chapman pipped Sugar Cosmetics chief executive Vineeta Singh to emerge as a winner in front lady Category.
The elite jury, which discussed various parameters before choosing Chapman, also acknowledged how Singh, a close contender for the top spot, was venturing into the beauty space — previously with Fabbag — with Sugar Cosmetics at large. Designed for a brand, before it hit the scale. Indian women.
“About 10 years ago, we saw that Indian consumers would prefer a product that costs the least and is easiest to use. We were probably too early, but the observations we had at the time that BNPL (buy now, pay later) was going to be a must in the Indian ecosystem has finally become very clear,” Chapman said.
zestmoney recently
Raised $50 million in its Series C funding round, from global BNPL provider Zip Co. Ltd.
Chapman’s journey in financial services dates back to 2011 when she was the India head of UK-based BNPL player Wonga.
Also read tech news of the day
In 2015, in the midst of a funding frenzy in the startup ecosystem at the local level, she founded ZestMoney with former partners of Wonga to make digital goods and services accessible to the masses.
The platform is a three-way market – for consumers, for merchants for whom it provides payment solutions, and lenders, for whom it is a software and acquisition partner.
The company has partnered with the point-of-sale platform to make its BNPL solutions available across 75,000 offline stores, in addition to its 10,000 online partners.
About 70% of its customers are from Tier II and Tier III cities and most are new to credit or have only limited credit exposure.
The company plans to expand its offline network to 400,000 stores next year.
“Zestmoney has created something unique that I personally haven’t seen anywhere else. Also, in partnership with Point-of-Sale, it has been extended not only online, but also offline. By essentially competing and winning in this competitive category, Chapman and ZestMoney deserve the award,” said jury member Gokul Rajaram, product and business leader of US-based food delivery platform DoorDash.
Chapman said getting women involved in the tech world is a challenge globally, but shedding light on her work inspires the next generation of women to “reach for the stars.”
“The amazing thing after being nominated was that so many girls reached out. I’m meeting some women to help them with fundraising and other things.”
Read also:
BUY NOW Pay Later is the flavor of the festive season for top internet firms
other claimants
Sugar Cosmetics | Vinita Singh
more tech
Singh founded Sugar with her husband Kaushik Mukherjee, which faced challenges in raising funds in its early years. That began to change when investor interest in direct-to-consumer brands began to rise.
Sugar has raised $21 million this year, in a round led by Elevation Capital.
more tech
Shankar developed the core product of his current venture Atlan, a data-ops company, as an internal tool for his previous venture, SocialCops. The product is a data collaboration software that exists as a layer on top of a data warehouse, which has gained traction at an early stage, allowing Atlan
Raise $16 million in May this year.
diameter | Joe Agarwal
more tech
Agarwal founded the AI-powered mental health app after he couldn’t find a product-market fit to help him cope with depression after the failure of a previous startup. Wysa is one of the few well funded businesses in the field of mental health in India.
10club | Bhavna Suresh
more techSuresh’s startup earlier this year
10 Club Raises $40 MillionLargest ever seed round in India to enter the buzzing roll-up space. 10Club acquires e-commerce product vendors with the intention of operating and growing businesses. Before founding 10 Club, Suresh sold an online real estate platform he helped build.