Daijiworld Media Network – Gujarat (MS)
Gujarat, May 28: Many people are satisfied with the high salaries they receive from their employers and do not take the risk of starting a business. However, Upasana Taku, who graduated from a prestigious institution like Stanford, quit her job and embarked on a business venture, establishing a mobile payment company in India.
Upasana co-founded the company Mobikwik. She is currently the COO of the company. In the first quarter of 2023, the company reported significant profits. Upasana says that the company’s revenue will double in the 2023-24 fiscal year to Rs 1000 crore.
Upasana was born and raised in Gandhinagar in a Kashmiri family. She did her schooling in Surat. Both her father and mother were professors. Upasana completed her engineering degree from NIT Jalandhar.
Upasana earned her master's degree in management science and engineering at Stanford University. She worked for HSBC and PayPal after her master's. However, she was always inclined to start a business. So she left her job and returned to India.
Upasana’s parents were highly dissatisfied with her decision to return to India, leaving a high-paying job. But Upasana wanted to fulfill her dreams. She joined a non-government organization, Drishthee.
Upasana met Bipin Preet Singh in 2008. He was working for a chip company in Noida and was also planning to start an e-wallet firm. Singh founded Mobikwik in 2009, and Upasana joined his company a few months later. They got married after some time.
Starting a business was not easy for Bipin and Upasana. Banks did not give them loans, and it was difficult to hire employees. Upasana also had to deal with gender discrimination. But the couple faced all the odds boldly.
Upasana and Bipin founded Zaakpay, a subsidiary of Mobikwik, in 2012. This provided a digital payment gateway platform for e-commerce companies.
Upasana's efforts were recognized by the government of India. She was honoured by the government for being the first woman to own a payments start-up. Forbes listed her as one of the Power 25 businesswomen of Asia in 2019. In 2021, Taku’s company was valued at $700 million.