Made In Maharashtra, For The World: The Women Founders Powering India's Startup Surge

News18

2 days ago

At News18's SheShakti 2025 West, Naiyya Saggi, Priyanka Salot and Harsha Mundhada shared why women are no longer asking for permission to build.
At the News18 SheShakti 2025 West edition in Mumbai, hosted by Moneycontrol's Chandra R. Srikanth, a spirited panel titled 'Innovation to Impact: Startups Driving Maharashtra's Growth Story" brought together three women shaping India's startup and investment landscape. The discussion on Thursday focused on scaling ideas in a gender-biased ecosystem and how Maharashtra is emerging as a powerful platform for ambitious entrepreneurs.
From consumer tech to venture capital, the conversation focused on how the state and its capital Mumbai is also becoming a launchpad for global ambition.
Naiyya Saggi, founder of BabyChakra and now CEO at Edition, set the tone with a mix of realism and optimism. 'There is privilege and joy in being able to build," she said. 'When I returned from Boston, people asked me to stay back in the US since I was from Harvard. But I flipped a coin—and it landed on Bombay."
Saggi believes the state offers a unique testbed for innovation. 'We're working with the CM's office to create startup hubs. Mumbai is a microcosm at scale. It's the cultural capital, the financial capital—you test anything here, and it scales faster."
On navigating gender bias in entrepreneurship, she noted that things are changing. 'Earlier, you'd get random questions like, 'When will you get pregnant?' But now we have stellar outcomes like Mamaearth, Nykaa. It shows you can run a creative, high-growth business as a woman."
Priyanka Salot, co-founder of The Sleep Company, echoed that sentiment. Her business was born from a personal gap she experienced as a new mother. 'When I became a mom in my 30s, I realised sleep is one-third of our lives and we completely ignore its quality," she said. 'We wanted to build a product that met global standards and now, New India is willing to spend on good sleep."
Salot credits Maharashtra's infrastructure for helping her scale. 'Our factory is on the outskirts of Bhiwandi. For any consumer brand, you need an ecosystem—real estate, manpower, logistics. Bhiwandi to Bombay is huge in logistics. Also, talent is now available across Navi Mumbai, Thane. Earlier investors pushed us to set up in Bengaluru. Now, Mumbai gives us the best of both worlds."
Representing the investor side of the table, Harsha Mundhada, partner at Inflexor Ventures, called herself an 'accidental VC" who started off as a CA. 'What motivates me to stay are the women I meet," she said, gesturing to the panel. 'Women have always been entrepreneurs—just look at the way they run small shops, sell pickles. But today, that scale and ambition has grown."
She also stressed the need to look beyond traditional hubs. 'Founders usually focus on Mumbai and Pune, but we need to look at places like Solapur and Kolhapur too," she said, laughing, 'Maybe I'm biased and I'm from Nagpur."
Whether building sleep tech or creating policy-level change, each speaker brought with them a shared belief: that women don't need to wait for perfect conditions. They're already building.
As Naiyya Saggi put it, 'Maharashtra will build global brands and we hope to be part of that next wave of entrepreneurs."
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First Published:
July 31, 2025, 18:40 IST
News india Made In Maharashtra, For The World: The Women Founders Powering India's Startup Surge
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