(Our Bureau, May 21) Indians love their chai and tea exports have created many successful business ventures for decades. But a new breed of entrepreneurs have stepped in to blend technology with tea sourcing and quicken the supply process to ensure tea lovers globally get their first cup within days of production. Meet three Indian startups that are brewing success by redefining tea exports.
Teabox: Kausshal Dugarr-founded Teabox eliminated middlemen and cut down the travel time between the produce and the end consumer from a minimum of five months to a few days. Backed by investors such as Accel Partners and corporate stalwarts like Ratan Tata, Siliguri-based Teabox has sold over two billion cups across 120 countries.
VAHDAM: Founded in 2015 by then 23-year-old Bala Sarda, VAHDAM sells its superfood teas, drinkware and elixirs in 104 countries, raking in a turnover of ₹159 crore. Its clientele includes celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Mariah Carey, Martha Stewart, and Chris Prat.
Udyan Tea: Three friends — Punit Poddar, Parvez Gupta and Soveet Gupta — started Udayan as an online brand when tea e-tailing was virtually unheard of. Today, they source teas directly from more than 150 estates in India and Nepal and export to over 40 countries.
(March 27, 2023) Nowsheen Yaqoob believes no matter what the adversity is, one must learn to be joyful in all situations. Joy, she believes, is a basic emotion – It was the conviction that led to the creation of Auracious Global Consulting - a human development company based in Dubai, that helps individuals and organisations across the globe achieve their full potential on the personal and professional fronts. Their approach, according to the company's LinkedIn profile, involves the latest developments in neural and behavioural science, Neuro Linguistic Programming, Hypnosis and Quantum Physics, as well as Life Coaching and Change Management models. Auracious works with a diverse clientele from around the world, as well as with clients like FedEx, De Montfort University Dubai and Amity University Dubai. Nowsheen, who left behind a lucrative career in the aviation sector to help people and organisations transform themselves, has come a long way. The wind beneath her wings Born in Srinagar, Nowsheen is a qualified Architect and holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration, besides being a certified life coach. Growing up, she always dreamed of a profession that would allow her to fly. "When I would watch planes fly as a child, I
Administration, besides being a certified life coach. Growing up, she always dreamed of a profession that would allow her to fly. "When I would watch planes fly as a child, I dreamt of working in a profession that would allow me to travel across the world. However, when it actually happened I felt something was missing,” Nowsheen said, in an interview with Global Indian.
[caption id="attachment_36614" align="aligncenter" width="361"] Nowsheen Yaqoob, founder, Auracious Global Consulting[/caption]
So, after more than a decade of working in the aviation sector she realised that it wasn't her calling. She loved communicating and connecting with people more. Nowsheen went on to do a Master’s in Neuro Linguistic Programming and life coaching. During this time, she realised “there were many people, especially youngsters, who were unable to experience joy because of some trauma they were carrying,” she says. "I transform the way people understand themselves, their relationships, career, and health. The intent to help people in an authentic manner, backed by professional tools, put me on the road to making Life Coaching my career."
Nowsheen constantly feels this desire to add value to people’s lives, especially the ones who feel they are under societal pressure and have issues that prevent them from achieving their best potential due to self-limiting beliefs. She finds it extremely fulfilling personally and professionally in more ways than she could have imagined.
The entrepreneurship route
It was this passion that led to creation of Auracious Global Consulting. "As an Internationally certified Master Life Coach and Neuro Linguistic Programming Practitioner, my work focuses on human development, along with personal and professional coaching solutions," Nowsheen explains. She remarks, that in her quest for excellence, she has taken purposeful strides to blaze new trails in her specialisation, combining the best of her experience and expertise to help people and individuals achieve growth.
Nowsheen ensures that her beliefs and values hinge on achieving human connectedness, growth and contribution, in a manner that brings the best benefits for those who gain from it. "I give my best in everything I do, and be as genuine as humanly possible, with a never-give-up attitude. It is this same belief, ‘yes, it is possible’ that I share in my work, to help transform an individual’s mindset to realize their infinite horizons, dimensions, and potential."
Her personal transformation
Nowsheen has had her own journey of transformation. "The amalgamation of my life experiences with how I overcame many challenges and obstacles in life, and my passion for sharing my learning with people helped me to take this up as a career," she explains. From her early childhood years and well into adult life, hers has been an arduous journey towards overcoming many fears and anxieties. When she triumphed over them, it inspired her to go forward confidently in her chosen field of work.
