Category: Leaders

Dr. J. C. Chaudhry is a pioneer who has set benchmarks in the spheres of entrepreneurship and leadership. His work is immensely inspiring and gives everyone a lesson in perseverance, dedication, and patience. Dr. Chaudhry is the man behind one of India’s largest and most successful test preparatory institute –Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL). After taking it to an absolute pinnacle of success, he sold it to Byju’s last year and is now the Chairman of the entity. He is also a numerologist with an experience of almost 4 decades. Numerology has been a long standing passion for him and in 2018, he decided to start yet another journey. Dr. Chaudhry established Chaudhry Nummero Pvt. Ltd. (CNPL) to give his passion a very meaningful turn. He truly believes that numbers rule our life and favorable numbers attract good luck and success. He set up CNPL to spread this awareness amongst the people and help people achieve the best in their life with the wisdom of Numerology. He has been following his passion for Numerology for a long time but with CNPL he made sure that he shares that skill with others and alleviates people’s problems. He is one of the most famous Numerologists in India.

JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME

Today, Aakash is a name synonymous with the most premium and successful coaching institute in India. It is a brand known for delivering focused and quality coaching and is a leader in the whole paradigm shift that happened in India when it comes to competitive exam coaching. It is all down to Dr. Chaudhry’s persistent hard work and vision that he had for Aakash. Born in 1949 in a small town of Haryana called Hathin, Dr. Chaudhry always dreamt big. His humble beginnings only strengthened his desire to do something grand in life. He focused hard on his studies and completed his Master’s degree in Science (Botany) from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science(BITS), Pilani, Rajasthan in 1972.Soon after completing his studies, he started his professional journey as a teacher at Vaish College, in Bhiwani, Haryana. He taught at the college from 1972-73 and then he moved to New Delhi where he taught at the Hansraj Model School. He then moved to Delhi Administration schools where he became the Principal through the UPSC in 1993. It was during his journey as a teacher that he realized that there was a huge gap in the coaching segment in the country. At the time, coaching centres were not at all known in India and it was an extremely unorganized sector. Dr. Chaudhry saw it as an opportunity to carve his niche and started Aakash in his house with just 12students. In his first batch only, 7 out of 12 students cleared the tests and word spread quickly about his small setup. Rest as they say is history.

THE NEXT BIG LEAP

Dr. Chaudhry has always been known for his commitment to teaching and being a strong pillar of strength for students all across the country. His endeavors all through his life have been to support students who have dreams in their eyes. With more than 33 years of operational experience, he sets an excellent example of how nothing is impossible if you keep working sincerely for it. A motivational speaker, philanthropist, educationist, and powerful orator; he dons many hats and each with equal panache. Next to teaching, he has always had another passion too. He has been interested in Numerology for quite a lot of years. He is intrigued by how numbers and human life are enigmatically interconnected and has always been learning more about it. A few years back he decided that he wants to take it up to a bigger level and spread this knowledge and awareness. For most establishing a giant like Aakash and keeping it consistently on the top for decades is the dream run. But for him, the journey started again when he started CNPL and it took the same trajectory of persistence, success, and reaching the highest pinnacle. This is evident in the fact that Dr. Chaudhry won the 1st-ever Guinness World Record in Numerology and the first world record of 2022. Dr. Chaudhry also has been associated with the fields of Vastu Shastra, Gems and Stones, Nature, and Mudras. He is a well-renowned orator as well as writer. He has authored 2 books on numerology – “Advanced Numerology” & “Prractical Numerology” and 2 books on Vastu – “Fundamentals of Vastu” and “ABC of Vastu Shastra”. His other publications include ‘You and Your Gems’, ‘Meditation’, ‘Chakras’, ‘iThink’, ‘Success A few steps away’, ‘Rungs of the Ladder’, ‘Nature-The Best Cure’ and ‘Mudra-Healthy Life at your Fingertips’. He is a passionate leader who works not only for himself but for everyone associated with him. He aims to take everyone along the path to success. He is a firm believer of Karma and that hard work will bear fruits sooner or later. “I believe in taking quick, instinctive decisions. It is better to cut the cord in life than to endure pain,” Dr. Chaudhry says.

