Ankiti Bose is the first Indian Women to co-found a $1 Billion startup. In a very short period of four years, she has grown her startup Zilingo as an Asian e-commerce site with a user base of more than 7 million.
Ankiti spent 3 years working in venture capital and management consulting at Sequoia Capital and McKinsey & Company prior to founding Zilingo. At Sequoia, she specialized in consumer internet and ecommerce opportunities on mobile platforms. At McKinsey & Company, she worked on strategy and operations across various industries. Ankiti graduated with a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. At Zilingo, Ankiti brings significant experience and a knowledge network on the mobile ecommerce space. She is hands-on and analytical in her approach and is highly involved in all aspects of operational and strategic decisions.
Ankiti Bose is now part of a group of founders in Southeast Asia who are capitalizing on the region’s rapid adoption of smartphones and rising incomes. Online shopping in the region reached $23 billion in 2018, according to a report by Google and Temasek. It’s expected to exceed $100 billion by 2025.
Zilingo posted revenue of S$1.8 million ($1.3 million) in the year ended on March 31, 2017, up from about S$434,000 since its inception though March 2016, according to the company’s most recent filing with Singapore regulators. Revenue grew 12 times in the year ended March 2018 and fourfold in the April to January period, according to the company. Kapoor holds the title of chief technology officer.
The company started off by helping small merchants sell to consumers, and has since expanded into new areas. As the founders dealt with thousands of small sellers, they realized that many lacked access to technology, capital and economies of scale.
Some of Bose’s early inspiration came from a visit to Bangkok’s popular Chatuchak market, which features more than 15,000 booths selling goods from across Thailand. She realized the sellers didn’t have sufficient opportunities to expand.
Since setting up its first presence in Thailand and Cambodia in 2015, the company has grown to have offices in eight countries with 400 employees. It operates fashion e-commerce sites in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines and is preparing to launch in Australia soon.
While Bose has figured out a way to differentiate Zilingo, her challenge is to now manage the company’s “hyper-growth” by recruiting the right leadership team and maintaining the right culture, said Shailendra Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital (India) Singapore.
Raised in India, Bose’s father’s job as an engineer at a state-owned oil company caused the family to constantly move when she was a child, exposing her to different cultures and languages within the country. Her mother gave up her career as a university lecturer and devoted her time teaching her only child at home. Bose excelled as a student, studied math and economics, and eventually landed a coveted job with consultancy McKinsey & Co. in India, where she covered India’s burgeoning technology, media and telecom sector.
She took the calculated plunge to set up Zilingo, she says, after gaining expertise evaluating major startups in Southeast Asia at Sequoia India’s venture capital business. As she did that, she saw a huge opportunity to build a business herself.
Zilingo:
Zilingo is an Online Fashion Marketplace Service cum eCommerce website which was founded in 2015 by Ankiti Bose and Dhruv Kapoor both had put in $44,000 in savings to found Zilingo
The company began with seed funding from Sequoia India and raised an additional $8 million in a Series A funding round in September 2016. It raised an additional $18 million in 2017 in a Series B round and $54 million in a Series C round in 2018.
By September 2017, Zilingo was shipping to eight countries and has seller hubs in Hong Kong, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Thailand, adding 5,000 new merchants in the previous twelve months.
In February 2019 Zilingo raised $226m in a new round of funding from Sequoia India, Singapore sovereign fund Temasek, Germany’s Burda and Sofina. Singapore’s Economic Development Board investment arm, EDBI, also joined in the round.
With the full backend support of investors heavyweight investors such as Silicon Valley billionaire Tim Draper, the partners have raised some $28 million and currently have 8,000 merchants and more than two million users.
Ankiti Bose Wiki, Biography, Age, Height, Husband, Family, Profile
| Ankiti Bose Biography & Wiki | |
|---|---|
| Real Name | Ankiti Bose |
| Nickname | Not Known |
| Profession | Enterprenuer, Indian Business Women, Co-Founder & CEO at Zilingo |
| Age | 27 Years |
| Date of Birth | 1992 |
| Birthplace | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Hometown | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Zodiac Sign / Sun Sign | Cancer |
| Present Address | Duo Tower, 3 Fraser St, Singapore |
| Height and Weight | |
| Height in Centimeters | 164 cm |
| Height in Meters | 1.64 m |
| Height in Feet/ Inches | 5′ 4″ |
| Weight in Kilograms | 67 Kg |
| Weight in Pounds | 145 lbs |
| Other Information | |
| Body Measurements | Not Known |
| Bra Size | Not Known |
| Waist Size | Not Known |
| Hip Size | Not Known |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Eye Color | Black |
| Body Build | Averages |
| Education | MBA |
| Alma Matter | School: Podar School, Mumbai College: Degree in Economics and Mathematics St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai New York University Stern School Of Business |
| Family Members | |
| Father | Not Known (Engineer) |
| Mother | Not Known (University Lecturer) |
| Brother | Not Known |
| Sister | Not Known |
| Other Info | |
| Marital Status | Single |
| Teachers | Not Known |
| Husband | Not Known |
| Marriage Date | Not Known |
| Son | Not Known |
| Daughter | Not Known |
| Contact Address | Not Known |
| Net Worth & Salary | |
| Net Worth | Not Known |
| Salary per Film | Not Known |
| Social Media | |
| View on Facebook | |
| View on Twitter | |
| View on Instagram | |
| View on LinkedIn | |
| Hobbies | Watching Netflix |
Ankiti Bose Images:
Ankiti Bose, 27, is an entrepreneur and CEO of Fashion e-commerce website Zilingo hailing from Mumbai, India. Ankiti on the way to becoming the first Indian woman to co-found a $1 billion start-up.
She looked at the region’s dependability on smartphones and saw an opportunity to build up an online retail system on it, online shopping has reached $23 billion in the South Asian region and expected to go exceed $100 billion by 2025 according to a report by Google and Temasek.