In order to take the plunge into entrepreneurship, Nowsheen had to overcome her own self-limiting beliefs and rise above the apprehensions, fears, doubts and vulnerabilities, as well as a certain level of self-directed scepticism. "Now, I am living my passion of helping individuals to break their shackles of fears, anxieties, traumas, and stress, to live a confident, happy, and fulfilled life."
Her focus areas
Today, Nowsheen helps individuals and corporations to transform the way they understand themselves, their relationships, career, and health, thus becoming their personal and professional best.
"I work on bringing about a dynamic transformation in people’s lives through the principles of Human Potential Development, NLP and Life Coaching through individual sessions, awareness workshops, corporate trainings, group coaching, webinars, seminars, social media awareness, eBooks, self-help PDFs and podcasts."
Human connectedness is the core value on which her Life Coaching approach is founded. Each step of the personal empowerment journey is designed to the highest degree. Auracious Global Consulting uses a well-structured combination of scientifically proven tools and techniques that are an amalgamation of Neuro Linguistic Programming, Life Coaching processes, Compassionate Counselling, Hypnosis and Meditation. “I have been a full-fledged Life Coach since 2015. However, my career in training and development has grown over the past 18 years, with many milestones, experiences, and learning.”
A global mission
She works with people of over 200 nationalities and Auracious Global Consulting is based out of Dubai. Still, Nowsheen keeps her ties with her homeland. “I visit India off and on for counselling; have conducted many sessions in Kashmir with schools, different organisations. I work with multinational companies and conduct workshops for employees and top-notch CEO’s,” she says. These days, Nowsheen has people calling her up from across the world seeking counselling.
In 2022, she also launched Auracious Global in Kashmir and provides online consultations. When she is in Kashmir she does in-person consultations. “People just need to be more aware that help is available and they need to be guided in the right direction. In order to create awareness I make the best use of my social media handles – both personal as well as professional.”
“It is a rewarding journey of transformation and fulfilment for those who I work with, by helping them overcome struggles to achieve their goals,” the entrepreneur remarks. Nowsheen loves to work closely with her clients and seeing them experience their personal breakthroughs is a constant source of fulfilment and gratification for her. “I give my 100 percent to my clients which led my clientele to grow organically through referrals and meaningful associations.”
Overcoming obstacles
Taking on huge responsibilities at an incredibly young age, with minimal guidance and no mentor presented Nowsheen with a mountain of obstacles to surmount.
“However, successfully overcoming those early challenges gave me that all-important thrust in the right direction. I had to break free from the imaginary mould of ‘perfection’ to face realities and to see for myself that inner happiness is more validating and satisfying than trying to live up to anybody else’s definition of perfection. We are not here to live up to a mark sheet of perfect expectations. We are better off discovering and creating our own happiness in each moment of our lifetime, she explains.
Making a difference
At various points in her personal and professional life, Nowsheen has been able to give back to society in many ways where her expertise could be harnessed free of cost to those who needed it. “Throughout the year 2020, especially when the pandemic forced people to give in to mental, emotional, and psychological pressures, and income sources dried up, I was able to provide professional life coaching pro bono to one and all.”
Lately, she has been working towards building a community of transformational coaches, thought leaders, mentors and change facilitators – who offer help to those who cannot afford or access professional coaching. “The foundation of this community lies on shared ideologies, and a fluid forum that inspires, sustains, and encourages progressive thoughts and sustainable human potential transformation.”
Nowsheen’s own struggle for inner transformation and her courage to follow her dreams, have led to her living her greatest passion - making a meaningful difference to people’s lives, by helping them make empowering decisions. She helps people to create the best version of themselves for themselves, and for the larger benefit of society.
“The greater aim is to make the world a better place through individuals who are joyful, confident, and evolved.” Apart from receiving many awards and appreciation during her course of journey, having received the Business Excellence Award from Padma Bhushan Javed Akhtar in November in Dubai has been quite a humbling experience for Nowsheen.
