Ankiti Bose

Ankiti Bose (born 1992) is the co-founder and CEO of Zilingo, a multi-national start-up in the e-commerce space. She has been featured in Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list in 2018 as well as in Fortune's 40 Under 40 along with Bloomberg 50 in 2019.[1]

Ankiti Bose
Alma materSt. Xavier's College, Mumbai
EmployerZilingo
McKinsey & Company
Sequoia Capital
Known forFashion technology

Early life and education

Bose is from India.[2] She studied mathematics and economics at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.[3]

Career

Bose started her career working at McKinsey & Company and Sequoia Capital in Bangalore.[4] After a trip to the famous Chatuchak Weekend Market[5] Bose noticed that fashion markets in Southeast Asia had immense room for penetration and growth.[3] The Chatuchak Weekend Market includes over 11,000 independent merchants lacking an online presence.[3] Whilst there was investment in improving access to the internet, Bose recognized that retailers were not trained in financing, scaling-up, website design and procurement neither well equipped to compete with large global players.[4]

In 2015 Bose left her position as an investment analyst at Sequoia Capital to launch her own company, Zilingo.[6] Bose was only twenty three when she founded Zilingo, an e-commerce platform that offers B2B focused services.[7] She moved to Singapore in 2016, where she developed Zilingo software and supply chain solutions.[8] In 2019 Zilingo raised $226 million in Series D fundraising, resulting in a $970 million market value.[9][10] Zilingo works with small and medium size enterprises in Southeast Asia.[9] As of 2019 Zilingo had over seven million active users leveraging the global platform.[4]

The China–United States trade war resulted in United States retailers leaving China, which allowed Zilingo to expand into America.[10] She has worked to source Indian fabrics for Californian factories as well as opening offices on the West Coast and East Coast.[10] At Zilingo Bose started a program to train women in Indonesia to create clothing, recognising that in Indonesia almost 40% of women leave the workforce after they get married.[10][11] Zilingo set up a coaching programme to support leaders across the company.[10]

Bose is involved with programmes to support and mentor women entrepreneurs.[8] She has spoken at the World Economic Forum.[12]

Awards and honours

Her awards and honours include:

  • 2018 Forbes magazine's 30 under 30[13]
  • 2019 Fortune magazine's 40 Under 40[1]
  • 2019 The Bloomberg 50[14]
  • 2019 Business Worldwide Magazine Most Innovative CEO of the Year – Singapore[15]
  • 2020 Ankiti features in Singapore 100 Women in Tech List[16]

References
  1. "Ankiti Bose". Fortune. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  2. "Meet the 27-year-old Ankiti Bose running a nearly $1 billion fashion startup". The Economic Times. 2019-02-13. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  3. Gilchrist, Karen (2019-05-23). "Meet the 27-year-old set to be India's first woman to co-found a $1 billion start-up". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  4. Gilchrist, Karen (2019-05-24). "Why this 27-year-old is happy she worked a corporate job before starting her $1 billion business". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  5. "How a trip to a Thai market inspired the launch of an almost $1bn start-up". The National. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  6. Karen Gilchrist (2019-05-24). "Why this 27-year-old is happy she worked a corporate job before starting her $1 billion business". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  7. Xinyi, Hong (2019-09-06). "At 27, Ankiti Bose Is Set To Become The First Indian Woman To Found A Billion-Dollar Startup. This Is How She Did It". Hong Kong Tatler. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  8. "Ankiti Bose is on a mission to level the playing field for women". Prestige Online. 2019-05-29. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  9. "For growing into the next e-commerce unicorn". Generation T. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  10. Lee, Yoolim. "Ankiti Bose, Southeast Asia's Tech Sensation". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  11. "In Good Company". Verve Magazine. 2020-01-21. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  12. "India Economic Summit". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  13. "30 Under 30 Asia 2018: Big Money". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  14. "The Bloomberg 50 Broadcast (Podcast)". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  15. "CEO Awards 2019 Winners | Business & Corporate News". 2019-08-28. Retrieved 2020-03-12.
  16. "Singapore 100 women in tech list 2020:". ChannelNewsAsia. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.