After a trip to the famous Chatuchak market in Bangkok, Ankiti noticed a gap in the fashion industry and felt inspired to fill this gap and carve her own path. She realised that while small and medium-sized enterprises had a lot to offer and were hungry for growth, these businesses were ill-equipped to scale or compete with large global players without the right tools & software. As a result, she set out to level the playing field and fulfil her passion of empowering businesses and consumers by starting Zilingo with co-founder and CTO, Dhruv Kapoor.
Ankiti has most recently been featured in the Bloomberg 50 list, as well as both the Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 list and the Fortune 40 Under 40 list. She is also currently a mentor for Surge – an initiative by leading venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India, designed to supercharge early-stage startups in their formative stages. She firmly believes that these achievements are an important milestone for female entrepreneurs and reiterate that women can dream big. Having faced the challenges that come with being a woman entrepreneur in a highly competitive, male-dominated space, Ankiti champions gender equality and diversity in the workplace.
Helming a large multinational startup, with offices in eight countries globally, 800 direct employees and over 750,000 employed by their merchant network, Ankiti empowers her team to dream big, make smart bets and be undeniably good at what they do. She envisions a future where Zilingo stands at the apex of the fashion world as the champion for fashion democracy, sustainability and inclusivity.
Under Ankiti’s leadership, Zilingo has raised US$308 million from investors including Temasek, Sequoia Capital and Singapore investment fund EDBI.