Sairee Chahal is an Indian entrepreneur best known as the founder and CEO of SHEROES, a women-only online community that grew from a careers platform into a space for jobs, advice, support and women-run businesses. The Sairee Chahal SHEROES story is one of the longest-running experiments in building technology specifically for Indian women. More recently, Chahal founded Mahila Money, which offers small digital loans to women running neighbourhood businesses.
Her work sits at the meeting point of three big questions: why so few Indian women are in paid work, why women-led businesses struggle to get capital, and what the internet looks like when it is designed for women rather than retrofitted for them. This profile traces her journey, explains what SHEROES is and how it changed over time, and looks at what founders can learn from it.
Who is Sairee Chahal?
Sairee Chahal is a serial entrepreneur born in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, who moved to Delhi to study. She holds an M.Phil in International Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University and a postgraduate diploma in business management from the Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad.
She is the founder of SHEROES and Mahila Money. Her recognitions include the Cartier Women’s Initiative, a place on Business Today’s list of the Most Powerful Women in Indian Business in 2012, and a fellowship with the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She has also served on the board of Paytm Payments Bank (appointed in 2019) and on the board of the Milaan Foundation.
| Born in | Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh |
|---|---|
| Education | M.Phil, Jawaharlal Nehru University; PGDBM, IMT Ghaziabad |
| Known for | Founder and CEO of SHEROES; founder of Mahila Money |
| Earlier ventures | Newslink Services (1999), SAITA Consulting, Fleximoms |
| Recognition | Cartier Women’s Initiative; Aspen Global Leadership Network fellow |
Sairee Chahal’s early career and entrepreneurial journey
Chahal began her working life as a journalist at an advertising and marketing magazine, according to Mount Holyoke College’s profile of her, and went on to work in research and consulting for start-ups and larger organisations.
Her first venture came early. In 1999 she co-founded Newslink Services, which published a newspaper for seafarers. After returning to India in 2006, she ran SAITA Consulting for about five years, Inc42 reported in 2019.
Her next venture, Fleximoms, started in 2012 according to Wikipedia. It connected women returning to the workforce with flexible jobs, information and mentoring. Inc42 described it as “a community-led platform for companies and women to talk to each other”. Fleximoms was the direct forerunner of SHEROES: the same problem — capable women dropping out of work — approached through a bigger, more ambitious platform.
Timeline: key milestones
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1999 | Co-founds Newslink Services, a newspaper for seafarers |
| 2006 | Returns to India; runs SAITA Consulting |
| 2012 | Fleximoms launches; named in Business Today’s Most Powerful Women in Indian Business |
| 2013–14 | SHEROES founded (sources give different years — see below) |
| 2015 | Seed round from investors including Quintillion Media, Binny Bansal and 500 Startups |
| 2016 | Raises ₹12 crore in August, led by Lumis Partners |
| 2016–2019 | Acquires Babygogo, Gharkamai, LoveDoctor and Maya; partners with Paytm on a women’s community feed |
| 2019 | Chahal appointed to the board of Paytm Payments Bank |
| 2021 | Launches Mahila Money; SHEROES raises Series A funding from Coinbase Ventures and Atlantis (December) |
| 2022 | Launches WomenWill, a free, Google-certified business course |
What is SHEROES?
SHEROES is a women-only online community, available as a website and app, where women in India can find support, information, work and business opportunities. It was built on the idea that women need a safe online space of their own — one where they can ask questions and find help without the harassment common on open social networks.
When was SHEROES founded?
Sources differ. YourStory’s company directory lists SHEROES as founded in 2013. Wikipedia says it was founded in 2014, starting as a phone helpline. Some profiles trace the journey back to 2012, the year Fleximoms began. The most accurate summary is that SHEROES grew out of Fleximoms and took its current name in 2013–14.
How SHEROES evolved
- A careers platform. SHEROES began with jobs for women. Within about two years, Inc42 reported, almost 10 lakh women and 20,000 companies had signed up.
- A community for everything else. When women started asking about health, relationships and other topics, SHEROES widened its focus, Chahal told Inc42. It acquired Babygogo (a mothers’ community), Gharkamai (work-from-home), LoveDoctor (counselling) and Maya (women’s health), and later shut its job listings section.
- Support and safety. The platform added a counselling helpline. Inc42 reported in 2019 that it had counselled over 9 lakh women the previous year, and Free Press Journal reported in 2025 that more than 30 lakh women had received free counselling.
- Commerce and capital. Through SHOPonSHEROES, women could open online stores; Business Today reported over 12,000 such shops in 2022. Credit came through Mahila Money (below).
SHEROES also ran enterprise services — including programmes on preventing workplace sexual harassment and managed remote-work teams — and the SHEROES Summit, which brought companies and women professionals together. These features are listed in historical company profiles; check the current site for what is still offered.
How many users does SHEROES have?
Reported figures vary because they measure different things. In 2019 the company said more than 1.6 crore women were on its network (Inc42). In December 2021 Business Today reported about 20 lakh women members. Other reports in 2021–22 described a network of about 2.5 crore users, and Free Press Journal reported 2.4 crore lifetime users in 2025. All of these are company-reported numbers; registered, lifetime and active users are not the same.
How Sairee Chahal and SHEROES support women
- A safe community: a women-only space to ask questions and share experiences on careers, health, money and relationships.
- Counselling: a free helpline and counselling services, used by lakhs of women according to company figures.
- Work: in its early years, job listings and flexible work; later, remote-work programmes. By 2019, about 10,000 women were working remotely through SHEROES, Inc42 reported.
- Entrepreneurship: online storefronts through SHOPonSHEROES and business training through WomenWill.
- Capital: small loans and financial guidance through Mahila Money.
