It takes a lot to turn your dreams into a reality, especially when you are a woman entrepreneur and struggling to make a name for yourself in the male-dominating sector. Upasana Taku, the co-founder of Mobikwik, also went through several ups and downs to carve out a niche for herself and truly emerged as a fierce techno-entrepreneur. She faced many gender stereotypes as well as financial difficulties during her journey to success but channelling her inner power and getting the best support from her better half, Bipin Preet Singh, she finally found her way to becoming a household name!
In this blog, we will tell you the complete story of Upasna Taku and her dream company Mobikwik.
Early years
Hailing from Gandhinagar, Gujarat, Upasana Taku belongs to the family of academicians. She finished her schooling in Surat and went on to pursue engineering at the National Institute of Technology in Jalandhar. To further strengthen her educational background, Upasana pursued MS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University, US. Her impeccable educational knowledge eventually led her to HSBC in San Diego. Taku performed exceptionally well there and gained experience in several fields such as marketing and outreach, forecast, and market research. When the United States was going through a change in business dynamics, leading by many big entrepreneurs, Upasana joined PayPal as a Senior Product Manager.
The Homecoming of Upasana Taku
After working for over 4 years in abroad, Upasana decided to establish her own business venture to make a contribution towards Indian economy and so she came back to her home soil. Taku’s homecoming became the biggest turning point in her career as after returning to India, she soon came up with a master plan of creating a mobile wallet app. While she was working on her dream project, she met the love of her life, Bipin Preet Singh and both of them together launched her dream venture Mobikwik, to simplify mobile transactions in India.
Taku and her husband Bipin started the company in a small room in Dwarka with a few employees. Struggling with financial problems, the couple got their first office by 2013 and then swooped into a whopping investment of $5 million, after which it was no looking back for the duo.
New heights for Mobikwik
As Mobikwik scaled new heights within few years of its launch, 2016 proved to be a dream year for Upasana Taku. In that year, Mobikwik raised a funding of $50 million from Net1, GMO payment gateway, Mediatek, Sequoia Capital, and TreeLine Asia, which was enough for them to make a big name in the circuit. Even the demonetisation came as blessing for Mobikwik as the company saw a massive boom of 400% in transactions and became home to more than 45 million users which only helped them to grow in future.
For revolutionizing the Fintech sector with her immense hardwork and incredible skills, Upasana Taku was also featured in the Women to Watch list by Forbes in 2016 and then received Best Woman Entrepreneur Award 2017 by Assocham. Not only this, in 2018, she was one of the 112 women achievers honoured by the then President of India, Ram Nath Kovind. Beating the odds against her, Upasana Taku has proved that women can run the world!