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Dr. Chaudhry’s entrepreneurial prowess and business acumen have been recognized far and wide. He has been presented with many awards to honor his diligent work and efforts. He was awarded the most prestigious ‘Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Memorial National Teachers’ Award in 2002 for the services rendered to schools and the community. Some other notable awards include the ‘Person of the Year Award 2015-16’ by AsiaOne at Abu Dhabi; ‘Person of the Year Award and Life Time Achievement’ at India-UAE Business and Social Forum IN 2017; key Note Speaker on ‘Role of Numerology in business growth and personal life’ at the Indo- European Investors Meet 2018 at St. James Court, Taj Hotel, London; ‘Global Education Leaders Award’ for Shaping the Dreams of Millions of Medical & Engineering Aspirants at India UAE Partnership Summit (IUPS) 2018 held at Atlantis, the Palm, Dubai; ‘Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Award’ by Deshabhimani Charitable Society in October 2019 for his outstanding contribution in the field of Education, Healthcare, Motivational Speech & Writing. His Guinness World Record in Numerology which had the most viewers on his first YouTube Live Session was the first such Guinness World Record. The lessons that can be learned from Dr. Chaudhry range from perseverance to staying relevant through different phases. He ensured that his first venture Aakash stayed relevant throughout the entire time he was at the helm. His second innings as an entrepreneur through CNPL has also been true to this trait. Finding his growth as a renowned Numerologist in a country like India where there is no dearth of astrologers, numerologists and the likes is no easy feat. Dr. Chaudhry is a truly passionate man who knows how to make dreams a reality. “My dream is to put Numerology on the global map.”To realize this dream, Dr. Chaudhry has established the International Numerology Forum (INF) a platform to connect numerologists worldwide. He is also now planning to open an institute –the Indian Institute of Numerology (IIN), which will be an institute of international standards and will produce the world’s finest numerologists. His venture ‘Chaudhry Nummero’ is also undergoing massive global expansion. They have opened the first branch in Dubai and several branches are in the pipeline including NewYork, London, and Australia. Dr. Chaudhry is truly a visionary who has worked tirelessly to transform the world around him. He has taken it upon himself to share the valuable lessons that he has learned all through his life as an academician, entrepreneur, and numerologist to guide the younger generation towards success and empowerment.

Additti’s trendy clothing line offers endless options, including florals, polka dots, tropical prints, checks, plus size dresses, shirts, and blouses. The style diva strives to keep one step ahead of the competition to make her clothing brand a huge success in the fashion industry. She believes that getting ahead is all about getting started. To that end, she works day and night to make her brand a huge success and the pinnacle for women’s clothing.

A BOLD BEGINNING

Additti, a graduate of the Pearl Academy (New Delhi, India), was inspired by the Japanese bestseller book “IKIGAI” to launch her clothing line with indo-western flair. The book’s title, which means ‘finding your life’s purpose,’ pushed her to pursue her passion and transform the lives of many women by helping them find their persona through their clothing. “IKI CHIC” is the name she chose to honor the book that inspired her to start her career in the fashion industry.

With her online clothing brand, the seasoned entrepreneur is bringing high street fashion to every woman for an affordable price, and she has been garnering glory and popularity in the process. Within a short time, the brand has captured the hearts of its customers with its unique designs.

BEATING ALL THE ODDS

Despite the success of the fashion brand, the path to success was not all roses and sunshine for Additti, given the unexpected pandemic that shrouded the brand in uncertainty. For Additti, manufacturing the clothes and doing photo shoots were the biggest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, a large category on the website, party wear, was not in high demand, which posed a significant challenge for the brand.

Nevertheless, Additti was amazed by the enthusiasm with which the Indian women welcomed Iki Chic despite the pandemic and the nationwide lockdown. Her collections have gotten a lot of positive feedback. Additionally, her brand has been praised for its loungewear and activewear, which were in high demand due to tight lockdown restrictions that confined people at home. The continuous appreciation which her brand receives from its customers motivates Additti to strive to achieve greater success.