(January 12, 2022) When Vijay Anand returned to India in the early 2000s from Canada, he was taken aback by the stark difference in how startups and entrepreneurs were treated in the subcontinent. In Canada, it took a couple of hours to register a company, here it took 100 days. Or how entrepreneurs were considered to be smart in the West, yet back home, they were considered unemployed. As Anand set about working to change that, and create a startup ecosystem, he soon earned the moniker The Startup Guy. From helping set up IIT Madras’ Rural Technology and business incubator to holding events to help new product-based startups come to the fore, facilitating networking and creating a buzzing startup ecosystem that now sees hundreds of successful startups emerge from the subcontinent, Vijay has come a long way in realising his vision. Today, the Startup Guy works with several states across the country to create and promote a thriving ecosystem: right from writing new policies to weighing in on events conducted to promote startups. Startups Uniphore, Ather Energy, DesiCrew, etc have found solid ground thanks to Anand’s foresight. This experienced venture ecosystem builder, who believes that good capitalism is the way
apitalism is the way forward, was awarded the NASSCOM Ecosystem Evangelist Award in 2010 for his commitment.
The TN boy with a global outlook
Born and raised in Dubai, Vijay and his family moved back to their hometown near Tirunelveli when the Gulf War broke out in 1991. He would however continue to visit his father in Dubai, who worked with the Dubai airport for 36 long years. “Our time in Dubai gave us a very global outlook early on. A lot of our family friends were from the Philippines and Lebanon. That helped shaped my outlook very differently,” says Vijay, who graduated in software engineering from University of Ottawa, Canada.
“After I completed class X, my parents bought me a computer. Like typical Indian families, the price of the computer was a talking point. I decided to repay my parents for it. Around that time, many local banks had computers but not the software required. I built the software for Tamil Nadu Mercantile Bank, and created an inventory management system for a friend who owned a bike showroom. This helped me earn enough money to pay my parents back for the computer,” laughs Vijay, who worked two jobs to pay his tuition fees in Canada.
Quiz him on why he didn’t want to study in the US as is the norm, Vijay laughs. “There were just too many relatives in America. I would never have found myself if I’d gone there,” says The Startup Guy, who set up his first enterprise, a software company, as a student in Canada. “Back then I wanted to get a Canada PR and settle there. The ecosystem for startups was great and the government too lent great support to entrepreneurs,” he tells Global Indian.
Winds of change
But as luck would have it, Vijay came down to Chennai for his brother’s wedding when he met Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras. “I was telling him all about the startup ecosystem in Canada and the lack of it in India. And that’s when he said, ‘We have enough NRIs who come down and say all this. If you’re serious, why don’t you come and be the change.’” That lit a spark in Vijay, who decided to wind things up in Canada and move back to India in 2004.
He began collaborating with Prof Jhunjhunwala at IIT Madras and soon the duo launched RTBI which has since incubated several successful startups including DesiCrew, Uniphore, and Ather Energy. Parallelly, Vijay also began hosting Proto.in, a community driven event that was held every six months to help entrepreneurs convert ideas into prototypes. Soon Proto.in became a platform to showcase the best startups to exhibit products, and not mere ideas.
Around 2011, Vijay also launched The Startup Centre, a one-of-a-kind space in Chennai to help people come together to brainstorm new ideas, find funding, etc. Back then, there was barely an ecosystem to speak of in Tamil Nadu, and the road map ahead was pretty vague for startups. “Over the years, however, the ecosystem has evolved and today The Startup Centre is nothing like what it was when we started. Today we work remotely, there is no physical office anymore,” says Vijay, adding, “We now work with early stage companies and also do a bit of funding.”
Man with many hats
The Startup Centre – a five member team – currently works with companies and governments in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh among others. It hosts events, incubation programmes, etc in the capacity of a knowledge partner. “We made the shift in 2015 to differentiate ourselves from other players. It meant that we could now work with companies across the country,” says The Startup Guy, who is also an avid gardener. He finds planting trees – mulberry, custard apple, Jacaranda to name a few – therapeutic.
Incidentally, Vijay is also deeply involved with the CII and focuses on international linkages. “My work at CII began as a lot of foreign delegations visit Chennai, especially from African and Eastern European countries,” he says, adding, “I began working with the CII to showcase the city’s evolving ecosystem and the new age economy.”
Every city in the country, he says, has its own strengths when it comes to startups. If Chennai is good with SaaS, EVs and healthcare startups, Bengaluru is known for its IT, AI/ML and B2C startups. “Telangana, on the other hand, is good with biotech, Goa with cybersecurity, Delhi with logistics, and Pune with automobiles. Each city has its strengths and they play to it,” he says, adding that India is in a good space today. “Five years ago startups were in the imitation space, today they are in the adaptation and experimentation space. Startups like Postman, Ather and UPI are setting standards. The next decade will be for Asia, for better or for worse,” he signs off.
