In the third episode of #ForgeWithPayU, we’re here with the story of a brand that brought the rich and traditional handloom of India out to the world in the form of an easy saree with a dash of contemporary style- SUTA. In this conversation with Sujata and Taniya Biswas, Co-founders, they unveiled the story of how SUTA came into being. They started with five people Sujata, Taniya, two weavers, and another employee. To cut down costs, they took care of every task on their own, from sweeping the office to packing a saree to shipping. Now, they have 100+ employees, along with 14,000 weavers and artisans.

Want to find out some unheard interesting facts about SUTA? Watch the video below!

Let’s Find Out More About SUTA’s Journey! 

They were engineers eager to infuse meaning into their work. Their research showed that it was difficult for people to find soft cotton and woven fabrics were quite expensive. They founded SUTA, launching soft cotton sarees which were stylish, easy to wear, and affordable.  

They started as an online brand, linked everything to their website, and onboarded PayU Payment Gateway to help scale SUTA’s growth.   

Sujata & Taniya feel no shame in accepting that they started from scratch. Instead, they say there’s certain greatness in humility & starting small. It helps in knowing one’s worth for what it is. They took a slow & steady approach to grow their business organically. During their initial days, they did everything, from designing, packaging, modelling, and photography,  to cleaning their office space. They took trains rather than hopping on to cabs for vendor meets so they could cut down on costs. 

One of the highlights in their journey was in 2021, when they had a flat sale of 33% for 33 minutes on their website, leading to 2000+ orders in less than 30 minutes. Logistics, there were concerns, but PayU mitigated all the payment-related risks and supported Suta in taking this leap of success. 

SUTA has woven more than 5 lakh sarees and launched more than 5000 products. This six-year journey of Sujata and Taniya has constantly been an upward learning curve for them. Intending to grow SUTA daily, Su and Ta believe that PayU has been the backbone of their journey.  

Did SUTA’s journey inspire you to take your next step? Let’s do it together because #TimeIsNow!  

Have you watched other episodes of #ForgeWithPayU featuring some inspiring journeys of brands we love? Click here to learn more!

The post #ForgeWithPayU | Story of A Brand That Introduced a Contemporary Take on Traditional Handloom of India, SUTA appeared first on PayU Blog.

Let us walk you through some successful female entrepreneurs’ profiles who are making India proud globally. Every single female entrepreneur in India is part of the wave of entrepreneurship spearheaded by women. We’re highlighting six of them who’ve made it to the list of successful women entrepreneurs in India:

Falguni Nayar—Founder & CEO of Nykaa

After a strong career path of more than two decades, Falguni Nayar began her second inning with her business idea in 2012. Nykaa, an e-Commerce platform selling women’s beauty products, is the brainchild of the 49-years-old Ms Nayar. Over the years, Nykaa has built a successful business run mainly by women. It recently went public, with its IPO being oversubscribed nearly 82.5 times. This expanded Nyka’s market capitalisation to Rs.1.05 lakh crore.

Nykaa has a presence in more than 38 cities, with 80 plus stores. The company hosts over 2,000 brands, including a well-established lineup of in-house brands. If you have doubts about Nykaa’s popularity and reach, then just know that global star Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ skincare range, Anomaly, which was originally launched in the US, will launch in India exclusively via Nykaa.

Khushboo Jain—Co-Founder and COO, ImpactGuru.com

Khushboo Jain co-founded impactguru.com with the mission to help India’s crowdfunding startup scenario. According to the company’s “About Us” statement, the company was launched “to offer a more compassionate solution to those fighting critical illnesses and to empower individuals and communities to help those in need.”

Jain is also the COO of the company and leads the marketing, communication, and design teams. An MBA in marketing from the Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research, Khushboo has also studied fashion marketing at the London College of Fashion. She was featured in the Fortune 40 under 40 lists in India and was amongst the top 15 winning women entrepreneurs at the 2019 Women Transforming India Awards by NITI Aayog and the United Nations.

Aditi Gupta—Founder and Creator, Menstrupedia

Aditi Gupta started Menstrupedia to educate young Indian girls about the menstrual cycle and hygiene. In India, topics like personal hygiene and menstruation are chronically taboo, leading to a lack of awareness and unhealthy consequences for millions of girls. She also wanted to break the taboo around the words “period” and “women.” Every day in India, more than 120 young girls face shame for talking about their periods or the reactions of people around them. This prompted Gupta to take up the idea of a comic book guide – Menstrupedia – to discuss issues related to periods and sanitation.

The comic book guide adapts real-life experiences into fun-to-read comics that are educational content on periods and related issues for girls aged 9 years and above. The comic book has won many awards and grants and has collaborated with Whisper India, a company that makes sanitary pads for women. Aditi has been featured in Forbes’ 30 under 30 lists as one of the successful entrepreneurs in India.

Vani Kola—Founder, Kalaari Capital

She had a well-claimed entrepreneurial career spanning over two decades in Silicon Valley, where she founded two companies—Rightwork and Certus software. Vani Kola then set her feet back in India in 2006 and teamed up with her fellow Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Vinod, to launch Indo-US Venture Partners (IUVP) in partnership with New Enterprise Associates (NEA).

