25 Women Entrepreneurs in India Changing Their Industries

India’s most influential women entrepreneurs have built companies that changed how the country shops, saves, eats, heals and invests. Some, like Falguni Nayar of Nykaa and Ghazal Alagh of Mamaearth, took their companies to the stock market. Others, like Chetna Gala Sinha of Mann Deshi Bank and Patricia Narayan of Sandeepha, started with almost nothing and built institutions their communities now depend on. Here are 25 women entrepreneurs in India who are changing their industries — and what each of them built.

The list at a glance

S. No	Entrepreneur	Company	Industry	Founded
1	Falguni Nayar	Nykaa	Beauty e-commerce	2012
2	Vineeta Singh	SUGAR Cosmetics	Beauty	2015
3	Ghazal Alagh	Mamaearth (Honasa Consumer)	Personal care	2016
4	Richa Kar	Zivame	Lingerie e-commerce	2011
5	Shahnaz Husain	Shahnaz Husain Group	Herbal beauty	1971
6	Vandana Luthra	VLCC	Wellness	1989
7	Malika Sadani	The Moms Co.	Mother & baby care	2017
8	Chinu Kala	Rubans Accessories	Fashion jewellery	2014
9	Rajni Bector	Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities	Food	1970s
10	Patricia Narayan	Sandeepha	Restaurants	—
11	Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw	Biocon	Biotechnology	1978
12	Meena Ganesh	Portea Medical	Home healthcare	2013
13	Aditi Gupta	Menstrupedia	Health education	2012
14	Upasana Taku	MobiKwik	Fintech	2009
15	Ruchi Kalra	OfBusiness & Oxyzo	B2B commerce & lending	2015
16	Hardika Shah	Kinara Capital	MSME lending	2011
17	Chetna Gala Sinha	Mann Deshi Bank	Rural banking	1997
18	Vani Kola	Kalaari Capital	Venture capital	2006
19	Shanti Mohan	LetsVenture	Startup investing	2013
20	Ashwini Asokan	Mad Street Den (Vue.ai)	Artificial intelligence	2013
21	Shradha Sharma	YourStory	Digital media	2008
22	Sairee Chahal	SHEROES	Women’s community platform	2014
23	Suchi Mukherjee	LimeRoad	Fashion e-commerce	2012
24	Kanika Tekriwal	JetSetGo	Private aviation	2014
25	Kalpana Saroj	Kamani Tubes	Manufacturing	Revived 2000s

Beauty, fashion and personal care

1. Falguni Nayar — Nykaa

Falguni Nayar spent close to two decades in investment banking, rising to managing director at Kotak Mahindra Capital, before starting Nykaa in 2012 at the age of 49. At a time when Indian women mostly bought beauty products from local chemists, Nykaa gave them a curated online store with genuine products, tutorials and reviews. When the company listed on the stock exchanges in November 2021, it made her one of India’s richest self-made women — and proved that it is never too late to start up.

2. Vineeta Singh — SUGAR Cosmetics

An IIM Ahmedabad graduate, Vineeta Singh turned down a corporate job offer to become an entrepreneur. After an earlier venture, she co-founded SUGAR Cosmetics in 2015 with her husband, Kaushik Mukherjee, betting that Indian women wanted bold, long-lasting make-up made for Indian skin tones and climates. SUGAR grew from a digital-first brand into one sold through its own stores and thousands of retail outlets, and Singh became a household name as an investor on Shark Tank India.

3. Ghazal Alagh — Mamaearth

Ghazal Alagh and her husband Varun Alagh started Mamaearth in 2016 after struggling to find toxin-free baby care products in India. The brand grew into a full range of personal care products, and its parent company, Honasa Consumer, listed on the stock exchanges in November 2023. Alagh, who leads the company’s innovation and brand work, showed how a problem faced by one young mother could become one of India’s best-known consumer brands.

4. Richa Kar — Zivame

When Richa Kar founded Zivame in 2011, buying lingerie in India often meant an awkward conversation with a male shopkeeper. Her online store let women shop privately, with sizing guides and a far wider range than local shops offered. Kar faced early resistance — including from her own family — but Zivame helped turn lingerie into a mainstream online category and made it easier for millions of women to find the right fit.

5. Shahnaz Husain — Shahnaz Husain Group

Long before “natural” and “Ayurvedic” were marketing buzzwords, Shahnaz Husain was building a beauty business on them. She opened her first herbal salon in Delhi in 1971 and grew it into an international brand of Ayurvedic beauty products and salons. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2006, and remains one of the pioneers who proved an Indian woman could build a global beauty brand.