(January 16, 2023) In the year 2006, three months into their marriage, the quest to buy an eco-friendly sofa set for their home took Prashant and Aruna Lingam to a small village called “Katlamara” on the India-Bangladesh border. Enamoured by bamboo and the amazing skills of the local bamboo communities, they decided on social entrepreneurship themselves. It was an unknown domain then but they took the risk, launching Bamboo House India in 2007. [caption id="attachment_33883" align="alignnone" width="3915"] Prashant and Aruna Lingam, co-founders, Bamboo House India[/caption] A risky leap to social entrepreneurship It was a tough call for a middle-class, just married couple to get into the bamboo business and their families were much against it. Yet, they went ahead. The decision proved costly for them during the next three years, forcing them into a debt of Rs. 60 lakh (approximately $ 80,000) owing to a failed business model. Despite being plagued with physical, mental, financial, and personal woes, their passion for bamboo refused to die. “Today, Bamboo House India is the largest builder of bamboo and recycled plastic houses in the country with a robust social business model which never existed in India earlier,” smile Prashant and Aruna, speaking exclusively
nancial, and personal woes, their passion for bamboo refused to die. “Today, Bamboo House India is the largest builder of bamboo and recycled plastic houses in the country with a robust social business model which never existed in India earlier,” smile Prashant and Aruna, speaking exclusively to Global Indian.
The successful revival of their enterprise from the brink of a complete washout provided them with an opportunity to bring a bamboo revolution to India.
Challenges galore
“Years of failures coupled with knowledge gained from tribal communities, waste pickers, farmers, municipal bodies, and multi-lateral agencies taught us to comprehend the ground realities and think out-of-the-box,” say the founders of Bamboo House India, who have received many awards for their work.
While Prashant is a management graduate, Aruna is a science graduate. Their initial days of entrepreneurship were tough. “My post-pregnancy complications, my husband’s year-long immobility caused by a near-fatal accident, the deaths of six loved ones, lack of household income, and my inability to put proper food on the table for two years only aggravated the situation took a toll on my mental health,” informs Aruna. In those trying times, Aruna had to offer up whatever little jewellery she had left, to rework their business model and give their bamboo enterprise another try.
When fortune favoured them
It was only after a Hyderabad-based client reached out to them for a bamboo project that fortune for this couple turned its course. “But the client’s lack of trust about the durability of the product became a stumbling block. I convinced him to pay us post production and only if the end-result is up to his satisfaction,” recalls Prashant.
The end product not only turned out to be extremely well-constructed but also earned a good reputation for the bamboo houses in the region. The success led them to build recreational bamboo houses at the behest of prime corporate houses like Google and Infosys.
For Prashant and Aruna, their difficult entrepreneurial journey introduced them to certain qualities and abilities which they never knew existed. “I never knew I had so much determination, patience, and ability to take extreme risks and fight so many odds,” says Aruna, while Prashant nods in complete agreement.
Recognition for the ‘bamboo couple of India’
Known as the “bamboo couple of India” Prashant and Aruna networked effectively and brought in stakeholders like the Confederation of Indian Industries, the Indian Institute of Technology, the National Mission on Bamboo Applications, and Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, forging a multi-stakeholder partnership which triggered the construction of 300+ eco houses till date.
Their work received greater recognition from the US State Department not only when they nominated Aruna for the prestigious International Visitor Leadership Program for global thought leaders but also when they made a short video feature on their innovative work for Global Entrepreneurship summit 2017 (Hyderabad), an event graced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the then US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump.
Recognition for their work continued when they received an invitation from the Government of Kenya to replicate their social business models in their country and case studies by the Indian School of Business, ICFAI University, University of Mexico, and IDEX. “It further strengthened our belief in the work we were doing,” smile the couple, who also constructed 100 low-cost shelters using plastic waste and received global attention after coverage by BBC and the World Economic Forum.
A creative business model
“We designed a lean, sustainable, and innovative business model which laid a road map for our personal and professional growth,” says Aruna, who believes that their business is commercially profitable and socially impactful because of the innovative products designed to meet customer needs without compromising on the social deliverables.
When they were struggling to get a foothold in the market, the lack of funds nudged them to rope in the media as an important stakeholder in their vision to achieve social progress. What started with a single local newspaper coverage in 2006 has today snowballed to media features in over 1500 national and international media platforms including Entrepreneur, BBC, Brut, CII, CNN, World Economic Forum, French TV, Australian TV, to name a few.
