Why OfBusiness' Ruchi Kalra views wealth as legacy and leadership
Behind the billionaire tag is a founder who views wealth as legacy, leadership, and enterprise creation rather than market valuation or start-up milestones.
- Aug 5, 2026,
- Updated Aug 5, 2026 12:33 PM IST
When Ruchi Kalra and Asish Mohapatra founded OfBusiness in 2015, they were expecting their first child. “We always joke that we had twins,” Kalra says, referring to the birth of her daughter and the company that would go on to become one of India’s largest B2B commerce platforms. Six years later, OfBusiness entered the Unicorn club. But for Kalra, the milestone was never the destination. “It’s a scary milestone,” she says. “You have to continuously keep delivering value.”
That philosophy has shaped the couple’s entrepreneurial journey. While much of India’s start-up ecosystem was chasing consumer internet opportunities, Kalra and Mohapatra, co-founders and CEO of Oxyzo and OfBusiness, respectively, chose to build for SMEs, focusing on businesses that form the backbone of India’s manufacturing economy.
The founders initially set out to solve procurement challenges for SMEs. However, as they worked closely with customers, they realised that access to raw materials was only one part of the problem. Working capital was an equally significant constraint. As Mohapatra recalls, within months of launching OfBusiness, it became evident that procurement could not be solved without addressing financing. That insight eventually led to the creation of Oxyzo in 2016, which today has evolved into a full-fledged SME financing platform.
For Kalra, the move was a natural extension of her expertise. Having spent years advising financial institutions at McKinsey, she took charge of building Oxyzo into an institution rather than merely a lending platform. She says financing was always one of the three structural challenges facing SMEs, alongside procurement and business growth opportunities. What evolved was not the problem they wanted to solve, but the way they chose to solve it. From initially exploring partnerships with banks and NBFCs, Oxyzo eventually built its own balance sheet and lending capabilities.
Today, both OfBusiness and Oxyzo are profitable businesses, a rarity in India’s start-up ecosystem. Their emphasis on profitability was deliberate rather than incidental. Kalra argues that financial services demand discipline from Day One. “Capital is scarce,” she says, adding that the focus has always been on deploying it efficiently instead of chasing growth at any cost.
That approach has also translated into personal wealth. Kalra is among India’s youngest self-made women entrepreneurs. Yet, she is quick to separate valuation from value creation.
“Valuation is determined by the market,” she says. “Value creation is whether you could create employment, bring wealth to the people who believed in you, and build an enterprise.” For Kalra, wealth is neither a scorecard nor a balance-sheet number. It is about creating something that outlives its founders.
“Real wealth creation is creating an enterprise and leaving a legacy... something that has a life of its own beyond you,” she says. “There’s no scorecard.”
Yet, the enterprise Kalra wants to build is defined as much by its people as by its balance sheet. Asked what she wants OfBusiness and Oxyzo to become over the next decade, her answer isn’t about valuations, market share or revenue milestones. Instead, she talks about building a “leadership factory.”
She wants the companies to become organisations where people stay for years, grow into leaders and leave with capabilities that outlast their tenure. “I would love for OfBusiness and Oxyzo to be that place wherein people join for a very long period because they feel connected to the organisation,” she says. “Whether they stay with us or not, I want them to become leaders.”
That belief also explains why the group has consciously invested in building leadership capabilities internally rather than relying entirely on lateral hires. Kalra says the company has consistently backed homegrown talent, with several employees who joined in the early years now occupying leadership positions. Institution building, in her view, is as much about nurturing people as it is about scaling businesses.
Perhaps that is why the labels that often accompany successful founders—unicorn creator, billionaire or one of India’s richest self-made women—sit lightly on her shoulders. For Kalra, those are outcomes, not objectives. The real measure of success, she says, lies in building an enterprise that creates opportunities, outlives its founders and continues to generate value long after individual milestones have faded. As she puts it, “Could you give back at some point in time when you have the ability to give back?” In Kalra’s and Mohapatra’s playbook, that—not valuation—is the ultimate definition of wealth.
