Women manage businesses with the same smartness with which they manage their homes. One such remarkable businesswoman is Upasana Taku.
Upasana Taku is the CEO and board chairman of the online payment service provider MobiKwik. Today, the value of this company is around Rs 8,000 crores. After building a successful career abroad, she returned to India and took a significant risk to start her own business.
Hailing from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, Upasana completed her early education in Surat. She pursued her engineering degree from Punjab Technical University in Jalandhar, Punjab. After graduation, Upasana furthered her education with a postgraduate degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University in the USA.
Starting Her Own Venture After Years Abroad
After completing her studies, Upasana spent about 17 years abroad, working as a product manager for the renowned online payment company PayPal and also for HSBC. Despite her established career in the USA, in 2008, she decided to return to India with a vision to start her own business.
This decision faced considerable opposition from her family, as leaving a lucrative job in the USA to start a new venture in India was seen as a risky move. Nonetheless, Upasana was determined. At the time, her parents were living in Africa, where her father was a university professor and her mother a musician. In 2009, they too returned to India.
Upon her return, Upasana began working with a microfinance NGO called “Drishti,” which focused on the development of rural areas in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In India, she not only found success in business but also met her life partner.
Launching a New Business in 2008
After returning to India in 2008, Upasana met Bipinpreet Singh. In 2009, they started their business together. Bipinpreet had conceptualized MobiKwik but was unable to leave his job to fully commit to the venture. Upasana provided the support and partnership needed, and together they launched the business in 2009.
What began as a small company operating out of their home has grown into a significant player in the fintech industry. According to media reports, the turnover of MobiKwik is around Rs 8,000 crores. During their early struggles, Upasana and Bipin converted their home into an office. They married in 2011 and continued to grow their business together.
In 2018, Upasana Taku’s contributions to the online payments sector were recognized when she received an award from the President of India for being the “First Woman to Lead a Payments Startup.” In 2019, she was also featured in Forbes Asia’s list of 25 Powerful Business Women. Today, her company continues to reach new heights in the online payments industry.