FOLLOWS A CLIENT-CENTRIC APPROACH

Client loyalty is Additti’s number one goal. Her strong fashion sense inspires her to help style-conscious people adopt a more streamlined style statement through her clothing brand. The strategic entrepreneur focuses her business on women who are looking for international fashion at an affordable price in the Indian market. She ensures that Iki Chic’s pieces are handpicked for their exclusive details and best textures in keeping with the latest fashion trends.

A fashion-forward entrepreneur, Additti believes that her brand stands above all others primarily because it caters to all age groups and also offers clothes in plus sizes at rock bottom prices. The jaw dropping attires shown on the website are exclusively designed to appeal to the tastes of fashion freaks, something any woman who is fashion-conscious would enjoy wearing. She has also established partnerships with renowned e-commerce platforms, such as Myntra, Amazon Prime, Flipkart, Ajio and Nykaa Fashion to offer outstanding customer care and broaden her customer reach.

LEADING FROM THE FRONT

Rajesh is a self-made man who has earned a reputation for himself through sheer hard work and talent. The career-driven, detail-oriented, and dynamic individual has extensive leadership experience in several renowned corporations. His specialities include strategy, product, revenue and brand building. He had also worked for Justdial Ltd. as the Group Vice President for Global Operations. During his tenure Justdial went from being a start-up to a VC-backed corporation to becoming a public company. 2 other companies he was involved with have listed on stock exchanges in India and USA.

THRIVING IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY

Having lost his father when he was only 12, Rajesh received very little education as his family was not well off financially. At the age of 16, he moved out of his home and spent 3 months living at a railway station. To survive, he used to take up odd assignments like serving as an office boy, washing horses at the racecourse, garment factories, fibre glass units, working as a waiter and so on. He did manage to go to college with his small earnings, but could never manage to complete his education. The realization that he needs education, but not necessarily from a university or college, came early to him. Life was teaching him every day by throwing challenges that were far bigger than a young boy could handle. At the Railway station he started borrowing books and learning for himself. When people got off trains, he would request them to donate him books if they had. Rajesh always dreamt and believed that despite all the hardship he was going through, one day, he would become a person that the entire world would recognize and respect. It was his dream to own a big house, drive a Mercedes car, travel the world, employ people in all places, and be loved by all. His hard work, dedication, focus, and honesty have enabled him to achieve his dreams and more.

MATERIALIZING HIS DREAM

Rajesh started his first full-time employment with Getit Yellow Pages, which was still a startup at the time. His decision to join the company shaped the next 30 years of his life. Later, he decided to join Justdial, where he was responsible for establishing a sales channel as a consultant. Soon after, he was offered a position at Indya.com, India’s first horizontal portal, he became the first Indyan to set up a Yellow Pages on the internet. After a successful stint at Indya.com, he rejoined Justdial in 2002 and played a key role in the growth of the company. He also launched the Justdial Yellow Pages which went on to become a huge success. Rajesh was involved in Justdial attempting to launch in the USA. Although his career was at its peak, he wanted to do something more meaningful. That’s when the idea of Xelpmoc started evolving. His idea became a reality in 2016 with the launch of Xelpmoc Design & Tech, which is now listed on the stock exchange. It was one of the many ventures he has started. In 2017, Rajesh exited Xelpmoc to pursue setting up or investing in multiple other ventures in Gaming, ecommerce, fintech, hyperlocal logistics, food, real estate, prop tech etc.

A BENEVOLENT SOUL

Rajesh regularly participates in a variety of activities to encourage deserving youngsters, as he feels that he should give back to society. Hundreds of young people have been hired into his companies and he has played a key role in them achieving their dreams. He has also mentored several young entrepreneurs who have launched their own enterprises very early in life. He prefers watching movies when he is not working. He enjoys comedies, especially slapstick flicks. Aside from watching movies, he enjoys paragliding and skydiving. He is passionate about driving around the world and has already driven parts of 4 continents.

Acommerce graduate, Jamsheer launched a refreshingly young and unique organization, ZaraFX, in 2020. The gritty strategist led the organization to a record high by creating a valuation of INR 4.3 million in the first year. He inspired his enterprising product team to reorientate the brand’s product offering to meet the expectations of their global clients.

INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Jamsheer has defined a clear set of priorities for his team to work on to surge ahead of the competitors, and has implemented a few ground rules but without compromising the autonomy to local managers. In a dynamic and demanding scenario, overtly centralized decision-making restricts an organization’s ability to respond quickly and effectively. Therefore, he has employed a diversified board of directors with a wide range of expertise, defined their roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities, and consistently evaluates their efforts for the welfare of the organization, employees, and esteemed client base. He ensures that the board practices and holds good business ethics and integrity and consistently improves operations and customer services. Jamsheer has empowered his managers to make the best decisions, bearing in mind a clear set of enterprise priorities including employee safety and business ethics in the interest of clients, employees, and the organization. He draws the best out of his employees to work toward a common vision by consistently encouraging and motivating them, bestowing responsibility and rewarding the target achievers.

Jamsheer knows that leadership comes with great responsibility, but the far-sighted leader enjoys it with exuberance, high competency, hard work, fearless decision-making, and persuasive power to convince clients of his reliability and calibre. Under his supervision, the brand offers exceptional brokerage services to traders all across the globe. The platform integrates the most popular trading solutions into a one-stop solution for hassle-free trading. It offers a wide range of professional services with minimum cost and state-of-the- art technology to both retail and institutional customers, and facilitates them with excellent investment and trading options available with currencies, commodities, and Contract for Differences (CFDs), among others.

INTEGRATING SERVICE WITH AVANT-GARDE TECHNOLOGY

Jamsheer has revolutionized the trading industry with outstanding services, personalized and quality customer care support in different languages, faster execution, and lower spreads. With an objective to provide his clients the best possible trading environment according to their requirements and investment objectives, he provides his customers the latest version of the much-liked MetaTrader4 or MT4 online trading platform and MetaTrader5 or MT5 to suit their busy lifestyle and enables them to manage their accounts and trade more efficiently with new and unique set of features. He leads the brand with a vision to provide financial freedom to its more than 10000 customers. Under his able leadership, ZaraFX won the award for the Fastest Pay-out at the Forex EXPO Dubai 2021.

THE JOURNEY AHEAD

He is focused on driving ZaraFX to a new path of strategic growth by meeting all targets and deals in 2022, while scaling the business to over 1 million USD trading volume per month. He is working to expand ZaraFX globally by setting up 4 more offices in various international cities.

Dhruv founded Thriwe (formerly known as GolfLan) in 2011 with the goal of making golf more accessible and affordable to golfers while at the same time helping golf clubs/courses to boost their revenue. Currently, Thriwe connects with more than 2 lakh golfers across India, Middle-East, South-West Asia, US, and South Africa. It has evolved substantially under his leadership to become India’s top B2B consumer benefits marketplace, with a 100000+ stakeholder network serving markets nationwide and in 130 countries. Today, it operates across 5 key sectors – travel, wellness, lifestyle, sports, and dining solutions.

RISING ABOVE ADVERSITIES

Dhruv was born into a typical upper middle-class family and attended the finest schools in Delhi. He lost his father, who was a businessman, at the age of 10. This unfortunate incident changed his life immediately and substantially. Even in the face of adversities, his mother, who was a teacher, made sure her children lived a quality life. It was during this difficult time he became entrepreneurial and learned how to make the most of his little pocket money. By sheer force of will power and hard work, the young entrepreneur bought his first home at the age of 22, an age when most people are still pursuing their education.

