A ‘desi’ American, inspired by his marriage to the ‘perfect match’ in the US, launched a match-making business for others like him. She was looking for the perfect cure for her child’s skin condition in Australia, which made her quit an engineering job and embrace cosmetology. And this man from Odisha sensed an opportunity in the milk shortage back home, prompting him to return from London to establish India’s first start-up in the agri sector selling milk.

These are the stories of some non-resident Indians (NRIs) who have given up cushy jobs abroad to turn entrepreneurs — making use of the opportunities an emerging India is offering them. These entrepreneurs who have returned home are either trying their hands in the burgeoning start-up ecosystem or are running businesses abroad, focused on the needs of Indians there. Their quest for happiness has led them to convert personal worries into private business opportunities.

Srikumar Misra, who left his comfortable job with Tata's Tetley Tea in London, returned to his native Odisha and founded Milk Mantra as a scarcity of this commodity presented an opportunity. Thus, in 2009, Milk Mantra became India’s first venture capital-funded agri-food start-up (Aavishkar & Fidelity). “All I wanted was to make a difference to the poor people of my state. We now have a networked group of 40,000 farmers, from whom we procure milk at 300 centres,” he told BusinessLine .

With leading global food technology companies such as Tetrapak, DeLaval and Multivac as partners, Milk Mantra currently has two plants with a production capacity of 2.5 lakh litres per day at Puri and Sambalpur.

Manisha Chopra, Co-Founder and Director, SeaSoul Cosmeceuticals, was an electronics and communications engineer in Australia for 10 years when she decided to return to India in 2012 and turn cosmetologist in her dogged determination to cure her child born with a skin ailment. “My child is 90 per cent cured as we have used novel treatment methods. We now infuse our customer’s skin with Dead Sea minerals, Moroccan argan oil, plant stem cells, noni fruit and goji berries, among others,” said Manisha, a pioneer in high-definition make-up in Australia and India, who believed that Indian, home-grown beauty products and techniques yielded better results.

When Ishdeep Sawhney, a US-based software engineer with Apple, got the perfect match, he decided to found Banihal.com, a virtual ‘horoscope’ like match-maker for Indian professionals in the US, Canada and UK. “With our AI (Artificial Intelligence) analytical back-up, we can predict the success rate in such marriages fairly well. Most of our clients are NRIs, but we also get queries from resident Indians and even non-Indians.”

 

Kishore Ganji, who left India in 1996 and turned a serial investor owning a software business in the US, returned with family and founded zip.in, an online supermarket in Hyderabad in 2015. “Increasing Internet penetration, the mobile revolution and smartphones encouraged me. Also, increasing e-commerce growth and online shopping prompted many like me to notice the huge potential. Many now want to start their own companies, something unheard of a few years ago. I am also expanding from Hyderabad and Vizag to the metros and smaller cities in the next phase,” the founder-CEO told BusinessLine .

 

When Sudarshan Motwani retired from the ING-Vysya Group, his son Nitin, who was a Silicon Valley professional, decided to tap his dad’s vast experience in financial matters. The duo then set up BookMyForex in 2013, working from both India and the US, and got funding from Faering Capital. “My father is the guiding spirit in this start-up.”

 

With over 1.25 lakh customers now in the metros, the firm is set to strengthen its presence in Tier-II and III geographies, signing up with hundreds of channel partners and banks, ready to launch its mobile app, and racing to register 10-times growth in FY17.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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