Women manage businesses with the same acumen they use to manage their homes. One such remarkable businesswoman is Upasana Taku.
Upasana Taku is the CEO and Board Chairman of MobiKwik, an online payment service provider valued at around Rs 8,000 crores. After building a successful career abroad, she returned to India, taking a significant risk to start her own business.
Upasana hails from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and completed her early education in Surat. She pursued engineering at Punjab Technical University in Jalandhar, Punjab. Following her graduation, she went on to complete a postgraduate degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University in the USA.
Starting Her Own Startup After Years Abroad
After her studies, Upasana spent about 17 years abroad. She worked as a product manager at PayPal and also had a stint at HSBC. Despite her promising career in the USA, she decided in 2008 to return to India to start her own business.
Upasana faced significant opposition from her family when she left a stable job in America to return to India. Aware of the risks, she remained steadfast in her decision. At the time, her parents were living in Africa, where her father was a university professor and her mother a musician. They returned to India in 2009, a year after Upasana.
Upon her return, Upasana worked with a microfinance NGO named Drishti, which focused on rural development in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. It was in India that she not only found her business footing but also her life partner.
Launching Her New Business in 2008
In 2008, Upasana met Bipinpreet Singh, and in 2009, they started their business together. Bipinpreet had developed a business concept for MobiKwik but was hesitant to leave his job. Upasana supported him, and together they launched MobiKwik in 2009.
What began as a small company has grown into a major player in the fintech industry. Media reports suggest that MobiKwik’s turnover is around Rs 8,000 crores. In the early days, Upasana and Bipin ran the company from their home. The couple married in 2011 and continued to grow their business together.
Upasana’s contributions to online payments gained recognition in 2018 when she received an award from the President of India as the “First Woman to Lead a Payments Startup.” In 2019, she was listed among Forbes Asia’s 25 Most Powerful Businesswomen. Today, her company continues to reach new heights in the online payments sector.