AN INTERESTING CAREER GRAPH

After pursuing B. Com from Delhi University, Dhruv joined Standard Chartered Bank as a Training Manager. While he enjoyed a successful career in the banking industry, he continued to experiment with various ventures, which helped him learn and grow as a better businessman. His experience as a start-up expert began when he was hired to establish and expand the CPP, UK India operations at the age of 28. When Dhruv started Thriwe, he had only 4 multitasking employees. Moreover, he had to struggle to find the right talent to assist him with scaling the business. The other challenge was to scale the company without burning cash, given that it was self-funded. Despite careful expenditures, his company ran out of money in just 7 months of operation. At this point he decided to sell his house and move his family to a rented apartment. Following the cash infusion, his company was able to survive for a few months. Simultaneously, he constantly tweaked his business model to get a foothold in the market. Moreover, to enhance margins and cash flows, he also ventured into the corporate business, which worked wonders for Thriwe and enabled him to launch innovative technology solutions besides entering new international markets and acquiring 2 companies. His success has been attributed to a few HNI investments, which enabled him to expand across the nation and launch operations in Dubai and Southeast Asia. Consequently, orders and queries poured in from all over the world, including the USA, the UK, South Africa, Europe, Singapore, Australia, and others.

ON A GROWTH SPREE

In 2017, Dhruv entered the US market, the largest golf market in the world, by establishing an office in the Valley and signing the first contract. Thriwe currently serves over 15 million customers across 60 organizations. In this 15 million strong list are customers from wealth management services, consumer electronics brands, automobile brands, etc. Aside from India, Thriwe has also gained a strong foothold in the Middle East, and South East Asia, and is currently preparing to enter the African market, where it will cover Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

Mr. Aizaz is based in India and holds an MSc and an MBA. With an analytical mindset and a strong aptitude for strategy, he possesses excellent people management and communication skills. He brings a lot of vigor, commitment, and honesty to the work. One reason for his first continuous growth is his relentless pursuit of excellence and not resting on his laurels. He continuously strives to keep his customers happy and participate in making of digital India.

A FIRM TEAM LEADER

His perspicacity helped him manage a professional team of consultants from various countries, culture and successfully deliver critical, time-bound projects in digital banking technology and operational process optimization of the Issuance and Acquiring platform. He is a team player, a coach, and a mentor for his squad, and he periodically adopts the roles of coach, visionary, authoritarian, and pacesetter.

ENSURING EXCELLENCE

Mr. Aizaz’s decade-long experience in fintech industry has been extremely beneficial for the organization. Mr. Aizaz introduced excellent governance-related reforms as a crucial necessity for success. He and his team possess the necessary critical skills to ensure that governance is taken more seriously and new digital payment channels are quickly launched into the market in full compliance with necessary regulations. His firm Indipaisa collaborated with Indian Payments Bank, licensed lenders and insurers to provide top notch fintech services at competitive pricing and assist small Indian companies keep up with the country’s digital move toward a cashless society. The company is dedicated to innovation, in-depth subject matter knowledge, and technical fintech competence that the Indian SME market requires.

EXPLORING NEW VENTURES

Mr. Aizaz has established himself as a leader who recognizes the importance of MSMEs in the Indian market. For a decade, his organization has been supplying digital banking technology to various regions in MENA, Asia, and Europe and now the focus is towards India with a brand name “Indipaisa”. His business is already live with merchants in Delhi/NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka and has recently collaborated with banks and fintech companies in India to deliver end-to-end digital commercial banking solutions, driven by social networks, to millions of underserved Indian micro-SMEs. He has experienced and comprehended the issues encountered by MSMEs on several occasions. In order to address this, he developed disruptive product development with his team, which has been guided over the past ten years by AI and Machine learning analysis of MSME needs.

AWARDS GALORE

Mr. Aizaz’s expertise in his field has turned him into a trendsetter for which he has been awarded several honors globally. His firm was recognized as the “Best Technology Company in the Middle East” during the “Qatar Business Awards 2019.” Receiving the title of “No. 1 Fintech Company in Qatar” for his organization is yet another feather in his hat, along with awards such as the “Best Mobile Money App in the Middle East” and the “Best Payment Processing Company in the Middle East”.

After completing his engineering from Nirma Institute of Technology, Gujarat; Mr. Panara started his professional journey at Tech Mahindra. He decided that it was time to walk on a different path after contributing to its growth for almost over a decade.

TURNING A NEW LEAF

The day he left the job to start his own company was one of the most crucial points of his professional life. A techie at heart, Mr. Panara wanted to make use of technology to make the world better, greener, and more prosperous. He wanted to focus on technology and use it to solve some real world challenges. It is this focus on people, communities, and the places they work and live that lies at the heart of everything Nest Group does.

