Meet the Change-makers championing the growth of  India’s Small Businesses

With more than 63 million enterprises and contributing more than 30% to the GDP, the MSME sector forms the backbone of India’s economy. The sector’s impact spans across manufacturing, services, and exports. It employs more than 284 million people and accounts for over 45% of India’s total exports. Beyond the support from the government, a rising tide of leaders is breaking the barriers and enabling MSMEs to grow. These visionaries are empowering India’s small businesses to reach their full potential.

Here is a list of leaders who are catalysing the growth of MSMEs:

Aniket Doegarm, Co-Founder & CEO, Haqdarshak

Aniket Doegarm is the Founder and CEO of Haqdarshak, a social enterprise working to support individuals and micro-businesses to avail the benefits of government welfare schemes. Through Haqdarshak, Aniket has helped bridge the information asymmetry around welfare programs, which often prevents MSMEs from accessing benefits meant for them.

Hardika Shah, Founder & CEO, Kinara Capital 

Access to formal credit is one of the biggest issues that curtail MSME growth. According to the World Bank, Indian MSMEs face an immense credit gap of USD 400 billion. To bridge this critical financing gap, Hardika Shah founded Kinara Capital. Kinara Capital is a fast-growing NBFC-Fintech focused on last-mile financial inclusion of MSMEs. Leveraging technology, Kinara has removed traditional barriers and made formal credit accessible to MSMEs. 

Ravish Naresh, Jaideep Poonia, Dhanesh Kumar, Ashish Sonone, Founders  Khatabook 

IIT Bombay alumni Ravish Naresh, Jaideep Poonia, Dhanesh Kumar, and Ashish Sonone founded Khatabook to support small and micro-businesses in digitizing their bookkeeping. The Khatabook app enables users to record credit and debit transactions, send automated payment reminders via SMS or WhatsApp, and manage customer ledgers. 

Dinesh Agarwal and Brijesh Agrawal, Founders, IndiaMART

At a time when India had just 15,000 internet users, Dinesh Agarwal and Brijesh Agrawal launched IndiaMART as a simple B2B directory and website development service for businesses. What began as a tech experiment in a largely offline economy has now grown into India’s largest online B2B marketplace. It enables businesses to showcase diverse portfolios of quality products and connect with the right buyers. 

Hrishikesh Datar, Founder & CEO, Vakilsearch
Navigating India’s complex legal and regulatory framework is one of the biggest hurdles faced by many MSMEs. For many entrepreneurs, managing compliance requirements like business registration, GST filing, or intellectual property protection can be confusing and time-consuming.