• Meet India's first Husband and Wife to each have Unicorns

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    Meet India's first Husband and Wife to each have Unicorns

    They do, however, target similar businesses, such as manufacturing and infrastructure subcontracting. Both are headquartered in Gurgaon and are India's first Unicorns.


    Digital Desk: Ruchi Kalra is the CEO of Oxyzo, while Asish Mohapatra is the CEO of OfBusiness. A husband and wife became the country's first husband and wife to develop their individual firms into enterprises valued at at least $1 billion, popularly known as Unicorns.

    Oxyzo Financial Services, a digital lending business co-founded by Ruchi Kalra, announced Wednesday that it had raised $200 million in its first round of funding, backed by Alpha Wave Global, Tiger Global Management, Norwest Venture Partners, and others. Her husband, Asish Mohapatra's OfBusiness, had reached the same valuation less than a year ago, thanks to funding from SoftBank Group Corp. and others.

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    Ms. Kalra, 38, and Mr. Mohapatra, 41, are both Indian Institute of Technology graduates who met while working at McKinsey & Co. Both firms are profitable, which is remarkable for a new growing company. Ms. Kalra is the CEO of Oxyzo, whereas Mr. Mohapatra is the CEO of OfBusiness.

    Matrix Partners also funded Oxyzo, and Creation Investments is one of the largest Series A deals in India's startup industry.

    Ms. Kalra, Mr. Mohapatra, and three others created Oxyzo, a combination of the terms oxygen and ozone, in 2017 as an outgrowth of the couple's first venture, OfBusiness, which they founded with three others in early 2016. Oxyzo employs technology to analyze data and give buy finance to businesses, granting cash-flow loans in a credit-starved economy where small and medium-sized firms struggle to get working capital.

    OfBusiness, formerly known as OFB Tech Pvt., provides small and medium-sized enterprises with bulk raw materials such as steel, fuel, food grains, and industrial chemicals. According to Mr. Mohapatra, its valuation topped $1 billion when SoftBank and others invested in April of last year. According to him over the phone, the startup's valuation hit around $5 billion in December when SoftBank and others put additional money into it.

    Ms. Kalra, a partner at McKinsey, quit the business to join forces with her husband, who exited venture capital firm Matrix. "We both had this want to go out and construct something," she explained.

    Ms. Kalra said that the two firms operate independently, with distinct offices and personnel. They do, however, target similar businesses, such as manufacturing and infrastructure subcontracting. Both are headquartered in Gurgaon and are India's first Unicorns.

     

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