6 Successful Women Entrepreneurs in India Who Will Inspire You

India’s business landscape is bright, which makes it an excellent place for women entrepreneurs. The country has a wealth of talented women with untapped ideas, who are ready to take their businesses to the next level. Several financial firms are coming forward to support these businesses by offering loans to women.

Indian female entrepreneurs have shown the world that anything can be achieved at any time in life, if you work hard enough for it. So here are some successful woman entrepreneurs in India who will inspire you, one by one! 

1. Rajni Bector – Cremica

Rajni was married into a wealthy business family in Ludhiana, but her passion for baking never left her. She enjoyed making desserts, so she made them often, enabling her to support her family when their 107-year-old grain business ended. In 1978, at the age of 20, Rajni started a small catering business from her house. She worked hard to make Cremica grow and eventually became associated with some of the world’s biggest brands like McDonald’s, Cadbury and many more. Like Rajni, you must follow your passion so you can get success through it! 

2. Meena Bindra – Biba

Meena Bindra is a real-life example of how age doesn’t matter. She started her business when she was 39 years old, which tells us that it is never too late to follow your dream. Meena started small by getting in touch with a tailor, buying some fabrics, selling some pieces to make some profit and doing it all over again. Her story shows that when you have confidence in yourself, your ideas can bring major changes in your life. 

3. Nina Lekhi – Baggit

Nina Lekhi can teach us a lot about business and life. She faced plenty of skepticism when she started out in 1985, with only Rs.7000 to her name. But she kept believing in herself, and now she has become one of India’s most successful women entrepreneurs. Today, Baggit is a true symbol of women’s empowerment, class and elegance. 

4. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw – Biocon India

It is a known fact that women entrepreneurs face more challenges while starting up a business when compared with their male counterparts. Back in 1978, when Kiran started Biocon – an enzyme manufacturing company, she faced similar challenges however, that didn’t stop her from pursuing her dream. She took a small loan from a bank and started developing bio enzymes. 

Later her company started growing in the year 1998, and thanks to that growth, the Biocon IPO that came out in 2004 was oversubscribed, taking its market valuation to a whopping 1.11 billion dollars. Today, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has an Othmer Gold Medal, and she ranked 68th on the most powerful woman in the world list by Forbes in 2019. 

5. Suchi Mukherjee – Limeroad

The story of Suchi Mukherjee stands out because she was expecting her second child in London when she came across the idea of starting an online fashion retail platform. She moved back to India in 2011 so she could turn her idea into fruition. Later in 2012, Suchi launched Limeroad with her partners Ankush Mehra and Prashant Malik. 

The company now has a valuation of 51.9 million dollars, and more than 50,000+ women are working on their team to create their own mix-and-match designs. 

6. Vineeta Singh – Sugar Cosmetics

Vineeta Singh is the founder and CEO of Sugar Cosmetics, which she founded in 2015. In addition to being a judge on the reality show Shark Tank India, she also serves as an entrepreneur at large. Her company Sugar Cosmetics earned ₹104 crores in 2020, even after a massive drop in sales in 2019. The brand generated 15% of its revenue from international markets, which shows its strong global presence. 

We hope that you will take inspiration from these stories and apply some of the business methods discussed above to your own projects. Of course, the journey won’t always be easy, and there will be times when you want to give up – but if you work hard towards your goal and don’t give up in your pursuit of success, we’re sure that you’ll see tangible results sooner rather than later. All you have to do is – believe in yourself and leverage all and any help you can get.

If that means taking help from family and friends for support, then be it. If it means having your spouse or partner share the housework load, then be it. If it means that you need to borrow funds, then be it.

The ideas are yours. The hard work also needs to be yours. But, when it comes to business funding, there are some great financial firms that offer loans for women. Do your research, and find the best lender for your situation – and strike big!