Mr. Panara founded Nest Group in 2014 along with ex-Indian Army officer – Arun Kar and Pradip Butani, a chartered accountant. Nest Group is made up of five subsidiary companies, each with its own focus. Xpertnest offers technology implementation and development in fields ranging from insurance and medicine to agriculture and transport; GameNest creates 2D, 3D, augmented reality, and virtual reality games and applications; EarthNest is using disruptive innovation to rid the world of single-use plastic; CineNest produces original videos for distribution on Over-The-Top platforms and HomeNest uses technology to build affordable, green housing for social communities.

What is one big commendable feat of Mr. Panara and his team is that all of these companies have been created without any external investments or VC funding. It is Mr. Panara’s innovation that led him to bring to life such novel concepts and ideas. He led his team to successfully expand and cultivate each of these group companies. Not only that, he has managed to create a platform for other budding entrepreneurs so that they can also try their ideas and give their dreams a shot. He is truly one of the leaders who believe in creating more leaders and not followers.

AWARDS AND ACCOLADES

Under his leadership, his companies have won many awards and accolades from the industry. Mr. Panara is an official member of the Forbes Business Council – which is an invitation-only business community. Being a part of such a community is an honour and mark of respect as well as a testimony to the work that he has been doing.

Xpertnest has won several awards for its pathbreaking solutions. In 2021, it won the title of ‘Most impacting Company Year 2021 Dot.com by the United States Magazine. It was also chosen the ‘Company of the Year – Smart Solutions’ in the year 2019 by CIO Review India. In 2020, they were also finalists at the UK’s National SME awards – Business Innovation Category. This is not it, Xpertnest has received a lot of applause from the world over for its innovative use of technology. During the pandemic, in the UK, Xpertnest made an app that helps in notifying people if the beach they’re headed to is overcrowded and thus helped in maintaining social distancing. This was hailed as a new level of innovation in technology and the international media praised the app makers for this.

A LEADER WITH PANACHE

At the core of his leadership lies a vision for a better tomorrow. It is this people-centric approach that drives Mr. Panara and his businesses. He has built such a culture at all his companies where people come first – his employees as well his customers, everyone gains. All his ventures have been developed by keeping the customer in mind and merging technology with utility. “We relentlessly focus on creating standout customer experiences,” he shares. Mr. Panara and his team have built these businesses with a strong foundation of integrity, trust, responsibility, and excellence. He ensures that everyone involved in Nest Group plays fair and is ethical in their conduct. Consistency and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles are of prime importance to him. Secondly, he believes in building trust and collaborative relationships based on mutual respect. It is his passion that drives him to build the best and achieve the highest possible standards of quality for their customers.

VOICE OF CHANGE

It is Mr. Panara’s strong belief that technology should be leveraged to make the world better, greener, and more prosperous. “We need to focus not on technology for technology’s sake but on how to solve the needs of real people and their communities. It is that focus on people, communities, and the places they work and live that lies at the heart of everything Xpertnest does,” he shares. To further this belief, he built Earthnest which is an organization that helps consumers achieve a more sustainable future. The company produces sustainable bags and sheeting made from starch and other natural products. These products are 100 percent plastic-free, containing no polyolefin plastic at all. But at the same time, these bags are waterproof and oil-resistant. Importantly, they also provide an oxygen barrier. They have built the product in such an innovative manner that the bio bags have all the advantages of plastic without causing any damage to the planet. They cost no more than plastic bags to manufacture, which makes them nothing less than revolutionary for the packaging and retail industries.

It is his vision and foresight that have enabled Earthnest to bring this disruptive technology to consumers.

LOOKING AT A BRIGHT FUTURE AHEAD

Mr. Panara has a focused vision where he sees Nest Group bringing innovative and revolutionary solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. So far, he has envisioned some great initiatives from combining data analysis with satellite imagery to help farmers improve their outputs to imagining how cities could function more efficiently with smart technology and artificial intelligence.