In 2011, she decided to go solo and rebranded the company as Kalaari Capital. Today, Kalaari Capital has over 200 assets, including some of India’s biggest, brightest, and most successful startups in tech, consumer, climate tech, and enterprise. Kalari Capital has so far raised a total of USD 740 million, funding 110+ startups. No wonder Kola is known as the “Mother of Venture Capitalism in India.”

Radhika Ghai—Co-Founder of Shopclues

After her MBA in the US, Radhika Ghai (2012) aimed to explore the eCommerce ecosystem in India. She launched Shopclues along with her husband – Sanjay Sethi – which competed against the likes of Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal. Shoplclues soon became the preferred online platform for merchants and buyers, with a valuation of USD 1.1 billion within five years. The company was acquired by a Singapore-based eCommerce platform called Qoo10 in 2019. Today, Radhika is the Founder and CEO of KindLife, a beauty and wellness platform hosting more than 150 brands across beauty, nutrition, and home care.

Suchi Mukherjee—Founder and CEO of Limeroad

Suchi Mukherjee returned to India in 2011 from London to make her entrepreneurial dream a reality. She holds a Master’s Degree in Finance from the London School of Economics and is the only Indian to have received the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholarship for studying Economics at Cambridge University in 1994. She has worked with brands such as Virgin Media (Director for Change and Business Development as well as Consumer Division Management Team), eBay, and Skype (Director and Member of Executive Management Team).

In 2012, she was all set to explore her path to a social fashion retail platform with the launch of Limeroad after she acquired an initial capital of USD 5 million. The company was set up along with her partners, including Prashant Malik and Ankush Mehra. Today, Limeroad is valued at USD 51.9 million and has a strong women’s community of 5000 plus, who create their own mix-and-match designs based on the products available in the catalogue.

These are some of the women entrepreneurs who are revolutionising the business scenario in India. There are many more on the list of successful female entrepreneurs in India. And many more will soon be among the top entrepreneurs in India.

FAQs

The post Top 6 Female Indian Entrepreneurs That Are Making The Nation Proud appeared first on PayU Blog.

Being a Woman Entrepreneur

The lack of female-owned property and access to funds

Most property is handed down to the sons. It means that women rarely have the assets they need to apply for a substantial loan. While there have been changes in the associated laws in recent years, this is still a limiting factor.

The highly biased finance industry felt that women were less creditworthy. However, how this conclusion came to be is a question.

Education

While this is improving, traditionally, less importance has been given to women’s education in the family. While this may not tie a woman’s hands, it can be a limiting factor in terms of access to knowledge and information.

Furthermore, parents still find it hard to let young women decide what they want to study and where.
Finance is something that can be solved with a few grand schemes from the government.

Government Initiatives and Programs for Women Entrepreneurs

Annapurna Scheme

If you are looking at starting a small-scale food catering service, this scheme provides loans of up to INR 50,000. While this isn’t a lot, it is a great start, and you can purchase some much-needed equipment.

Bharatiya Mahila Bank Business Loan

This program offers a much more substantial amount. The banking scheme gives women up to INR 20 crores.
This is ideal for women who are venturing into large enterprises or looking at expanding their businesses. This scheme helps small entrepreneurs begin a start-up for women.

Mudra Yojana Scheme

This loan, an initiative by the Central Government, has an upper limit of INR 10 lakhs. The loan is deposited into a person’s Mudra account, and they are given a Mudra card, which allows them to withdraw 10% of the loan at a time.

Orient Mahila Vikas Yojana Scheme

If one woman or a group of women own 51% share capital or more of a business, they are eligible for this scheme. The loan offered adds up to INR 25 lakhs with a low interest of 2%. While it allows entrepreneurs seven years to repay the debt, it also does not require collateral. This is ideal for women who are looking to expand their ventures.

Dena Shakti Scheme

This is a program for women entrepreneurs who run businesses in agriculture, manufacturing, and retail or have small enterprises or microcredit organizations. The loan limit is set at INR 20 lakhs and can help boost business.

Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana

It is an ideal loan for aspiring entrepreneurs as the loan enables women entrepreneurs to improve or acquire skills and encourages self-employment. The loan is available across industries, and business loans of up to INR 2 lakhs are available. Those in the service sector or industries can apply for up to INR 5 lakhs.

Cent Kalyani Scheme

This is a scheme for women entrepreneurs looking to start a new business or expand an existing one. It has a substantial offering of up to INR 100 lakhs. The loan does not require collateral and does not attract processing fees. There is an eligibility criterion, and those involved in retail, education, training, and self-help groups cannot apply.

Mahila Udyam Nidhi Scheme

This loan aims to enable medium- to small-scale enterprises and small-scale industries. It helps to revive small-scale industries that are on the verge of collapse or have already collapsed but could be revived with a bit of financial injection. The loan limit is only INR 10 lakhs. However, the repayment period is ten years.

Conclusion

There are a host of other programs for women entrepreneurs and states with start-up policies for women. The main concern is that there is a lack of transparency. It means that while these programs exist, they aren’t necessarily empowering women entrepreneurs as they should.

Numerous organizations are working to create awareness and enable women to access these loans and schemes. Many states are proactive in offering these loans and schemes. The State and Central Governments have also placed guidelines for banks to follow when these loans are inquired about.

The information is available. Ask your bank manager about these schemes and go with as many questions as you can to make sure you find the scheme that best fits your needs.

India has come a long way, and women are becoming more involved in the world of business. People must be aware of these programs for women entrepreneurs.

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