Did You Know Bengaluru's Richest Woman Started Her Business With Just Rs 10,000; Know Her Journey And Net Worth

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, founder of Bengaluru-based Biocon, is one of the most successful women entrepreneurs in India. Shaw is not just a billionaire but has also won several accolades and degrees for her contribution to the Indian industry.

Shaw has a net worth of around $2.4 billion, as per Forbes. However, her entrepreneur journey was full of hurdles and struggles while building her billion-dollar company.

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In a recent interview with Zerodha founder Nikhil Kamath, she opened up about the struggles she faced when she started her company. In the episode titled ‘Who is Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Really? And WTF is Biotech?’, the Biocon founder said that it was “foolish courage” that led her to start the biotech company when she was 25.

“I was 25 years old, I was a young woman, I had no business experience, I had Rs 10,000 in my bank and I was trying to start a strange business called biotech which nobody understood. And I was high-risk in the eyes of everyone that I had to meet, starting with bankers. Bankers didn’t want to touch me. I just wanted a credit line and in those days, there was no venture funding…it was debt finance. I wanted a loan and I wanted a credit line. I found it impossible because of all the reasons I just mentioned,” Shaw said in the interview.

She further said that the bankers would often tell her that her guarantee would not suffice and that her father would have to give a guarantee. “I said my father had nothing to do with my business, so on principle I don’t think he should give you a guarantee. If you can accept a guarantee from a male entrepreneur, why not me? Those were the days when there was such a strong gender bias,” she said.

“People didn’t want to work for a woman. I found it very difficult to hire people. So, my first two employees were retired tractor mechanics who needed a job desperately. It didn’t matter to them whether it was a man or a woman hiring,” she further added.

She further revealed that she was helped by an Irish guy in managing funds for the company. “The Irish guy had given me a buyback guarantee for the products I make. He hadn’t really invested much. And I was too proud, I wanted to build it myself. He gave me a guarantee buyback and he gave me an advance payment for buying those enzymes when I make them. He gave me a cheque…I mean I had Rs 10,000 in the bank. He gave me a draft for 10,000 pounds in 1978, which was quite a lot of money,” said Shaw. 

Shaw, one of India's richest self-made women, founded India's largest listed biopharmaceutical firm by revenue, in 1978 and has successfully forayed into the lucrative U.S. market. The company is said to have Asia's largest insulin factory in Malaysia's Johor region.

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In 2021, Cyrus Poonawalla’s Serum Institute had acquired a 15% stake in Biocon Biologics, a subsidiary of Biocon.

Shaw is also the former chairperson of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore and was named in the Financial Times 2011 top 50 women in business list. In 2019, she was listed as the 68th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

She studied biology and zoology, graduating from Bangalore University with a bachelor's degree in zoology in 1973. Later on, she opted to go to a medical school but was not able to earn a scholarship.