Meet Madhumita Agrawal, The First Woman To Head An Indian Electric Vehicle Manufacturing Firm

Even now it is still a challenge for women to become successful entrepreneurs, mostly due to how our society is.

But every now and then someone comes around breaking the glass door, with sheer determination and passion.

Madhumita Agrawal is one such entrepreneur and a pioneer in her field.

As the co-founder of OBEN Electric Vehicle Private Limited, she is the first woman to lead an EV manufacturing company in India.

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Agrawal, an IIT Kharagpur and IIM Bangalore alumni who cofounded OBEN along with her husband Dinkar Agrawal in August 2020 is all set to launch the company's first scooter in the market in a couple of months.

Born in a middle class family

Born in a middle class family in Odisha, Agrawal did her engineering in Biotechnology and then pursued law, before becoming an entrepreneur.

"I did my engineering in Biotechnology and then I studied law from IIT Kharagpur, specializing in intellectual property. During my internship, I realized the scope of technology consulting, and later in 2016, I co-founded IPexcel which helped companies improving their existing products and developing new ones," Agarwal told Indiatimes.

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Agarwal said that OBEN was the result of her exposure to the EVs sector in the past four years.

"This, for me, is the future and I feel that there is a huge opportunity, that is why I decided this is my next step in the journey. After doing a lot of research I realized that there is a lack of quality among the existing products. So we decided to build a premium scooter, which is designed and made in India," she said.

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According to Agarwal, despite the EVs sector being dominated by some of the biggest names in the industry, there is still a market for startups focusing on premium products.

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Agarwal said like any other women entrepreneurs it wasn't an easy ride for her.

"As a woman entrepreneur, there are certain problems that I face. First, people don't believe you till you justify what you are trying to hard sell. This is for every woman who is in the tech domain. I feel that being a woman, I have to give that extra shot to convince the other stakeholders," she said.

She also felt that it is high time that we start taking women entrepreneurs seriously and don't look into their gender.

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Commenting on her own experience, Agarwal the biggest supporting factor for any women entrepreneur is family.

"The support of spouse and family is very important. Because when you are an entrepreneur, things like family and kids take a backseat as your company becomes your first child. So a lot of support is needed from the family, which I was lucky to get and took me to where I am today," she said.