off her journalism jobs. She established The Visual House, a video production company and creative communications agency in the year 2010. The firm manages myriad of projects ranging from documentaries and short films to commercial and corporate videos in the form of explainers and animated videos. It also develops and produces visually driven content including posters, radio jingles, comic strips, and FAQs, as part of various campaign projects. The Faridabad-based startup received its first project worth more than Rs 1 crore in 2015 from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It also has clientele like WHO, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UN Women, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and corporate companies such as BCG India, among its clients. Kick started with an initial investment of Rs 10,000, the startup now makes Rs 5 crore in revenue and has also received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2018 for Best Emerging Ads, Documentary, and Short Films Production House.