6. Vandana Luthra — VLCC

Vandana Luthra started VLCC in Delhi in 1989 with a single slimming and beauty centre. Over the following decades it became one of India’s best-known wellness brands, with centres and products across India and abroad. Luthra helped create the organised wellness industry in India and has also worked to set up skills training for beauty and wellness professionals.

7. Malika Sadani — The Moms Co.

Malika Sadani launched The Moms Co. in 2017 after looking for safe, natural pregnancy and baby care products during her own pregnancy and finding few options in India. The brand built a loyal community of new parents online, showing how a direct-to-consumer brand can grow by solving one specific, deeply personal problem well.

8. Chinu Kala — Rubans Accessories

Chinu Kala’s story is one of the most remarkable on this list. She left home at 15 with ₹300, with no formal education, and sold knife sets door to door for as little as ₹20 a day. In 2014 she used her savings to start Rubans, a fashion jewellery brand in Bengaluru, and grew it through online marketplaces and mall stores. As reported in 2019, Rubans’ revenue had grown from about ₹56 lakh in 2016–17 to ₹7.5 crore, and she later appeared on Shark Tank India.

Food and hospitality

9. Rajni Bector — Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities

Rajni Bector started in the 1970s by making ice creams, cakes and cookies for friends and local celebrations in Ludhiana, then set up a small backyard bakery with an investment of about ₹20,000. That kitchen business grew into Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities, maker of the Cremica biscuit and English Oven bread brands. When the company went public in December 2020, its IPO was subscribed about 198 times — one of the most sought-after listings of that year.

10. Patricia Narayan — Sandeepha

After escaping an abusive marriage, Patricia Narayan borrowed money from her mother and set up a snack and coffee cart on Chennai’s Marina Beach, employing two people with disabilities. She went on to run office canteens across the city and opened the Sandeepha restaurants with her son, named in memory of her late daughter. Her daily revenue grew from 50 paise to about ₹2 lakh, she employs around 200 people, and she won the FICCI Woman Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2010.

Healthcare and biotechnology

11. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw — Biocon

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw trained as a master brewer but could not find work in a male-dominated industry. In 1978 she started Biocon in the garage of a rented house in Bengaluru, making enzymes. She went on to build it into one of India’s largest biopharmaceutical companies, with a focus on affordable insulins, biosimilars and cancer treatments. She is widely regarded as the mother of India’s biotechnology industry and has received both the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan.

12. Meena Ganesh — Portea Medical

A serial entrepreneur and former corporate leader, Meena Ganesh co-founded Portea Medical in 2013 to bring doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and medical equipment to patients’ homes. For elderly patients and people recovering from surgery, Portea made quality care possible without repeated hospital visits, and helped build India’s organised home-healthcare industry.

13. Aditi Gupta — Menstrupedia

Aditi Gupta grew up with the silence and myths that surround menstruation in many Indian homes. In 2012 she and Tuhin Paul founded Menstrupedia, which created a friendly comic book that explains periods to young girls. The comic has been used by schools and organisations across India and translated into many languages, turning a taboo subject into one that can be taught openly in classrooms.

Fintech, banking and finance

14. Upasana Taku — MobiKwik

After working at PayPal in the United States, Upasana Taku returned to India and co-founded MobiKwik in 2009 with her husband, Bipin Preet Singh, years before digital payments went mainstream. MobiKwik grew from a mobile wallet into a platform for payments, credit and investments. It listed on the stock exchanges in December 2024, raising ₹572 crore, making Taku one of the few women co-founders to take an Indian fintech public.

15. Ruchi Kalra — OfBusiness and Oxyzo

A former McKinsey consultant, Ruchi Kalra co-founded OfBusiness in 2015 to help small manufacturers buy raw materials such as steel and chemicals — and get the credit to pay for them. She went on to lead Oxyzo, the group’s lending arm for small businesses. Both companies became unicorns, making Kalra one of the very few Indian women to co-found two unicorns.

16. Hardika Shah — Kinara Capital

Hardika Shah returned to India in 2011 to start Kinara Capital, which gives collateral-free loans to small manufacturers and traders that banks usually turn away. As reported in 2024, Kinara had disbursed more than 1.25 lakh loans worth over ₹6,760 crore. Its HerVikas programme offers women-owned businesses lower interest and a repayment holiday, and nearly 60% of the company’s top management are women.

17. Chetna Gala Sinha — Mann Deshi Bank

In 1997, after the Reserve Bank of India rejected her first application, Chetna Gala Sinha set up Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank in Mhaswad, Maharashtra — India’s first bank for and by rural women. It started with 1,335 members and grew to about 1 lakh account holders, while the Mann Deshi Foundation runs business schools and a community radio station for rural women. Her work has been recognised with the Nari Shakti Puraskar.