Nimisha is a renowned independent management consultant with over 15 years of experience and a cross-border career in consulting for numerous world-class energy, healthcare, and finance companies. Through her rich career graph, Nimisha has developed a deep understanding of how organizations can work together to promote enterprise growth and meaningful impact-building within societies worldwide. Her multiple entrepreneurial initiatives have designed innovative and disruptive business operating models to help her clients future-proof their businesses. She has also helped her clients create 10X stakeholder value through secure funding and effective change management strategies.

FOUNDER OF TOP-NOTCH BUSINESS FIRMS

She and her team at Quantum Global Consultants (QGC) work with business owners and C-Suite leaders to explore avenues of change, growth and innovation. The company combines digital experience and leading IoT/technology to help businesses predict and adapt to a constantly shifting business landscape. Nimisha also helps the clients address key challenges in their industry, such as customer expectations, adapting to market and regulatory changes, and delivering sustainable business models, to maintain shareholder value and market relevance. QGC provides a suite of services, which include, but are not limited to customer value proposition development, advanced tech strategy, project, program & portfolio management and finally deployment of technology across client ecosystems. Besides Quantum Global Consultants, she has founded 2 more renowned companies. The first of which is a sister company to QGC, ‘Quantum Venture Partners’ (QVP). This company provides strategic advisory and capital raising support to pioneering start-ups and founders working at the helm of technology and social change. QVP provides disruptive start-ups consultancy and partnering through incubation, venture development, capital raising, commercialization, preparing for effective market entry and finally scale. QVP is currently working towards building a impact fund, that will support high value, high growth enterprises that are leveraging technology to solve environmental and social challenges.

The third is ‘Leaving A Legacy’, a social enterprise, with a mission to restore one-billion hectares of degraded terrestrial and under water land, around the world. The team does this through initiating and supporting grass-root environmental projects to address the world’s ever-growing environmental challenges head-on by delivering top-down and bottom-up changes within local communities. However her most recent investment as an Angel investor, see’s her as Co-founder of ‘Innozyne Ltd.,’ a deep tech firm, that is leveraging AI, namely the neural-net principle to create solutions to the ongoing mental health crisis globally. Currently Innozyne is working on the launch of an AI service, which is aimed at reducing the wait time for patients suffering mental health conditions, between diagnosis and treatment. Nimisha deploys her own personal capital to companies enabling environmental conservation, healthcare accessibility, energy efficiency and management, and transition to permaculture.

A CHAMPION OF YOUNG PEOPLE

She is a Board Member of the Prince’s Trust RISE Initiative growing the network, and developing fundraising initiatives. Furthermore she is a Trustee of the Becoming X Foundation, ensuring the foundation delivers to its mandate and achieves its ‘case for change’ to educate one-million children across Africa with softer skills not necessarily taught in schools.

Shweta has a successful career spanning over 15 years. She initially joined her family-run garment export business, one of the oldest export houses in the country. It provided her the opportunity to work with globally leading garment brands and understand the export market in-depth. In her tenure of 14 years, where she worked with a multitude of export houses, she has gained incomparable knowledge of research and design, operations, and other key export processes. Thereafter, Shweta moved to hospitality, where she worked with Novotel Chamiers, a business hotel in Chennai. Under her leadership, the hotel expanded to become an award-winning franchise, widely acclaimed for its F&B services. The pandemic and a 5-day Korean skincare expo organized in Chennai led Shweta to set up Aardae, with her long-time friend, Darshana Balagopal. It took place during the pandemic and made her realize that lockdown regulations would make it difficult for global brands to transport their supplies to India. Shweta also undertook extensive market research in order to analyse a shift in behaviour towards more conscious living, leading to a spike in demand for ‘clean beauty.’ That’s when she planned to bring home-grown sustainable brands came to the forefront. Added to this, was her experience of the five-day Korean beauty expo in a Chennai mall. The products that were meant to last for 5 days sold out in a matter of 2 hours. This strengthened her confidence in her business idea and led to the birth of Aardae.

