Meet these Hyderabad-based Women Entrepreneurs on Women’s day.

Starting up is not easy and running a profitable business is never an easy task, especially when it comes to women, the society never trusts their ability but women have proved everybody wrong. Their persistence and grit have kept them going despite numerous challenges, fuelled by their passion to succeed.

For a long time, Hyderabad is known for its Monuments, Palaces, and Biryani, but now, it is the IT Hub of numerous global companies and nest of startups, which is inspiring women entrepreneurs day by day. The number of women entrepreneurs gradually increased in the city after Bangalore and Delhi. So we, at Startup Hyderabad, introduce you to some of the new Women Entrepreneurs from Hyderabad on this International Women’s Day whose stories inspire a million women globally.

Deepthi Ravula, WeHub

Deepthi moved to the US in 2002 after completing her secondary education in Hyderabad. After completing her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Electronics and Communications, her first job was at Nokia and was working with audio acoustics. She moved to Palm to work with smartphones and after a three-year stint there she shifted to Atheros, now known as Qualcomm, which was involved in the making of WiFi and Bluetooth chips. Post Qualcomm, she worked at Litepoint, which was later acquired by Teradyne. After spending 15 years in the US in blue-chip companies, Deepthi Ravula got an opportunity to be part of the vision and growth story of her home state, Telangana. On her return to India, Deepthi joined the Government of Telangana in 2016 as Joint Director for Electronics. While into her job, Deepthi became aware that the Government of Telangana had envisioned several policies to support women entrepreneurs. Seven women approached them directly for help. It was identified as a major problem by the team and often discussed at meetings.WE Hub is also making efforts to attract women entrepreneurs from rural areas. It has collaborated with the German Development Agency to run a seven-month incubation and acceleration program for women-owned and women-led enterprises in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of Telangana. The primary aim of the project is to encourage the participation of women in entrepreneurship. Going forward, the learnings and outcome of this project will be replicated by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Mythreyi Kondapi, Startoon Labs

‘Startoon Labs’ founded by Mythreyi Kondapi is currently working on Pheezee, the world’s first smart physiotherapy toolkit. The device, which is wearable, documents the recovery of a patient undergoing physiotherapy. Speaking about her new startup Mythreyi said, “There is nothing to quantify physiotherapy recovery. But with the help of Pheezee, which is connected to a mobile app, the patient can get immediate biofeedback.”

The entrepreneur had previously worked with doctors while developing other medical devices and hopes to identify unaddressed segments in medical fields and come up with tech solutions in the near future. Mythreyi is an alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad and IIT-Madras. She had co-founded the company with her husband S V S Suresh, an alumnus of IIM (Kolkata) and IIT (Madras) to work on research and development and consultancy to serve and develop products for its clients.

Srujana Raghupatruni, Cellerite systems

Cellerite systems focus on power-electronic technologies. Her major innovation lies in developing long-lasting charging solutions for electric vehicles. Srujana said that the city’s pollution made her think of what is today’s “Cellerite Systems”. “During a trip to my home-town Visakhapatnam, I felt that the city’s pollution had risen to an alarming level. A single trip outside would leave your face dusty. Although vehicular pollution can be answered through electric vehicles, the question is how long can they stay charged.

That is how we thought of developing charging solutions for these vehicles,” said the entrepreneur. Srujana Raghupatruni, the founder of Cellerite Systems is an M Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi. She started the startup and is responsible for overseeing the development of new technologies for battery charging and evaluating their capacity to produce new products and services. She has served as the Secretary of PES/IAS/PELS Jt.Chapter of Hyderabad section and uphold the cause of eco-mobility and electrical safety.

Anu Acharaya, Mapmygenome.in

Changing the future of the healthcare industry in India is Anu Acharya, Founder, and CEO of MapmyGenome. Her molecular diagnostics company aims at making people proactive about their health by offering DNA testing and personal genetic services. Anu’s entrepreneurial journey started back in 2000 after she moved back to India on completion of her MIS from the University of Illinois. She had initially founded Ocimum Bio Solutions, a company that helped scientists in their research. However, Anu wanted to create something that could directly impact people. Thus, she founded MapMyGenome in 2013. As she already had 10+ years of experience in genomics research, she was confident that this technology could transform the health industry.MapMyGenome’s primary service ‘Genomepatri’ analyzes an individual’s vulnerability to certain diseases, responses to certain drugs, and risks posed due to lifestyle and diet factors. It’s like a scientifically validated horoscope for health. Depending on your medical history, it helps you know yourself and build healthy habits. Her company has tied up with many hospitals, wellness and yoga centers, and individual distributors. For her work, Anu received the Young Global Leader Award by the World Economic Forum in 2011.

