Meet Divya Gokulnath, Ruchi Kalra and Neha Bansal — the richest women startup entrepreneurs in India
Vaamanaa Sethi
- The Kotak Hurun Wealthy Women list has named Gokulnath, Kalra and Bansal as the richest women startup entrepreneurs in India.
- Start-ups founded or co-founded by women generate 10% more cumulative revenue over five years.
- Gokulnath, Kalra and Bansal are breaking barriers every day and paving the way for millions of women who dream of owning their own businesses.
According to an IBEF report, about a fifth of women are owners of MSMEs in India. And India can potentially add $700 billion to global GDP by increasing women’s participation in the labour force.
Start-ups founded or co-founded by women generate 10% more cumulative revenue over five years. These start-ups have a more inclusive work culture and employ 3x more women than men. Further, women-led businesses are estimated to grow by 90% in the next five years.
However, it’s not easy for a woman to become an entrepreneur – it comes with many struggles and hassles.
However, leading women entrepreneurs like BYJU’S Co-founder Divya Gokulnath, OfBusiness Co-founder Ruchi Kalra, and Lenskart’s Neha Bansal are breaking barriers every day. They have transformed their companies into unicorns and are paving the way for millions of women who dream of owning their own businesses.
Gokulnath, Kalra and Bansal have been named the richest women startup entrepreneurs as per Kotak Private Banking Hurun Leading Wealthy Women List 2021.
Here’s more about these three inspiring women entrepreneurs.
Divya Gokulnath and Ruchi Kalra
Divya Gokulnath and Ruchi Kalra
Divya Gokulnath: From a passionate teacher to India’s richest woman startup entrepreneur
After playing a key role in setting up and expanding the homegrown edtech unicorn BYJU’S in the Indian market, Gokulnath is now actively building and scaling up the business in various other countries.
She completed a bachelor of technology in Biotechnology from RV College of Engineering in Bengaluru. And interestingly, she started as a teacher at the age of 21 back in 2008, when she used to teach mathematics, English and logical reasoning.
She co-founded BYJU’S with her husband Byju Raveendran in 2011 and has been vocal about India becoming a hub of teachers.
“For teachers, there is a huge potential. Golden age of teaching has come back, especially for women. (For) 15-20 years we created software engineers for the world, we now have the potential to create teachers for the world,” Gokulnath told SheThePeople in an interview.
The edtech company is currently valued at $23 billion after doubling its revenue to nearly ₹10,000 crore in FY22. As per media reports, its valuation saw a steady growth of 36% in the last eight months.
Gokulnath has a net worth of ₹4,550 crore, as per the Kotak Hurun report, and was named the richest woman startup entrepreneur in India.
Ruchi Kalra: IIT alumni and queen of two unicorns
The 38-year-old Kalra and her husband Ashish Mohapatra co-founded two startups that have both turned unicorns — OfBusiness and Oxyzo in 2016. Both companies are planning to go public in the next six months to two years, as per media reports. Oxyzo is the lending arm of OfBusiness, a SoftBank-backed business-to-business (B2B) commerce startup.
Kalra was the second richest woman startup entrepreneur on the Kotak Hurun list, with a net worth of ₹2,600 crore.
Hailing from Delhi, she obtained a bachelor’s of technology (B.Tech) degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and later pursued MBA from the Indian School of Business (ISB).
She had also led the retail and SME banking service sector in Mckinsey India, for more than eight years before she co-founded both companies with her husband.
Kalra is the CEO of Oxyzo, which raised its first external funding of $200 million in a series A round — the largest series A funding ever in the Indian startup ecosystem – in March this year.
Neha Bansal: A professional CA and the woman behind eyewear brand Lenskart
Born and raised in New Delhi, Bansal co-founded the eyewear retail business Lenskart in 2008, and since then, she has been managing the finance vertical of the company.
After co-founding the company, she set up a dedicated team to support the organisation's growth after its eventual growth and expansion.
She is a certified Chartered Accountant and also has a specialisation in international taxation. She has a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Delhi University.
A lesser known fact about her is that she was also the founder and director of DNS Advisors Pvt. Ltd. and a partner at Vinod Kumar Associates before co-founding Lenskart.
Bansal currently has a net worth of ₹1,540 crore, as per the Kotak Hurun report.
The 10 year-old company turned into a unicorn in 2019 after raising a series G round of funding from SoftBank Vision Fund and is currently valued at $4.5 billion.
Its latest funding round happened in April this year when it raised ₹760 crore ($100 million) from Alpha Wave Incubation.
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