Mahila Money: from community to credit
Mahila Money grew out of a simple experiment. During the pandemic, Chahal gave small loans from her own funds to SHEROES users — Free Press Journal reported she put ₹5 lakh from her personal account into a new account to fund interest-free loans. In 2021 she launched Mahila Money as a digital platform offering loans of ₹10,000 to ₹2 lakh to women running small businesses such as beauty parlours, tailoring units, home bakeries and preschools.
Applications are digital and take about 10 minutes, with a decision within 48 hours. Loans are made in the woman’s own name. “It is 100 percent digital, and most importantly, there is no requirement to bring in a family member or a male member,” Chahal told YourStory in 2021. Business Today reported in 2022 that over 60% of Mahila Money’s borrowers were new to credit.
Sairee Chahal’s role in India’s entrepreneurship ecosystem
Chahal’s central argument is that India’s internet and its finance system were not built with women in mind. “Men have built the internet and they have built it for themselves,” she told Inc42 in 2019. In a 2022 Business Today interview, she noted that only 9% of Indian women are in formal work and that women receive less than 2% of startup funding.
Her ventures address that gap at three levels. SHEROES brought women online into a space designed for them. SHOPonSHEROES and WomenWill helped women turn skills into businesses. Mahila Money tackles the hardest problem — access to capital — for women whom banks often overlook. “Women’s access to capital deserves the same enthusiasm as the creation of unicorns,” she told Business Today.
This puts her work alongside other efforts to make finance and markets work for women, from cooperative banks such as Mann Deshi to lenders focused on women-owned small businesses. You can read about several of these founders in our list of 25 women entrepreneurs in India and our guide to social entrepreneurs in India.
Business and leadership lessons from Sairee Chahal’s journey
These lessons are our analysis of documented decisions, not advice attributed to her unless quoted.
- Find an audience others ignore. Women returning to work, and women running tiny businesses, were underserved by job portals and banks alike.
- Follow what users actually ask for. SHEROES widened from jobs to health, relationships and counselling because that is what members kept asking about — and closed its job listings when the community moved on.
- Use community as a foundation. Mahila Money could start small because it already had a trusted community to lend to and learn from.
- Test with your own money before scaling. The first loans came from Chahal’s personal funds, a low-risk way to prove demand.
- Design for the real user. Removing the need for a male guarantor addressed a barrier specific to Indian women borrowers.
- Start before everything is perfect. In her own words to Business Today: “Start from where you are.”
Challenges and opportunities for women-focused technology platforms
The following are general considerations for any women-focused platform, not documented problems at SHEROES.
- Keeping communities engaged: sign-ups are easy to count; regular, active participation is harder to sustain.
- Sustainable revenue: users may not pay for community; platforms often need brand partnerships, enterprise services or financial products.
- Trust and safety: a women-only space must be moderated well to stay safe, which costs money and people.
- Language and region: reaching women beyond big cities means local languages, low-cost phones and patchy connectivity.
- Lending responsibly: credit products must avoid pushing women into debt they are not ready for — a concern Chahal has raised herself in describing Mahila Money’s approach.
The opportunity is large: as more Indian women come online and start small businesses, platforms that combine community, skills and capital can reach people traditional institutions have missed.
Frequently asked questions
Who is Sairee Chahal?
Sairee Chahal is an Indian entrepreneur, born in Muzaffarnagar, who founded SHEROES, a women-only online community, and Mahila Money, a digital lending platform for women entrepreneurs.
What is SHEROES?
SHEROES is a women-only online community, on the web and as an app, that offers women in India support, counselling, information and access to work and business opportunities.
Is Sairee Chahal the founder of SHEROES?
Yes. Sairee Chahal founded SHEROES and has led it as founder and CEO. YourStory’s company directory also lists Sowrabh N.R.S. and Satyadeep Karnati as co-founders.
What does SHEROES do for women?
SHEROES gives women a safe online community, free counselling, and — over the years — access to jobs, remote work, online storefronts, business training and, through Mahila Money, small business loans.
What can entrepreneurs learn from Sairee Chahal’s journey?
Her journey shows the value of serving an overlooked audience, listening to what users ask for, building community before products, and testing ideas cheaply before scaling.
Is SHEROES currently active, and what services does it offer?
The most recent independent report we found, from Free Press Journal in August 2025, described SHEROES as having more than 2.4 crore lifetime users and free counselling services, with Sairee Chahal’s focus now on Mahila Money. Check the official SHEROES website or app for its current services.
Conclusion
The Sairee Chahal SHEROES story is not a single overnight success but a series of steps, each built on the last: a newspaper for seafarers, a consultancy, Fleximoms, SHEROES and now Mahila Money. The common thread is a clear unmet need — women’s access to work, support and capital — and a willingness to change the product as users’ needs became clearer.
Claims about any platform’s reach should be read carefully, and SHEROES’ own numbers have varied over the years. But the questions Chahal set out to answer remain urgent in India. For founders, her journey is a reminder to start with a real problem, build trust with the people you serve, and keep adapting. If you are building something for women entrepreneurs, share your story with us.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Sairee Chahal
- Mount Holyoke College — Sairee Chahal
- Inc42 — In Sairee Chahal’s Shoes: The SHEROES Story (November 2019)
- Business Today — SHEROES raises funds from Coinbase Ventures, Atlantis (December 2021)
- Business Today — interview with Sairee Chahal (November 2022)
- YourStory — Inside Mahila Money (2021)
- YourStory — SHEROES company profile
- Free Press Journal — How Sairee Chahal is powering India’s women entrepreneurs (August 2025)
Research cut-off: October 2026. User numbers are as reported by the company to the publications cited and may define users differently.
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