This woman entrepreneur is clocking over Rs 2 crore revenue from her art-tech company

After working in global Fintech companies for 15 years, Yosha Gupta (40) decided to turn entrepreneur. She started a cashback project which had over a million downloads but during the demonetisation period, she had to shut it down. A little less than three years ago, she decided to take another plunge. This time, it was culture-tech. MeMeraki was born out of Gupta’s vision to revive the folk arts of India and to bridge a gap between folk artists and enthusiasts by creating video modules out of India’s folk artists – craftsmen, miniature painters and more. On MeMeraki you get to buy and learn all forms of Indian Indian art. It was indeed the pandemic and the way it hit artisans, that woke Gupta to the idea of diving into folk art.

“While the initial avatar for MeMeraki.com was to work on beautiful hand painted handbags with the mission of telling the stories of India's beautiful heritage arts and shining the spotlight on our master artists, during the pandemic, we completely pivoted our model and launched online art workshops with our master artists so our patrons could learn about these arts and even practice authentically. The pandemic exacerbated marginalisation for artisans but on the consumer side, it also showed how essential creativity is to our wellbeing and our very survival and that’s how this business model for masterclasses with traditional artisans was born,” says Gupta who is currently based out of Sydney.

It was thus a timely disruption of the folk-art space of India, and Gupta has a definition for what she is doing at MeMeraki.“We now call ourselves a D2C 'culture-tech' platform that enables artists to be ‘digital creators’. Our work stands at the intersection of the ed-tech and traditional creative and cultural industry.  Our mission is to ultimately create a powerful voice and presence for artisans online using technology and in doing so create sustainable livelihoods for them as well.”  

With art and culture hidden in the depths of rural India, starting up a pan-India venture to showcase it all entailed deep research and then a method.  “We've mapped out and documented for ourselves all the different arts and crafts across India - which is more than 3,000 plus heritage arts and crafts. Along with that we research and create lists of master artists and artisans we would like to work with across these arts and crafts based on criteria like whether or not they're generational artists, any awards and ultimately it boils down to the quality of their work and ability to work within timelines as well,” she says. The artists too had to be trained to adapt to MeMeraki’s form of delivery. “For workshops, it is also important that the artists are able to teach well, and we work closely with them to train them in order to be able to teach effectively, create curriculums, practice sheets, storytelling formats as well as the softer aspects of giving feedback to participants and more. A lot of our initial network also comes through introductions from artists who are already working with us, and now we do have artists reaching out to us directly on their own as well. For masterclasses we definitely work with artists with whom we have done many workshops already so that we have enough learnings that we can bring together better in a Masterclass as we actually go to the artist's location, spend about a week or more to record a complete Masterclass.” Gupta adds.

At the heart of her plan was Gupta’s vision to hold a torch for India’s master artists or those creators who have carried on the legacy and tradition of indigenous art forms through family lines. “The vision even when we started was the same as now- to take our heritage arts and crafts to the world in a new way and really shine a spotlight on our Master Artists who are our national treasures and the custodians of our culture. That vision still remains, how we do that has now changed and is now content-enabled commerce where authentic experiences through workshops, masterclasses with the master artists can lead to opportunities for commerce and creating the biggest heritage and impact marketplace in the world,” she says.

Gupta’s patrons are now spread all over the world. “Our patrons have primarily been women in the 28-plus age group, both from India as well as the rest of the world with footprints in the USA, UK, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, and more. Our patrons are DIY enthusiasts who care about sustainability and connection with culture and thus love the authenticity of the experience of being able to learn from or buy from generational master artists who might be in the remotest corners of India but with the power of technology can reach anyone across the world,” she explains.

Gupta says that to date more than 15,000 people have taken their workshops, attended their masterclasses, or purchased heritage artworks. The quick popularity now reflects in their revenue. “Our annual revenue right now is between Rs2 to 5 crore. The price range of our workshops and masterclasses ranges from Rs500 to Rs15,000 and our heritage artworks from artists range from Rs 3,000 to even Rs 2 to 3 lakh. We initially bootstrapped the company for the last 2.5 years and have just raised an angel investment round two months ago to be able to scale our work further,” Gupta says.

With her experience with global organizations, Gupta says she has designed her company to be aligned with sustainability goals. “For our patrons globally to be able to understand and appreciate our master artists' work is our mission, our work is very aligned with UN sustainable development goals as well and traditional arts and crafts are inherently sustainable and Indian heritage, both of traditional wisdom and knowledge and the folk art and craft, is rooted in the context and represent regional diversity. And there is definitely more and more interest in the world around this. In fact, we can see a clear correlation that the better content we are creating, the more interest we are being able to generate and really create the market and spark cultural appreciation instead of appropriation,” says Gupta.   Gupta’s larger plan is to be able to impact the marketplace for heritage arts across the world. “Our vision is to be the biggest impact marketplace for heritage arts and crafts from across the world while preserving the stories that arts and crafts are rooted in through workshops and masterclasses. In the next few years, we are very focused on India but longer term we aim to be the global marketplace for heritage arts and crafts, really making a difference in the lives of artisans with sustainable livelihood opportunities, turning them into digital creators with as strong a voice in the online world,” Gupta says. 

MeMeraki’s art classes have ardent fans: “Some of our super users have even come close to 100 workshops with us and that's what keeps encouraging us, that we are building something that people truly love!”