Investing, technology and media

18. Vani Kola — Kalaari Capital

Vani Kola built and sold software companies in Silicon Valley — her e-procurement firm RightWorks was sold for $657 million — before returning to India. In 2006 she co-founded the venture fund that became Kalaari Capital, one of the country’s best-known early-stage investors, with early bets on companies such as Myntra, Snapdeal, Urban Ladder and Dream11. She is one of the most influential voices in Indian venture capital.

19. Shanti Mohan — LetsVenture

Shanti Mohan co-founded LetsVenture in 2013 to make startup investing simpler. The platform connects early-stage startups with angel investors and handles much of the paperwork that once slowed deals down, helping widen access to funding for founders across India.

20. Ashwini Asokan — Mad Street Den

After working on future technologies at Intel in Silicon Valley, Ashwini Asokan returned to Chennai and co-founded Mad Street Den in 2013 with her husband, Anand Chandrasekaran. Its Vue.ai platform uses artificial intelligence to help retailers with product tagging, personalisation and styling. Asokan is one of the few women leading an Indian AI company that sells to global enterprises.

21. Shradha Sharma — YourStory

A former journalist, Shradha Sharma started YourStory in 2008, long before “startup” was a household word in India. Built to tell the stories of entrepreneurs, it grew into one of the country’s largest platforms for startup news and founder stories — giving thousands of young companies their first media coverage.

22. Sairee Chahal — SHEROES

Sairee Chahal founded SHEROES in 2014 as a career platform for women and turned it into a women-only online community where members can find jobs, mentorship, support and learning. Built as a safe space for women online, SHEROES has helped millions of women — many in smaller towns — find work, learn new skills and start their own ventures.

23. Suchi Mukherjee — LimeRoad

Suchi Mukherjee worked at eBay, Skype and Gumtree in Europe before founding LimeRoad in 2012. Instead of a plain catalogue, LimeRoad let users create and share style “scrapbooks”, combining social discovery with shopping. The approach helped bring affordable fashion online for shoppers across India’s smaller cities.

Aviation and manufacturing

24. Kanika Tekriwal — JetSetGo

Kanika Tekriwal founded JetSetGo in 2014 after recovering from cancer. Her company brought technology and transparency to private jet and helicopter charters in India, an industry she found opaque and hard to book. Building an aviation business in her twenties, she became one of the youngest founders in a sector long dominated by men.

25. Kalpana Saroj — Kamani Tubes

Born into a Dalit family in a village in Akola, Maharashtra, Kalpana Saroj was married at 12 and later worked in a Mumbai garment factory for very little pay. She built a tailoring business and then a furniture and real estate business with the help of government loans. When Kamani Tubes was in liquidation, she took charge, restructured it and returned it to profit, and is now its chairperson. She received the Padma Shri in 2013 for trade and industry.

What these women entrepreneurs have in common

They solved a problem they lived. Ghazal Alagh, Malika Sadani and Aditi Gupta all built companies around a problem they had faced themselves.
Age and background were not barriers. Falguni Nayar started at 49; Chinu Kala left home at 15 with ₹300; Kalpana Saroj was married at 12.
Rejection came first. The RBI turned down Chetna Sinha’s first bank application; Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw could not get hired as a brewer.
They built for women. Zivame, SHEROES, Kinara’s HerVikas and Mann Deshi Bank were designed around what women needed and could not find.
They played the long game. Biocon, VLCC and Shahnaz Husain’s business are decades old — lasting impact took far longer than a funding round.

Frequently asked questions

Who are the most successful women entrepreneurs in India?

Among the best known are Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (Biocon), Falguni Nayar (Nykaa), Vineeta Singh (SUGAR Cosmetics), Ghazal Alagh (Mamaearth), Upasana Taku (MobiKwik) and Vani Kola (Kalaari Capital).

Who is called the mother of Indian biotechnology?

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, who founded Biocon in Bengaluru in 1978, is widely called the mother of India’s biotechnology industry.

Which bank in India was started for rural women?

Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, founded by Chetna Gala Sinha in Mhaswad, Maharashtra, in 1997, was India’s first bank for and by rural women.

Which Indian women founders have taken their companies public?

Falguni Nayar (Nykaa, 2021), Rajni Bector (Mrs. Bectors Food Specialities, 2020), Ghazal Alagh (Honasa Consumer, 2023) and Upasana Taku (MobiKwik, 2024) are among the women founders and co-founders whose companies have listed on Indian stock exchanges.