We’ve all heard the old saying, “Behind every great man, stands a woman”. Nowadays it’s the woman who sits in front and makes the decision and these five entrepreneurial women are testament to that.
Five Famous Female Entrepreneurs in India
Let’s take a look at five female entrepreneurs in India who dared to dream and strived to pursue them.
Vandana Luthra: Founder of VLCC
Vanda Luthra is the founder of the well-known homegrown beauty and wellness brand VLCC. Besides being one of the most successful and famous female entrepreneurs in India, Luthra is also a noted philanthropist, an author, and a Padma Shree awardee.
Luthra started VLCC in 1989 as a small beauty and wellness store in Delhi focusing on dietary and weight management. It has since then expanded to over 310 locations spanning 13 countries across South Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa within 30 years.
Falguni Nayar: Founder of Nykaa
A former investment banker and managing director, Falguni Nayar set out to build the largest beauty and lifestyle e-commerce portal in India and named it Nykaa which is derived from the Sanskrit word Nayaka, meaning ‘the one in the spotlight’. Her company is currently valued at over 1.1 billion dollars, making Nayar one of India’s richest and most famous female entrepreneurs.
Nayar saw a lack of quality shopping experience in the beauty and lifestyle e-commerce space and with encouragement from her family and initial seed investment, she founded Nykaa in 2012. Since then the company has achieved great heights for beauty and lifestyle products.
Divya Gokulnath: Co-founder of BYJUs
Passion can make the impossible possible and that is true for Divya Gokulnath, the co-founder of Byjus, one of the biggest EdTech companies in India. She has managed to perfectly capture how passion and drive can help a person succeed and in the process turned it into a 16 billion-dollar company.
In 2011, Gokulnath and her husband started Byju’s as an offline test-prep platform. In 2015, they launched the Byju app. There’s been no looking back since then. Gokulnath is now using her passion for teaching and her skill for educational content creation to help drive Byju’s success.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw: Founder of Biocon Limited
A master brewer turned biotech pioneer and India’s first self-made woman billionaire, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is an example of a woman who went down an unconventional path and found success. The founder and executive chairperson of Biocon Limited, a biotech company, Mazumdar-Shaw has brought accolades to not just herself but India in the field of biotechnology.
Mazumdar-Shaw founded Biocon in 1978 and has since then expanded into biopharmaceuticals. Under her leadership, Biocon became the first Indian biotech company to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Her success has made her one of the most powerful people in the world according to TIME magazine and Forbes.
Richa Kar: Co-founder of Zivame
Another woman breaking the glass ceiling and finding success as a female entrepreneur in India is Richa Kar, the co-founder of Zivame, an online lingerie company. An engineering graduate, Kar saw an untapped market in the lingerie sector for Indian women.
Despite not getting support initially, Kar held onto her idea of starting an online platform for lingerie. She finally managed to launch Zivame in 2011 using her savings and money borrowed from friends. Her hard work and determination have helped Zivame flourish and reach a market value of 200 million dollars. The success of her company broke down taboos regarding lingerie and innerwear in conservative Indian society. In 2011, Kar stepped down as CEO of Zivame. However, she continues to be a member of the board.
you can also check this out 5 Famous Businessmen in India in 2021
Conclusion
This concludes our list of the five most famous female entrepreneurs in India. Kudos to these women who have managed to create their own stories and carve a place for themselves in their respective sectors.