PIONEERING STEPS

Aardae promotes brands that sell sustainable, non-toxic, and cruelty free beauty products. It is set to launch flagship stores in Singapore, Dubai, and London – beginning with Singapore. In addition, they will launch their online marketplace, which will showcase over 1000 products from over 25 Indian and 35 foreign clean beauty brands, with an initial inventory stock of 10,000 products. These brands include Aminu Wellness, Juicy Chemistry, Ruby’s Organics, Soul Tree, Dot & Key and Brillare.

According to Shweta, Singapore being a cosmopolitan city where citizens focus on sustainability in every sphere, became her obvious first choice. The consumers here prefer clean and green beauty products. However, there was a lack of platforms such as Aardae, which offer smaller brands that fulfill this consumer demand. The path was not easy, and Shweta recalls the difficulties faced during their launch, especially with the stringent Covid-19 rules in Singapore. She had to manage everything remotely from India, without ever being physically present in Singapore.

GROUNDED BY ETHICS

Shweta has set stringent norms and procedures for onboarding brands. Each brand must fulfill a checklist of six factors – safety and certifications, sourcing, sustainability, transparency, efficiency, and brand position. In addition, Aardae makes sure that the products are both skin-friendly as well as eco-friendly. To provide the consumers with products that are ‘clean’ in their truest sense, the company performs stringent in-house quality tests on each product before including it in their catalog.

AMBITIOUSLY YOURS

With the aim to position Aardae as a one-stop solution for their consumers’ hair and skin needs, Shweta aims to expand the business by 2023 in ASEAN countries, like Malaysia and Indonesia, and other GCC nations. She also plans to launch an IPO in the next 5 years.

Darshana co-founded Aardae (in 2020), an online platform headquartered in Singapore that promotes cruelty-free, sustainable, non-toxic beauty products. Prior to launching Aardae, she established and led the marketing division of a luxury mall. She later rose through the ranks to become the Indian head of a major international technology brand.

AN INTERESTING ENTREPRENEURIAL START

International beauty brands have always been an obsession for the vibrant and young entrepreneur. The COVID-19-induced pandemic that disrupted lives around the world provided the impetus for the formation of her startup. During the initial phase of the pandemic, Darshana and her business partner – Shweta Gupta struggled to get hold of some of their favourite international beauty brands, which prompted them to source Indian products. They were highly impressed by the effectiveness of a few Indian beauty brands discovered by them. This discovery compelled them to design a platform for such unique homegrown products to gain international recognition. Aardae, under their direction, brings the best of homegrown/indie conscious beauty to the world, actively helping India in becoming a more important player in a thriving industry.

According to them, Indian conscious beauty brands possess all the attributes needed to succeed globally in terms of formulation, processes and effectiveness. However, the only thing they lacked was a robust international distribution platform. With Aardae, they aim to bridge that gap by bringing Indian beauty brands to foreign shores. Additionally, they chose Singapore to launch their brand due to the country’s strict quality control policies.

QUALITY COMES FIRST

As a values-driven leader, Darshana prioritizes quality. She ensures the quality of all products in her catalogue through in-house quality testing. Furthermore, all the products have international certifications that indicate various criteria such as cruelty-free, transparency about ingredients used, and so on. Additionally, the carbon footprint of the product is also taken into consideration. By emphasizing quality, she has helped her brand stand out from other beauty platforms.

As a believer in the philosophy of clean beauty, she and Shweta had launched Aardae to help educate others about the same. Aardae presently offers a specially curated catalogue of over 40 highly efficient and indigenous beauty brands specialising in clean, organic, sustainably sourced, and cruelty-free products. These include popular favourites such as Dot & Key, Juicy Chemistry, OCEGLOW, Earth Rhythm, SoulTree and Omorfee. The proactive entrepreneur intends to add another 15 top brands to her catalogue soon. Additionally, Darshana is a constant learner. She says that it is a privilege each day to learn new nuances of the trade which helps her grow as an entrepreneur.

MARCHING TOWARDS A GLISTENING FUTURE

With regard to her future plans, she hopes to expand her company’s presence in South East Asia by making the platform available in additional countries. She further asserts that they are open to securing investor funding soon after they starts thinking about expanding their business. Additionally, they dream of launching an IPO to become a listed company. They will be launching their platform in India soon.