@PalakAgarwal64
When Ruchi Kalra and Asish Mohapatra founded OfBusiness in 2015, they were expecting their first child. “We always joke that we had twins,” Kalra says, referring to the birth of her daughter and the company that would go on to become one of India’s largest B2B commerce platforms. Six years later, OfBusiness entered the Unicorn club. But for Kalra, the milestone was never the destination. “It’s a scary milestone,” she says. “You have to continuously keep delivering value.”
That philosophy has shaped the couple’s entrepreneurial journey. While much of India’s start-up ecosystem was chasing consumer internet opportunities, Kalra and Mohapatra, co-founders and CEO of Oxyzo and OfBusiness, respectively, chose to build for SMEs, focusing on businesses that form the backbone of India’s manufacturing economy.
The founders initially set out to solve procurement challenges for SMEs. However, as they worked closely with customers, they realised that access to raw materials was only one part of the problem. Working capital was an equally significant constraint. As Mohapatra recalls, within months of launching OfBusiness, it became evident that procurement could not be solved without addressing financing. That insight eventually led to the creation of Oxyzo in 2016, which today has evolved into a full-fledged SME financing platform.
For Kalra, the move was a natural extension of her expertise. Having spent years advising financial institutions at McKinsey, she took charge of building Oxyzo into an institution rather than merely a lending platform. She says financing was always one of the three structural challenges facing SMEs, alongside procurement and business growth opportunities. What evolved was not the problem they wanted to solve, but the way they chose to solve it. From initially exploring partnerships with banks and NBFCs, Oxyzo eventually built its own balance sheet and lending capabilities.
Today, both OfBusiness and Oxyzo are profitable businesses, a rarity in India’s start-up ecosystem. Their emphasis on profitability was deliberate rather than incidental. Kalra argues that financial services demand discipline from Day One. “Capital is scarce,” she says, adding that the focus has always been on deploying it efficiently instead of chasing growth at any cost.
That approach has also translated into personal wealth. Kalra is among India’s youngest self-made women entrepreneurs. Yet, she is quick to separate valuation from value creation.
“Valuation is determined by the market,” she says. “Value creation is whether you could create employment, bring wealth to the people who believed in you, and build an enterprise.” For Kalra, wealth is neither a scorecard nor a balance-sheet number. It is about creating something that outlives its founders.
“Real wealth creation is creating an enterprise and leaving a legacy... something that has a life of its own beyond you,” she says. “There’s no scorecard.”
Yet, the enterprise Kalra wants to build is defined as much by its people as by its balance sheet. Asked what she wants OfBusiness and Oxyzo to become over the next decade, her answer isn’t about valuations, market share or revenue milestones. Instead, she talks about building a “leadership factory.”
She wants the companies to become organisations where people stay for years, grow into leaders and leave with capabilities that outlast their tenure. “I would love for OfBusiness and Oxyzo to be that place wherein people join for a very long period because they feel connected to the organisation,” she says. “Whether they stay with us or not, I want them to become leaders.”
That belief also explains why the group has consciously invested in building leadership capabilities internally rather than relying entirely on lateral hires. Kalra says the company has consistently backed homegrown talent, with several employees who joined in the early years now occupying leadership positions. Institution building, in her view, is as much about nurturing people as it is about scaling businesses.
Perhaps that is why the labels that often accompany successful founders—unicorn creator, billionaire or one of India’s richest self-made women—sit lightly on her shoulders. For Kalra, those are outcomes, not objectives. The real measure of success, she says, lies in building an enterprise that creates opportunities, outlives its founders and continues to generate value long after individual milestones have faded. As she puts it, “Could you give back at some point in time when you have the ability to give back?” In Kalra’s and Mohapatra’s playbook, that—not valuation—is the ultimate definition of wealth.
@PalakAgarwal64