You can be on Entrepreneur’s cover!

The Payments Promoter: Upasana Taku Prior to establishing MobiKwik with Bipin Singh, she counted PayPal and HSBC as her former employers. The initial stage of the fintech startup looked like a mobile recharge payments platform via a wallet as per Bipin. Taku's experience at PayPal helped her significantly, and by February 2010, she had embraced MobiKwik as her baby

By Paromita Gupta

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

Entrepreneur India
Upasana Taku, Co-founder and COO, MobiKwik

"When I began overseeing the finance department at MobiKwik, there was a situation where we needed to visit a government department to address their queries. After the initial small talk, I was asked to bring along my male co-director. In response, I smiled and answered candidly, informing them that my co-founder was not well-versed in tax-related matters and that either I could take the time to teach my co-founder everything there was to know about the subject, or we could proceed with the conversation and resolve the issue at hand," shares Upasana Taku, Co-Founder & COO, MobiKwik on taking a traditionally male dominated role.

At MobiKwik we are on a mission to build a world-class neobanking platform for Bharat!

Raised in a middle-class Kashmiri Pandit family in Gujarat, she has done her Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from REC Jalandhar and Master's degree in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University. Prior to establishing MobiKwik with Bipin Singh, she counted PayPal and HSBC as her former employers. The initial stage of the fintech startup looked like a mobile recharge payments platform via a wallet as per Bipin. Taku's experience at PayPal helped her significantly, and by February 2010, she had embraced MobiKwik as her baby. However, it wasn't a rosy start. "With a combined capital of 20-40 lakhs, which we had saved over 6-7 years of work experience, we had very little to start with. Moreover, we did not have any support or encouragement from our families to begin our entrepreneurial journey," she adds.

"At MobiKwik we are on a mission to build a world-class neobanking platform for Bharat!" The duo is dedicated towards promoting financial inclusion and catering to the underserved Indian population. The platform has 134 million registered users and is used in 19103 Indian pin codes out of 19253. 54 per cent of the users fall in 18-30 age brackets and 80 per cent are from non-metro cities. The market size of MobiKwik's products and services are expected to reach $2.1 Trillion by 2030. The fintech startup turned profitable in 2021 and ended the FY 2022 with INR 5.4 billion in revenues, recording 80 per cent YoY growth. It has raised $125 million of external capital till date. 25 per cent of the workforce comprises women with the recent appointment of Preety Pandey to lead finance division at MobiKwik.

All this wouldn't have happened had she not gone against her family and quit PayPal and given up her green card to return to India. "I believe that it was one of the bravest and best decisions I could have made for myself," she shares. Taku's one certain special memory will always remain that of being felicitated by the President of India as the First woman to lead a Payments Startup.

Paromita Gupta

Features Writer with Entrepreneur India

Covering news and trends in AI and Metaverse segments. An avid book reader running her personal blog on the side. You may reach me at paromita@entrepreneurindia.com. 
Business News

Mark Zuckerberg Says This CEO Is the 'Taylor Swift' of Tech

Meta's CEO posed with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Instagram Wednesday.

Side Hustle

This Mom Started a Side Hustle After a 'Shocking' Realization in the Toy Aisle. Her Product Was in Macy's Within the Year — Seeing Nearly $350,000 in Sales.

Elenor Mak, now founder of Jilly Bing, didn't plan to start a business — but the search for a doll that looked like her daughter inspired her to do just that.

Growing a Business

To Achieve Sustainable Success, You Need to Stop Focusing on Disruption. Here's Why — and What You Must Focus on Instead.

Instead of zeroing in solely on disruptive innovation, embrace a pragmatic approach to innovation, recognizing and leveraging the potential within ongoing industry shifts.

Real Estate

3 Emerging Trends Shaping the Future of Real Estate

These three innovations are reshaping the real estate industry — discover tips for effectively covering these trends.

Thought Leaders

How To Improve Your Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence in 7 Easy Steps

Using these simple but effective approaches will help a person in their business, life and relationships.

Business News

Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for Multibillion-Dollar Crypto Fraud

Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan said that the loss amount to the victims of Bankman-Fried's crimes surpassed $550 million.