Lifetime learners
Aruna believes that theoretical knowledge is an important foundation for an entrepreneur’s toolkit, which they could not obtain during their initial days of entrepreneurial journey.
“All our decisions were based on intuition and gut-feel, rather than organized subject knowledge, and today I have decided to go back to school and obtain the required learning to scale my impact,” says Aruna, who is all set to broaden her horizon by pursuing her masters in innovation and entrepreneurship from London School of Economics. Their innovative social business models have been globally studied with universities Harvard, Cornell, Kellogg and ISB doing case studies on their work.
Last year, www.reall.net, a UK-based social housing company offered to bring in investment in their work and this year too they proposed a green entrepreneurship project from IKEA Foundation.
“My innovations in plastic waste shelter solutions found a platform under the UNDP program for possible global replication. Still, I am afraid to take up projects of this magnitude due to lack of organized subject knowledge, lack of business model clarity. That’s why I want to go back to school and capitalise on my experiences,” explains Aruna, a renowned speaker on national and international platforms on various topics including circular economy, waste management and social entrepreneurship.
Aruna has also been named among the world's 100 social entrepreneurs bringing a change with her work and her bamboo work has been featured in World Bank Report as well.
Creating employment
Motivating people to pursue their dreams and having successfully created employment opportunities for thousands of artisans and waste pickers, she has mentored and influenced students, academicians, children, housewives, corporates, NGOs, and society at large with her work.
Experimenting with new material has been central to their success. Once, the entrepreneur-couple even used discarded tyres and came up with a range of fabulously comfortable furniture by taking unwanted lorry and car tyres and turning them into quirky seating options with creative flair and endless innovation.
“Once, we saw tyres being burnt and the owner told us there was no process in place to discard them. We decided to help with the problem,” says Prashant.
The founders of Bamboo House India have also experimented with trash plastic bottles to build sustainable homes, replacing bricks. “Housing shortfall in India stands today at 148 lakh dwelling units and we hope our innovative techniques will help bring it down,” say the Lingam couple, who are on a mission to improve the housing situation of the poor in the country. For those who do not know, a mud-filled plastic bottle is no less strong than a brick.
A plastic bottle house costs a quarter of the money required to build a conventional house, points out Prashant. The 225 sq ft house looks like an ordinary home, but it differs in many ways. “The structure has the added advantage of being fire proof and earthquake resistant,” says the TEDx speaker. In terms of strength, performance is equal to bricks and may be better too.
Prashant feels the in the mantra “reduce, reuse and recycle”, the ‘reuse’ part is often overlooked. In one pilot project, they built a house with bamboo and bottles.
How it works
Explaining how they went about it, Prashant says while the basic skeleton was made with bamboo, bottles filled with mud were placed both vertically and horizontally for walls, which offers thermal insulation. “The plastering was done with mud and cow dung and Cement plaster was used only for the final coat. The roof was made with bamboo attached to wooden batons,” he explains.
Over the years, the couple constructed 55 street vending kiosks using plastic waste, laid10,000 sq. ft of recycled plastic paver tiles, installed 5,000 recycled plastic street dust bins, enabling then to circulate 10,000 MT of plastic waste from landfills and water bodies.
“Continuing with our eco spirit, we developed low-cost shelters using agricultural waste to address the issue of stubble burning and to date, have constructed 25 Agri waste houses circulating close to 5,000 tons of agricultural waste,” inform the Lingams, who employ thousands of artisans from villages including women on a part-time basis ensuring their livelihood and a better standard of living.
(May 29, 2023) Being an expat is hard, and often lonely. Reema Mahajan felt this acutely when she landed in Dubai for work. All alone in this big city, Reema wanted new friends, and one day, decided to make a group on Facebook. She asked the few members present if they wanted to meet up for a coffee. That was how Reema went on to found Indian Women in Dubai, or IWD. “We are the second largest community for Indian expat women in the UAE, with nearly 55,000 members,” she tells Global Indian Coming from a small town, Reema's road to success was paved with grit, determination and hard work. Grateful for the opportunities she has found, she wants to make a meaningful contribution in return. IWD is her way of doing just that - its mission is women empowerment. IWD connects women to opportunities and gives them a platform to showcase their talent and creativity. It's also a way for them to stay connected to their roots. "We have a social mission of connecting Indian expat women in the UAE, making friends and celebrating Indian festivals together," Reema says. "Our business mission is to empower women and businesses by
ndian festivals together," Reema says. "Our business mission is to empower women and businesses by supporting their growth.
