Anisha Singh founded Mydala, one of India's pioneering local deals platforms, before launching She Capital to invest in women-led startups.
From entrepreneur to venture investor, explore Anisha Singh’s journey of building Mydala, surviving fierce competition, and championing women-led startups through She Capital.
Written by TFN Research Desk | covering startups, technology, venture capital, and business strategy.
Table of Contents
- Who is Anisha Singh?
- Early Life and Education
- Career Before Mydala
- How Mydala Started
- Funding History
- Growth and Recent Challenges
- Public Recognition
- Mydala vs Competitors
- Investor Perspective
- Founder Timeline
- Key Takeaways
- FAQs
- Sources
Who is Anisha Singh?
Anisha Singh founded Mydala in 2009 with her husband, Arjun Basu, and Ashish Bhatnagar, building India’s largest local deals and coupons platform before stepping back to found She Capital, a venture fund backing women-led startups. An American University graduate, she began her career on the Clinton Administration’s Springboard initiative, work that later shaped her focus on gender equity in venture funding.
Early Life and Education
Singh was born in Delhi into a joint family; her father, an ex-serviceman, ran a real estate business that later failed, an experience she has said pushed her to want financial stability rather than entrepreneurship at first. She studied at the Air Force School in Delhi, earned an undergraduate degree from the College of Art, Delhi, and went on to complete a Master’s in Political Communication and an MBA in Information Systems, both from American University in Washington, D.C.
Career Before Mydala
Singh began her career on Capitol Hill with the Clinton Administration’s Springboard initiative, helping women entrepreneurs raise capital. She then joined Centra Software in Boston, setting up e-learning ecosystems for Fortune 500 companies, before returning to Delhi in 2005 to found Kinis Software Solutions, a digital content marketing firm serving US real estate and e-learning clients. Kinis was later acquired by Obeo, a US marketing firm, giving Singh her first exit and the confidence to attempt a second, larger venture.
How Mydala Started
Singh launched Mydala in 2009 with her husband Arjun Basu and Ashish Bhatnagar, taking its name from the Sanskrit word “dala,” meaning group, reflecting the group-buying deals model popular in the US and China at the time. She was pregnant while pitching to investors, an experience she’s described candidly: one VC reportedly told her co-founders to drop her from the pitch entirely, and a term sheet fell through two days before the money was due to transfer. With Mydala facing up to 56 early competitors, several better funded, the founders chose to keep growing rather than shut down, a decision that pushed them toward mobile early, well before most rivals took it seriously.
Funding History
| Round | Year | Amount | Lead Investor(s) |
| Angel round | 2009 | Rs 1.1 crore | Angel investors |
| Series A | 2010 | ~$4.4 million | Info Edge |
| Later rounds | 2011-2015 | Undisclosed | Info Edge and existing investors |
Mydala’s pivotal early round came through a chance meeting with Sanjeev Bikhchandani and Hitesh Oberoi of Info Edge at a TiE event, just two days after the founders had stopped actively pitching. Info Edge remained Mydala’s primary institutional backer through subsequent rounds; the company was reported to be profitable within its first five years.
Growth and Recent Challenges
Mydala scaled to a network of over 165,000 merchants and roughly 38 million registered users across more than 200 cities in India and the UAE at its peak, with 85% of traffic coming from mobile. Detailed recent revenue figures are not publicly disclosed, as Mydala’s most active growth period and press coverage cluster around 2014-2016; more recent standalone financials for the platform have not been widely reported since Singh stepped back from day-to-day leadership.
Public Recognition
Singh was ranked among Crunchbase’s Top Women CEOs outside the US in 2018, named a Top 100 Global Diversity Leader in 2020, and recognised in Business World and VC World’s Most Influential Women in Investor’s Community in 2023. She serves as President of the jury for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, South Asia and Oceania region, and was a judge on MTV’s startup reality show Dropout Pvt Ltd.
Mydala vs Competitors
| Brand | Founded | Latest Data | Positioning |
| Mydala | 2009 | Not publicly disclosed | Local deals, coupons, and merchant marketing platform |
| Groupon India | 2011 | Not publicly disclosed | Global daily-deals platform, exited India in 2016 |
| Nearbuy | 2015 | Not publicly disclosed | Local deals and dining marketplace |
Mydala was among the few daily-deals platforms from India’s 2009-2011 group-buying boom to survive long-term, having outlasted most of its original 50-plus competitors, including Groupon’s India operations, which shut down years later.
Investor Perspective
Singh’s qualification came from a genuine first exit with Kinis before attempting a much larger platform business. Her strengths included resilience through a difficult, gender-biased fundraising environment and an early pivot to mobile that outpaced better-funded rivals. The main risk Mydala always faced was a crowded, thinly differentiated deals category; the fact that it outlasted most competitors while remaining profitable in its early years speaks to disciplined execution over pure growth-at-any-cost. Her subsequent move into venture investing through She Capital reflects a direct response to the funding bias she experienced firsthand as a pregnant first-time founder.
Founder Timeline
- 2005 — Returns to Delhi; founds Kinis Software Solutions
- 2009 — Co-founds Mydala with Arjun Basu and Ashish Bhatnagar
- 2010 — Secures ~$4.4 million from Info Edge
- 2015 — Mydala reaches 38 million registered users across 209 cities
- 2016 — Founds She Capital, an early-stage fund for women-led startups
- 2018 — Named among Crunchbase’s Top Women CEOs outside the US
- 2020 — Recognised as a Top 100 Global Diversity Leader
- 2023 — Named among India’s Most Influential Women in Investing
Key Takeaways
- Singh’s earlier exit with Kinis gave her the confidence and some capital to attempt a bigger platform business.
- Facing gender bias directly while fundraising while pregnant shaped her later focus on backing women founders.
- A near-collapsed funding round two days before close forced Mydala to innovate rather than shut down, pushing it toward mobile early.
- Surviving a crowded deals category that claimed most competitors, including Groupon India, reflects disciplined, profit-first execution.
- Founding She Capital turned a personal fundraising struggle into a structural fix for other women entrepreneurs.
FAQs
Who founded Mydala?
Anisha Singh, with her husband Arjun Basu and Ashish Bhatnagar, in 2009.
What did Singh do before Mydala?
Founded Kinis Software Solutions in 2005, later acquired by US firm Obeo.
How much funding did Mydala raise?
Confirmed early rounds include Rs 1.1 crore in angel funding and roughly $4.4 million from Info Edge in 2010; later round amounts are not fully publicly disclosed.
Is Anisha Singh still involved with Mydala?
She is the founder and former CEO; current operational leadership is not detailed in recent public sources.
What is She Capital?
An early-stage venture fund founded by Singh in 2016, focused on backing women-led and women-focused startups.
Sources
- Anisha Singh Success Story – Founder of Mydala and She Capital — StartupTalky
- Anisha Singh, Co-Founder & CEO, Mydala — Open Magazine
- Women on Top in Tech – Anisha Singh, Founder & CEO, Mydala.com — Empirics Asia
- Anisha Singh: The ‘Accidental Entrepreneur’ Championing Women’s Ventures — Yahoo News
- Anisha Singh – EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki
© The Founder Nation | All rights reserved | Written by TFN Research Desk
