It was only a question of time until people started doing business online as technology advanced. As this payment method gained popularity, other businesses came up with the concept of e-wallets. MobiKwik is one business that is notable in this field. It is a fintech unicorn from India that has simplified and increased user accessibility to digital payments.
The determination of MobiKwik’s founder, Upasana Taku, was the main reason for the company’s success. In 2009, Taku and her partner Bipin Preet Singh founded the company. She was crucial to the establishment of the business and its subsequent growth. They were successful in making MobiKwik a household name in the fintech sector. In December 2024, the business made its debut through an initial public offering (IPO).
Discover more about Upasana Taku, co-founder of MobiKwik, her training, her work, the difficulties she has faced, and more in this article.
Foundation of MobiKwik
Upasana Taku & Bipin Preet Singh started MobiKwik in 2009. Singh holds the title of CEO in the company. One of the top platforms for financial services and mobile wallets in India is MobiKwik. Users can use the app to pay for things like bank transfers, bill payments, and cell recharges. Additionally, it provides services including credit card bill settlement, mutual funds, fixed deposits, digital gold investment alternatives, and fast digital loans.
Pocket UPI is one of MobiKwik’s primary features. This enables users to link their bank accounts and make UPI payments. MobiKwik has grown its offerings under Upasana’s direction, becoming one of India’s most reputable and popular platforms.
Journey & Growth of MobiKwik
Mobikwik by Upasana Taku is very basic and needs-based. They started the business as a recharge platform, but in a matter of years, it rose to prominence as the nation’s leading mobile wallet. Taku brought the idea of a physical wallet to the forefront, revolutionizing the industry at a time when people relied on actual cash for little amounts like INR 10. Nowadays, Gen Z and millennials can’t envision traveling to a store for minor recharges; all they need to do is utilize an app to take care of all the recharges.
The squad only had six members in 2011 after growing very slowly! They relied on the home-office industry. Bipin Preet and Taku had to work for the company even on their wedding day! They rented their first office, which had five rooms, later in 2011.
Childhood and Schooling
Although Upasana Taku was from a family of intellectuals, he was born to a Kashmiri family in Gandhinagar. Upon finishing her elementary and secondary studies in Surat, she was admitted to the prestigious Dr. B.R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar to study engineering. The institution awarded Taku a B.Tech in Industrial Engineering. Later, she also received a Master’s degree in the field of management science and engineering from Stanford University, USA.
Career History
Upasana Taku’s career at HSBC Auto Finance started in San Diego, where she worked as a business analyst in product management. She was involved in many different activities such as product marketing, market research, and sales forecasting, and thereby gained repute in the company. In 2006, she went on to work for PayPal. She was a Senior Product Manager there. She gained knowledge of payment systems in the Americas, Europe, and Asia while working for PayPal. Aside from that, she learned about design, user experience, and risk and fraud management at PayPal.
She worked in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh with Drishtee, a rural microfinance NGO, to empower local communities and develop a better grasp of the potential and problems in rural India while she was deciding what to do next.
She met a lot of individuals on the subcontinent and gleaned insights about the hottest industries and unmet needs in the startup and business ecosystem. She claimed that PayPal-style wallets were not common in India. As a result, consumers could never envision a future without currency. The idea to close this gap and strive for technological advancement in the nation was inspired by India.
This was a significant milestone since it indicated the progress of the team. The Series A funding of $5 million allowed the company to acquire a bigger office space in Udyog Vihar, Gurugram, with 50 employees.Their second funding, in 2015, received $25 million contributions from Sequoia Capital, American Express, Tree Line Asia, and Cisco Investment.
All of these encounters provided a strong basis for MobiKwik’s establishment in 2009. Upasana Taku introduced Zaakpay, a MobiKwik payment service, in 2012.
Upasana Taku is currently working on the financial strategy and expansion of MobiKwik as its co-founder, executive director, and CFO.
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Obstacles Faces in her Journey of MobiKwik
The path taken by Upasana Taku has not been simple. She had some difficult obstacles when she first started MobiKwik, particularly as a woman in an industry that was dominated by men. In the course of the meetings with investors, often, her personal life was the main topic of discussion. Questions that were frequently asked included how many children she had and why she wasn’t married yet at the age of thirty. People saw her as a rather non-existing co-founder, they thought she was just the assistant of the husband. Besides that, new staff would question whether they ought to report to her or to some male manager.
During the investor meetings, Taku also encountered gender bias. According to her, some funders informed her that they favored male founders. She would confidently reply that she might be better able to answer their inquiries than her male peers. She was very clear that she would never collaborate with such individuals.
She maintained her focus, spoke effectively, and kept striving to make her business successful in spite of these obstacles. She didn’t slow down even while she was expecting. A day before her cesarean operation, Upasana went to a board meeting and kept working. Being from a lower-middle-class background, she had to persevere a lot to get a scholarship to the elite Stanford University in the U.S.
Even while conditions for women in business are gradually improving, Upasana admits that more work has to be done.