[caption id="attachment_39331" align="alignnone" width="400"] Reema Mahajan, founder, Indian women in Dubai[/caption]
Reema hails from Chandigarh and grew up in a traditional Indian family. “My father, who is a lawyer, was my role model and biggest supporter, along with my mother,” she says. “They made it possible for me to dream big and nurtured me so I could achieve my dreams.”
Always an excellent student, apart from being ambitious, Reema made it to IIT-Delhi, where she studied Chemical Engineering, after which she went to IIM Bangalore. Soon after, she was hired by leading consulting firm Bain & Company and moved to London. She lived there for a while before moving to Dubai.
Empowering women
While Reema had always been passionate about women empowerment, being in Dubai gave her a chance to transform this into a career. “Being an expat away from home country - without the support of friends and family - it’s always hard for anyone to settle in a new country,” Reema remarks. The need to make new friends led her to start up a Facebook group, which soon found a few members. “I asked if anybody wanted to meet up for a coffee. And that was the beginning of everything that Indian Women in Dubai are today.”
The group expanded through word of mouth and more women came to join her. Their vision, she says, is to create a vibrant and resilient community of women who provide unwavering personal, emotional, and professional support to one another.
IWD envisions a world where women from various walks of life come together to uplift, encourage, and empower each other to achieve their fullest potential. By building a network of strong, supportive women, IWD aims to create a brighter future for all women, one where we can all thrive and reach our dreams, she adds.
To her, being a woman means being herself unapologetically. “Through sharing my ideas, pushing boundaries, and finding my own voice, I can prove that although gender is part of anyone’s identity, it should never restrict them to cultural boundaries of how a woman is expected to be. Women are all unique, and that’s the beauty of it.”
Building an inclusive society
Empowering women is crucial to building a more inclusive society. “It means challenging stereotypes that limit women's potential, addressing systemic barriers and discrimination, and promoting women's participation and leadership in all aspects of life.” The IWD community is the source of support, solidarity, and shared experiences.
Many women find strength in connecting with others who face similar challenges and working together towards common goals. Building networks and communities allows women to exchange knowledge, ideas, and support, and it can contribute to fostering empowerment and social change, she opines.
A new path
As IWD began to pick up pace, Reema found herself at another crossroads. She decided to leave her stable job, and her well-established career, to dedicate herself fully to her new endeavour. It meant surrendering oneself to many things that were out of one’s control. “One word for those early days,” she says, “is uncertainty.” Reema recalls those days, saying, “I had a steady job, a happy family and it was a risk that kept me up at night. In the beginning, I didn’t know where this was going to go, I had zero clue how to even get women together or even how to get them to trust people they’ve never met before.”
Another bigger challenge for her was to break the bias that ‘Women’s Groups’ are all about kitty parties, makeup, or ‘girly’ discussions. “While these topics are as big a part of IWD daily conversation, these are not the only things. We have supported each other, built businesses, and provided advice to each other- personal or professional,” she explains. “And that’s the message I always want to speak about with IWD as a live example- A woman alone is a great power, but when they all come together, it’s magical.”
A family of 55k womem
This network of support and collaboration extended to the pandemic. “IWD started in 2019 with very few members and then Covid happened. Everyone was at their home feeling the uncertainty of time which was exacerbated by the isolation,” says Reema. In order to alleviate the stress they were all feeling, Reema began organising free Zoom sessions on physical and mental health and wellness. “There were yoga classes, Zumba sessions and meditations. We also played games like Tambola, reminisced about our childhoods in India and talked about life in Dubai.”
When word spread, the community grew from one thousand to four thousand and from 10k to 30k in a span of just two years. “Our conversations evolved to business meet ups and networking sessions. Mind you, we still do free workshops, talk about makeup and dresses and play Tambola but I’m so happy to say it’s become so much more now.” The positivity of my team and the community, and their hard work keep this all going. I might be the public face of IWD today, but the engine that keeps it running is this beautiful community, she maintains.
Since its establishment, IWD has supported over 5000 women entrepreneurs, conducted more than 100 physical events and meet-ups and around 500 online events. They have partnered with nearly 500 brands. Their organic reach includes over 50k followers on Facebook, 23k on Instagram and 5000 on whatsapp. Their email newsletter reaches over 1000 women. They also collaborate with the Indian Consulate in Dubai, and recently hosted the Pan IIT-IIM meeting IIWD also hosted the Pan IIT IIM meeting in collaboration with the Consul- General of India, Dr. Aman Puri. “Over 100 alumni participated and the Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Sunjay Sudhir, was also in attendance. They talked about "Harnessing India's Potential: The Role of IIT IIM Alumni in Building Brand India," says Reema.
