Stories
In-depth founder profiles, each independently researched and sourced only from publicly verifiable information.
Or browse by ranked lists, founder collections and topics.
A brewing-trained graduate who could not get hired in 1978 India started a biotech company in a garage in Bengaluru. Today Biocon is one of the country’s largest listed biopharma groups.
Rejected by interviewers early in her career, she co-built Forefront Capital Management, saw it acquired by Edelweiss, and became one of the youngest CEOs of an Indian mutual fund.
Started in 1989 as a single beauty and slimming centre in Safdarjung Development Area, VLCC grew into a multi-country wellness group; in January 2023, the Carlyle Group acquired a majority stake from the Luthra family in a deal widely reported at around US$300 million.
A 2012 graduation project at NID Ahmedabad’s New Media Design programme became Menstrupedia, the colourful, classroom-friendly comic book that demystifies menstruation for schoolgirls in India and beyond.
LimeRoad was one of the earliest Indian platforms to merge content and shopping. Its founder, a former eBay and Skype executive, ran it through a decade of capital cycles before V-Mart Retail bought it in a slump sale in October 2022.
She could have left for graduate school abroad. She stayed to teach, and co-built BYJU’S into, for a while, the most valuable startup India had ever produced.
A former Japan Airlines and eBookers executive returned to India to co-found Yatra in 2006. The company went on to list on Nasdaq and later on Indian exchanges.
A former television journalist and ad-sales professional left a comfortable corporate career to write founder stories on a blog. Fifteen years later, YourStory is one of the most cited startup-media brands in India.
Daughter of Zenith Computers’ founder, she launched Vu Technologies in 2006 with a thesis that India would not stay an entry-level TV market forever.
A second-generation entrepreneur after Ocimum Bio-Solutions, Anu Acharya founded Mapmygenome in 2013 to translate the human genome into actionable healthcare for individuals.
Co-founded in 2013 with her husband Rohan, CashKaro put one of the oldest e-commerce mechanics, cashback, at the centre of an Indian shopper’s journey.
Founded in 2011 to serve the next-half-billion online shoppers, ShopClues briefly joined India’s unicorn club. Its later story is one of the most quietly important in Indian e-commerce.
