"I was asked my marital status during investor pitch meetings," says MobiKwik co-founder, Upasana Taku

It is not every day that you get asked a question on your marital status in an investor pitch meeting, but that is exactly what Upasana Taku, the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer(COO) of India's leading fintech firm, Mobikwik had to face when she was pitching her startup idea before investors.

"I was asked questions on my marital status, why I am unmarried at 30 and how many kids I have during these pitch meetings," Taku, a Stanford graduate told BusinessToday.In in a freewheeling conversation.   Women have always had it tougher than men in India's corporate world, something Taku also agrees upon, but in the coming-of-age fintech industry of India, especially for the past decade, the sight of a woman in the top leadership was extremely rare.

Also Read: BT EXCLUSIVE: MobiKwik to go public early next year: Upasana Taku, co-founder

"People would confuse me with Bipin's (Upasana's husband and Mobikwik CEO) assistant and not as a company co-founder. The new hires would question whether they have to report to me or a male manager. I have been clear in my communication from day one. I supervise various departments and the work will be monitored by me," Taku said.   There was a time, several years ago when Taku had to step into a cesarean surgery right after a crucial board meeting. 

"I wrapped up my board meeting a day meeting one day before the scheduled surgery and worked throughout the pregnancy. I did not feel the need to take a break and worked normally. It is of course an individual decision. But pregnancy in the course of a women's career should not be another roadblock," the self-made woman entrepreneur, with lower-middle-class roots shared.

According to Taku, times have changed over the past few years, but a gender gap that gets wider when it comes to pay scales, hiring etc. and puts women at disadvantage still exists. "There is no doubt that more women have taken up tech jobs and are now in various company boards, but we have a long way to go," MobiKwik's COO said.   Her entrepreneurial journey has not been a smooth one. "When I passed out of the National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar and many amongst us wanted to go to the top universities abroad, I was keen on the same. I came from a lower-middle-class family and decided to try my luck out while applying for scholarships in the top US colleges. Finally based on my essay and good scores, one of the professors at Stanford agreed to help her get a scholarship to complete her MS in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University, US," Taku recalled.

Also Read: Upasana Taku: Tenacious Leader   She worked with HSBC, PayPal for several years and finally decided to try her luck in India. "I remember my parents stopped talking to me for several months when I informed them of my decision to come back to India. They considered it as a foolish move. But I persisted," Taku added.

She met Bipin Preet Singh, her husband and CEO of MobiKwik, in India through a common friend and started their fintech venture with a common vision of disrupting the payments industry in India.   "It was a time when our parents would go to a nearby shop to recharge phones and that is when the idea of a mobile wallet business struck us which could pave a way to make consumer payments simpler. Fast forward to now, India is at the cusp of digital revolution and the payments industry is witnessing a disruption like never before. We kind of saw this coming almost a decade ago," the fintech leader said.   Her company is planning to raise Rs 1,900 crore (or $255 million) through an IPO which will happen early next year. 

MobiKwik entered the unicorn club earlier this year and was bootstrapped for the first four years when both Taku and Singh invested in the firm from their savings.