According to India Fintech Report 2019, India is the world’s second-largest fintech hub. As opportunities arise with the advent of newer technologies, more startups are mushrooming in the fintech space every day. In fact, this sector – which rules every smartphone and internet user’s daily transactions – has seen the most amount of funding in the past few years.
Among the entrepreneurs who have made the best out of this growing sector are a few women. Read on to find out more.
Upasana Taku, Co-founder and COO, MobiKwik
If there is a ‘First Lady’ among the entrepreneurs in India’s fintech space, it is Upasana Taku, Co-founder of MobiKwik, India’s first mobile wallet.
Originally from Surat, Upasana is an alumnus of the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, and Stanford University, US. Before MobiKwik, she worked in HSBC and PayPal in the US.
Mobikwik was launched in 2009 to provide the much-needed convenience of an online recharge platform that enabled users to recharge their phones from any location. The Gurgaon-based company has raised more than $118 million so far.
Upasana’s Co-founder Bipin Preet Singh later became her life partner.
Mabel Chacko, Co-Founder and COO, Open
A serial entrepreneur with more than a decade’s work experience in fintech space, Mabel Chacko co-founded Open with three others in 2017. The Bengaluru-based startup is a neobanking platform for SMBs and startups, and helps small businesses automate and run their finances effectively.
Open has received more than $35 million from VC firms and angel investors.
Recently, Mabel won the ‘Woman Leader in Fintech’ award at the India Fintech Awards 2019 (IFTA) organised by the National Payments Corporation of India (NCPI) and the Fintech Forum for her contributions to the fintech space.
Chitra Chidanand, Co-founder, Simpl
Chaitra Chidanand co-founded Simpl in 2016 after shifting to India from Silicon Valley, and struggling for weeks to get a credit card.
Simpl app allows users to have an additional credit wallet, which helps people make payments upfront on their purchases by paying the entire generated bill after a 20-day cycle.
It gives users a payment mode and checkout mechanism, which is faster than wallets or cards, on multiple platforms like Bigbasket, Zomato, BookMyShow, Dunzo, and Grofers, among others.
An MBA holder from Stanford University and a former VP of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs, Chaitra (38) is now based in Bangalore.
Meghna Suryakumar, Founder and CEO, Crediwatch
Meghna Suryakumar is a serial entrepreneur who specialises in Artificial Intelligence (AI), deep tech, AML, KYC, Financial Inclusion, Risk Intelligence, and Amplified Intelligence for Businesses. In 2016, she co-founded Crediwatch, an information intelligence platform, with Sandeep Anandampillai.
The Bengaluru-based startup provides big data risk analysis to corporations, helping them to deploy data intelligence in making decisions. The platform claims to do this without any human intervention (by deploying AI and other technology tools), providing reliable comprehensive real-time inputs. It raised funding of $3.2 million in its Series A round, led by ARTIS Labs and Abstract Ventures.
Sayali Karanjkar, Co-Founder, PaySense
When Sayali Karanjkar decided to return to India from the US to start up in the fintech space, she spent a few months talking to sabzi vendors, rickshawallahs, domestic workers, small shop owners, and employees of non-top tier companies.
She realised that everyone was having a tough time getting access to finance.
Leveraging her decade’s experience in M&A, growth strategy, management consulting, product development, and corporate growth strategy, Sayali launched PaySense in 2015.
The Mumbai-based startup is a consumer lending platform that grants credit to users in a customised manner. It has been funded by PayU, Jungle Ventures, Naspers, Nexus Venture Partners, and others.
Article Credit: in.makers