The Indian Women Awards
The community is now gearing for the biggest night of the year with their Indian Women Awards season. Nominations are now open and the response, Reema says, has been amazing so far. Started in 2021, the awards are meant to recognize and celebrate talented Indian women who are making a difference. Women from different spheres of life are awarded for their contribution to society under different categories including, entrepreneur, designer, baker, homemaker, banker, and lots more.
Reema Mahajan has been featured extensively in the press and IWD has been recognised for the Meta Community Accelerator program. She was named Inspirational Woman of the Year & Asia's 100 Rising Women Power Leaders 2023. She also works directly with the Indian Consulate in Dubai to support them on a variety of initiatives for outreach to the Indian Community.
Balancing work and family
I always try to balance out my day for my family and IWD. Since my kids are very young - my daughter is four and my son is seven, I like to spend as much time as I can with them, she says.
“During the day, I mostly spend time planning and executing activities for IWD but I try to be home - working around the kids schedule - so we have good quality family time.”
(May 11, 2022) In the last few years, India has emerged as the third largest ecosystem for startups globally with over 66,359 DPIIT-recognised startups across 642 districts. With many global leaders looking to invest in Indian market, the country is witnessing a boom in the number of unicorn companies - privately held startups with $1 billion valuation or above. Interestingly, India’s startup landscape has seen close to 100 unicorns being added since January 2019. Furthermore, the country is expected to birth more than 250 unicorns by 2025, according to the Iron Pillar report ‘India Tech Trends'. As the technology ecosystem continues to grow, Global Indian turns the spotlight on five companies, who recently made it to the country's unicorn club. MindTickle - Krishna Gopal Depura, Deepak Diwakar and Nishant Mungali In 2011, three Pune-based techies - Krishna Gopal Depura, Deepak Diwakar and Nishant Mungali started a group to take part in gamified knowledge-based treasure hunts as a hobby. The idea was not only to do something interesting, which could be at the intersection of fun and learning, but also transform the mundane life of corporates. Intrigued with the possibility of making a business out of their passion, they approached investors
orm the mundane life of corporates. Intrigued with the possibility of making a business out of their passion, they approached investors in 2011, pitched them MindTickle, and positioned the startup as a gamification platform for corporates.
Ten years later, it was valued at $1.2 billion by SoftBank Vision fund, making it a unicorn company. Though MindTickle had its share of teething troubles, the founders never gave up on their vision. During an earlier interview, Krishna shared that though they were able to grab the attention of marquee venture capitalist (VC) fund Accel in 2012, over the next five years the business kept trickling in.
They had their eureka moment in 2015, when the founders realised that they were trying to sell their product in the wrong market. To set things right, MindTickle team used LinkedIn to gauge the need for training for sales executives. After realising that their product suited the US market, they focussed sharply on solving the pain points of business leaders who were looking for sharper and ready sales staff for their business.
Soon MindTickle started striking multi-million dollar deals with single customers. In 2017, MindTickle raised $27 million. Two years later, came $40 million in a series C round. Next to follow was a hefty cheque of $100 million from SoftBank Vision Fund in November 2020, which made MindTickle SoftBank’s first software-as-a-service (Saas) investment in India.
The startup now claims to have over 250 customers, and gets 80 percent of its revenue from the US, with the rest coming from Europe and Asia.
The pharma industry has never been an organised sector in India. However, a six-year-old company changed the game by bringing together patients, pharmacies and diagnostic centers on one platform. In 2015, two young Mumbaikars – Dharmil Seth, an alumnus of IMT Ghaziabad, and Dr Dhaval Shah, an MBBS from Rajiv Gandhi Medical College, came together to digitalise the medicine industry, so that one could order their medicines from a wide range of e-commerce medical stores online and get them delivered online without any hassles.
Since then, its B2B business has grown manifold. In 2019, PharmEasy merged with Ascent Health, to form API Holdings, which brought in three new co-founders on board – Siddharth Shah, Hardik Dedhia, and Harsh Parekh. In 2021, the startup joined the unicorn club and became the first e-pharmacy to do so with a valuation of $1.5 billion.
