MPW 2023: From micro-credit to music, Ananya Birla handles every venture with aplomb

Ananya Birla was all of 17 when she founded Svatantra Microfin. This maiden entrepreneurial venture was born of a desire to make women financially independent. “It was to democratise access to finance and building a business at scale,” she says. Simply put, it came down to creating a financial services entity that could create value for its stakeholders. Birla makes her debut on BT’s Most Powerful Women in Business list this year.

Quite candidly, the 29-year-old speaks of being born into position and privilege. Birla, the oldest child of Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Aditya Birla Education Trust Founder and Chairperson Neerja Birla, was struck by a situation where a girl across the road barely had the means to survive.

Of course, “being a young girl in an industry dominated by men” was not easy. “I embarked on the journey to demonstrate my capability in accomplishing things independently and affirm my worthiness of the opportunities afforded to me,” is how Birla puts it. The numbers corroborate this story: over 5 million clients across 100,000 villages with disbursements in excess of Rs 21,500 crore since inception or a CAGR of 67 per cent in the FY18-23 period.

This year, Birla joined the boards of Aditya Birla Management Corporation, Grasim Industries and Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail. Besides, she says with the recent acquisition of Chaitanya India Fin Credit, Svatantra has become the second-largest NBFC MFI in India.

It’s not all work for Birla though. She’s also a singer, and a turning point in that career came when her single Meant to Be went platinum in India. Given that she was always told there was no market for English music in India, the acceptance really meant something.

The other piece that keeps her occupied is design. It led to Ikai Asai, an artisanal home décor and tableware brand that she founded. Plus, during the pandemic, she founded the Ananya Birla Foundation, with the aim of “forging a realm of compassion, equality and inclusivity”. It has a programme to provide resources across sectors—mental health, equality, education, financial inclusion, climate change and humanitarian relief efforts. Clearly, Birla has just got started.

@krishnagopalan