Anisha Singh

Anisha Singh
Education	American University, Washington DC, The Air Force School, Delhi
Occupation	CEO, mydala
Known for	Founding mydala
Home town	Delhi

Anisha Singh is an Indian digital entrepreneur, known for co-founding e-commerce platform Mydala^[1] along with Arjun Basu and Ashish Bhatnagar in 2009. ^[2]

Early life and education

Born in Delhi, she studied at the Air Force School in Delhi and graduated from the College of Art in Delhi and then went to the US where she pursued a Master’s degree in political communication and an MBA in Information Systems from the American University in Washington, D.C..

While growing up, Singh never harboured any serious plans to be an entrepreneur, but her stint in the US planted the seeds for her to set up her own venture. She credits her professor at business school for mentoring her and encouraging her to think about starting something of her own. She found similar inspiration when she interned with the Olympus Group.

Career

Singh^[3][4] began her career with the Clinton administration in Capitol Hill, helping women entrepreneurs raise funding for innovative women-led businesses. Later she joined Centra Software in Boston where she facilitated the setup of e-learning ecosystems for Fortune 500 companies. She launched her first venture in 2004, launching Kinis Software Solutions that provides digital content for real estate companies in the US.

mydala

She started mydala^[5] in 2009, along with co-founders Arjun Basu and Ashish Bhatnagar. mydala has evolved into a local services marketing platform for large brands, SMEs and MSMEs, enabled by a 150,000+ merchant base to target 400 million customers across 209 cities in India.

With a vision to make mydala a daily habit with consumers and businesses, mydala’s footprint and reach offers customized and cost-effective solutions to advertisers/merchants to reach their target audience through attractive deals and promotional campaigns.

mydala^[6] operates across several – from beauty, health and fitness, food and drinks, grocery shopping, travel and more. Interestingly, mydala’s first office shared space with a dental clinic, and the organisation now has more than 400 employees.

Recognition

Singh^[7][8] is known for speaking her mind and is an advocate of women rights. She has spoken at several national and global events on a range of topics – including entrepreneurship, women leadership, the start-up ecosystem in India and more.

Some of the events she has spoken at are –

• Founders Forum, (London, June 2016)
• India Unlimited Conference, Sweden (May 2016)
• MIT India Conference (USA, Apr 2016)
• K-Start Start Up Girls (Bangalore, Apr 2016)
• Surge (Bangalore, Feb 2016)
• One Globe Conference (Delhi, Feb 2016)
• Start Up India Launch (Delhi, Jan 2016)
• WIRED Retail UK, London (2015) (http://www.wired.co.uk/article/mydala-anisha-singh-wired-retail-2015)
• Tedx IIM Indore (2015)
• One Globe Conference, New Delhi (2015)
• Tech Crunch, Bangalore (2015),
• GMIC, Beijing (2015)
• Business Today – Most Powerful Women in Indian Business (2013), to name a few.

Anisha is a part of Businessworld’s ACCELERATE program to support women in starting and managing new business ventures. She also attended the launch of SWAYAM, a Support cell for Women Entrepreneurs, by the FICCI Ladies Organisation.

Honours & Awards

1. eTales Awards 2016 by e-Inc (Bloomberg TV) , E-commerce Entrepreneur of the Year 2016
2. WEF ‘Iconic Leader of the Decade’ in Tech & Innovation, 2016
3. Cosmopolitan’s Digital Power List 2016
4. Women Leadership Award, World Women Leadership Congress, 2014
5. Leading Woman in Retail Award, 2012

Book mentions

• Super Women, Inspiring Stories of 20 Women Entrepreneurs by Prachi Garg
• Dare to Be: 14 Fearless Women Who Gave Wings to Their Dreams by Rinku Paul (to be released in August 2016)

References