However, PharmEasy has its share of challenges, including the supply chain logistics. The biggest roadblock initially was the lack of digitised records. To overcome this, the founders ensured that every retailer they work with has digital records and a proper system by offering inventory management and accounting tools.
Today, the B2B pharma distribution business connects over a whopping 100,000 retailers to around 4,500 distributors. Furthermore, PharmEasy is looking to expand its diagnostic business which has witnessed a massive surge in the past year.
Backed by Ratan Tata and Accel Partners, Moglix was launched in 2016 by an IIT-Kanpur and ISB alumnus, Rahul Garg. Headquartered in Singapore, its mission is to tide over the gap between B2B merchants and consumers, and develop an exclusive digital-trade ecosystem, tailor-made to satisfy the diverse needs of buyers and sellers.
One of Asia’s largest and fastest-growing supply chain services companies, Moglix joined India's unicorn club in May 2021 after raising Series E round funding of $120 million that boosted the company's valuation to surpass the $1 billion mark. However, the company did go through some tough time during the global pandemic. In the wake of the massive global supply chain disruptions due to the COVID-19, Moglix looked to partnering with enterprises across industry verticals to map their supply chain requirements and provide technology-enabled solutions that are customised and scalable. They even provided PPE, medical kits, cleaning and housekeeping items, and surface agents at economical prices through its e-commerce portal moglix.com.
At present, the company claims to provide solutions and industrial products to more than 500,000 small and medium enterprises as well as to over 1000 large manufacturers across India and the UAE. It has a supply chain network of over 16,000 suppliers, and operates across 40 warehouses along with an in-house logistics infrastructure.
Even though the world of crypto is still volatile with no clarity on the legality of the digital asset, two college friends- Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal – pooled in all their life savings to start cryptocurrency exchange CoinDCX in 2018. Unfortunately, it was the same year when Reserve Bank of India issued a banking ban on crypto transactions. Several crypto startups had to shut shop or continue operations while navigating numerous roadblocks. CoinDCX, too, decided to fight the uphill battle and was among the few players that contested the regulator’s ban in court.
[caption id="attachment_24363" align="aligncenter" width="707"] Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal[/caption]
In March 2020, the Supreme Court lifted the ban on cryptocurrency exchanges and one-and-a-half years later, CoinDCX became the first crypto startup to enter the unicorn club with a $90 million funding led by B Capital. During an interview, Sumit shared that the CoinDCX team has seen the total spectrum of fundraising in the space during their journey. What helped them was keeping their heads down and focusing on building their company.
With over 3.5 million users, CoinDCX is now aiming to make crypto more accessible in India and accelerate its efforts of bringing 50 million Indians into the crypto fold.
GlobalBees - Deepak Khetan, Nitin Agarwal, and Supam Maheshwari
Based on the Thrasio model, e-commerce startup GlobalBees was founded in May 2021 by FirstCry founder Supam Maheshwari and Edelweiss’ former President Nitin Agarwal. The idea was to acquire digital-first brands across categories such as beauty, nutrition, food, fitness, personal care, lifestyle, home, sports and lifestyle, which have a revenue rate of $1 million to $20 million, and help them scale up and grow. In just seven months, GlobalBees made it to the unicorn list in December 2021, by raising $150 million in a Series A financing round led by FirstCry.
In the last few years, many ecommerce brands have cropped up in India, owing to the evolution of the ecosystem with better logistics, deeper internet penetration, and increased consumer interest and trust. However, what make GlobalBees different is their ambition to build the product and focus on innovation. The company acquires and partners with sellers on Amazon and equips them with capabilities across marketing and growth, technology, distribution, sourcing, branding, warehousing, logistics, R&D, product development, and operations — all things essential to rapidly scale the brands in the digital space.
GlobalBees has acquired 12 brands across categories, including The Better Home, Prolixr, Absorbia, Yellow Chimes, HealthyHey, and others. Presently, the company’s strategy is to work with these and build them up.
Nowsheen Yaqoob, founder, Auracious Global Consulting[/caption]
Reema Mahajan, founder, Indian women in Dubai[/caption]
Krishna Gopal Depura, Deepak Diwakar and Nishant Mungali[/caption]
Dhaval Shah, Harsh Parekh, Siddharth Shah, Hardik Dedhia, and Dharmil Sheth[/caption]
Rahul Garg[/caption]
Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal[/caption]
Deepak Khetan, Nitin Agarwal, and Supam Maheshwari[/caption]