Upasana Taku

The Biography

Upasana Taku co-founded MobiKwik in 2009 with a clear belief that fintech could fundamentally change how India transacts, and that the ecosystem would one day become a trillion-dollar opportunity.

Trained as an industrial engineer and later at Stanford in management science and engineering, SHE brought deep product and financial expertise to her entrepreneurial journey. Before returning to India, she worked in the global payments and risk divisions at PayPal in San Jose and in auto finance products at HSBC in San Diego.

In 2008, driven by a desire to create impact at the grassroots, she chose to come back to India and build from the ground up. At MobiKwik, she became known as the closer, someone who moves fast, executes decisively, and runs a disciplined operation while scaling a complex financial platform.

Her leadership has been widely recognised. In 2018, she was felicitated by the President of India as the first woman to lead a payments startup. She was featured in Forbes Asia’s Power Businesswomen list in 2019 and ranked among India’s leading self-made women on the Kotak Wealth Hurun list in 2020.

Upasana Taku’s journey reflects conviction, return, and responsibility, showing how global experience can be channelled into building institutions at home. SHE came back to build, and helped shape how a nation pays, grows, and moves forward.