Radhika Choudary, FreyrEnevergy

Radhika Choudary is a professional with a futuristic perspective, especially when creating a positive impact on the environment through her expertise in Solar. She has been instrumental in creating a pan-India presence for Freyr as well as spearheading several key projects across industries.

In 2017, she was the recipient of the Femina World Women Leadership Award for Excellence in power and energy sector, the Women Entrepreneur Quest (WEQ) recipient and also completed a 1-year SEED Transformation Program with Stanford Graduate School of Business.

She has deep and rich experience of over 13 years working with SunEdison, Lanco Solar, SKF and GE Wind Energy.

Rohini Deepthi, Kitki

Co-founder and game designer of the startup company name Kitki which was founded by herself and her husband seven years back and continuing the process of developing the idea of approach different learning methodologies for the new generation.

Rohini has a Master’s degree in Economics from the Birla institute of technology.Mansi Gandhi, Doc

Monika Misra,iKeva

Believing that co-working spaces can be the future work culture, Monika Misra, among the noted women entrepreneurs in Hyderabad provides Flexi-lease co-working spaces to start-ups, businesses, and freelancers, through her venture ikeva. Not merely a co-working space, Ikeva aims at creating a complete ecosystem by offering its members a list of service providers like CAs, lawyers, recruiters, HR consultants, UI designers, software developers, and more. Monika’s venture now has 6 centers in 5 cities, with Mumbai and Gurgaon being the latest addition. Prior to Ikeva, Monika worked at Servcorp, a premium Service Office provider as a Senior Manager and helped in setting up its business unit in India.

She has also held Senior Management positions in hotel chains and has been pivotal in setting up small hospitality units across many metro cities. Her experience in the Hospitality and Real Estate sector made her aware of the need for affordable and productive working spaces for small teams and she founded Ikeva in 2013. Monika’s business plan is rapidly being adopted across the country and she plans to grow 50-80 centres in the next 3-4 years.

Sindhura Borra, Cleanse High

Sindura Bora, founder Cleanse High is helping people detox their bodies through her healing elixirs. The idea of detoxifying struck her when she fell ill in California while pursuing her engineering and had to take a course in antibiotics. As the antibiotics didn’t seem to work, her doctor introduced her to juice detoxifying. In the detox regime, Sindura gave up solid foods and drank a combination of fruits and vegetables for a couple of days. She loved the effects it had on her and decided to introduce this concept to the Indian market.

After completing her education, she came back to India and founded Cleanse High in 2013. Within a span of two years, her company grew and gained support from the Advisory board of 3 licensed nutritionists from San Francisco, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. Gaining popularity amongst the health-conscious people from all walks of life, this woman entrepreneur in Hyderabad is revolutionizing the wellness industry. Her company home delivers a set of eight detox juices made of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and superfoods to help with one-day or three-day detox plans. 

Vaishali Neotia, Merxius

Vaishali Neotia, co-founder Merxius, is building products using Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Interactive and Web technologies. Virtual reality is a technology that transports you into a different world, giving an immersive experience by just strapping a headset.

Vaishali’s biggest innovation is her product RealsimEditor or RED which is being currently tested by the Indian Armed Forces to create a training module for engine maintenance. Vaishali started her venture out of a single room at her friend’s house and had faced many challenges initially. Her business wasn’t taken seriously at the beginning rather it was considered a fancy tech experiment of college students. Not having money and funds was another challenge.

Now, her venture has received many awards and accolades and is in talks with the investors to raise $2 million to accelerate the adoption of RED. Further, she is also planning to file two patents for RED, which would make Merxius, the first Indian company to file a patent in this arena.

Mansi Gandhi, DoctorC  

Mansi Gandhi founded DoctorC, an online diagnostic service provider, DoctorC offers a digital platform where people can look for the best deals in diagnostic tests by comparing prices and discounts offered by different testing laboratories across the city. Mansi is a Cornell Graduate and began her entrepreneurial life by tinkering with iOS apps. She has created several iOS apps to date.

Comments

comments