Under Upasana Taku’s stewardship, MobiKwik is playing a pivotal role in India’s digital future. Her current responsibility is to lead MobiKwik’s evolution into a financial distribution hub that caters to the financial needs and aspirations of a billion Indians, and provide them access to all financial services such as payments, loans, investments and insurance. For the last 10 years, since the conceptualisation of MobiKwik, Taku has spearheaded numerous strategic launches for the brand, which has evolved over the years from being an independent mobile payments network to a leading payment gateway with a network of over 3 million direct merchants and 260 million plus users. Being the chief anchor, innovator and leader at MobiKwik, Taku is widely recognised amongst the top women achievers in India. Her success story and achievements are an inspiration for thousands of young women entrepreneurs in the country. In recognition of her achievements in the tech startup ecosystem of India, Taku has been featured by Forbes as one of the ‘Asia’s Women to Watch in 2016’. She has also been felicitated at CNBC Young Turks Conclave 2017 with the ‘Young Business Women Award’. In August 2017, she was conferred with the ‘Best Woman Entrepreneur Award 2017’ by Assocham. She was also featured in the Fortune 40 Under 40 List in the year 2016.
On 20 January, 2018, Taku was amongst the 112 first ladies felicitated by the President of India. She was recognised as the first woman in India to lead a payments startup. Taku was amongst the esteemed invitees at the Women Leaders’ Round table with Canada’s Prime Minister. She was also invited to the Global Entrepreneurship Summit held in Hyderabad in 2017.
As per a recent report by Boston Consulting Group, in the year 2016, the global payments business overall, including balances in current accounts, totalled $1.2 trillion. By 2026, the global payments revenue is expected to increase by $0.9 trillion as emerging markets will continue to grow and cashless transactions become more widespread.