5 Popular Indian Brands Founded By Women

In recent years, brands founded or co-founded by a woman have made headlines after their net worth increased by millions and billions. Many popular companies like Rivigo, OfBusiness, Hasura, Mobikwik, Mamaearth, Nykaa, Zenoti and others have at least one female founder, says a May 2022 report of Inc42.

The report also shines a light on the fact that the e-commerce sector has at least 43% representation of women on the seats of founders. Delhi-NCR has seven, Bengaluru has five and Mumbai has three companies with female founders.

This article mentions five popular Indian brands that were founded by women.

Nykaa, Falguni Nayar

Image Courtesy: LinkedIn/Falguni Nayar

Nykaa is an e-commerce company that sells everything under the beauty, style and wellness catalogues. Headquartered in Mumbai, it is India’s first unicorn (privately held startup company with net worth around $1 bn) startup with a woman founder, Falguni Nayar.

Nayar is from a Gujarati family and had worked with Kotak Mahindra Group. Hurun Global Rich List 2022 listed her as the wealthiest new entrant with a net worth of around $7.6 billion. In November 2021, Nykaa’s worth stood at $13 billion.

Byju’s, Divya Gokulnath

Image Courtesy: Instagram/divyagokulnath

Byju’s is a multinational educational technology company in Bengaluru. It was founded by Divya Gokulnath and Byju Raveendran. In March 2022, the company had a total of 115 million registrations. It was valued at $22 billion. It trains students for exams like NEET, JEE, CAT, IAS, GMAT and GRE.

Based out in Bengaluru, Divya met Byju in 2007. He encouraged her to become a teacher, and so she began her career in 2008. In 2020, Divya, Byju and his brother Riju had a combined net worth of $3.05 billion. In March 2022, she was appointed the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry’s EdTech Taskforce Chair.

Mamearth, Ghazal Alagh

Image Courtesy: Instagram/ghazalalgh

Founded by Ghazal and Varun Alagh, Mamaearth claims to be Asia’s first MadeSafe-certified brand. The certification ensures that beauty products are free from 8000 toxins known in the world. In January 2022, the company was valued at $52 million. Its products are available on e-commerce platforms like Firstcry, Amazon and Nykaa.

Ghazal Alagh started her business journey as a diet expert with a startup that customised meals. According to Failure Before Success, Ghazal started building non-toxic products for infants after her son Agastya was born. In 2019, she was among 40 under 40 achievers in India and received the StartUps Asia Award.

Pristyn Care, Dr Garima Sawhney

Image Courtesy: LinkedIn/garimasawhney

Pristyn Care is a health-tech company that has partnered with hundreds of hospitals and clinics in India to provide minimally invasive medical and surgical interventions. In 2018, the company was valued at $1 billion in December 2021. Its marketing campaigns have starred Hrithik Roshan, Dilip Joshi, Boman Irani, Chef Ranveer Brar, Anup Soni, etc.

Dr Garima Sawhney is one of the co-founders of Pristyn Care. Before starting this company, she was a consultant at CK Birla Hospital and MAX Super Speciality Hospital. Her expertise lies in hysterectomy, bleeding disorders, vaginal problems, infertility issues, PCOS/PCOD and urinary tract infections.

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MobiKwik, Upasana Taku

Image Courtesy: Instagram/upasanataku

MobiKwik is a payment service provider company started by Upasana Taku and Bipin Preet Singh. In 2013, the Reserve Bank of India authorised the usage of its wallet in making digital transactions. In October 2021, the company joined the list of unicorn startups in India.

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Upasana Taku not only co-founded MobiKwik but also Zaakpay, another payment processing option available on leading e-commerce websites in India. It is a subsidiary of MobiKwik.