Radhika Ghai Aggarwal is the current Chief Business Officer (CBO) and Co-founder of the e-commerce ShopClues, which was established in 2011 with just 10 team members. She is the first woman Co-founder in India, whose company entered the Unicorn Club. Radhika's husband was Sandeep Aggarwal, who founded ShopClues with her and Sanjay Sethi. Sandeep served as the CEO of the company before the couple split up in 2017. There was huge speculation about what will happen after Sandeep-Radhika's divorce, however, Sandeep was arrested by the FBI in 2013, and soon after that, Sanjay Sethi was made the CEO of the company, and he is currently continuing with the same designation.
Radhika Aggarwal- Biography
Name | Radhika Ghai Aggarwal |
---|---|
Nationality | Indian |
Education | Washington University |
Profession | Entrepreneur |
Position | CBO & Co-founder, ShopClues |
Radhika Aggarwal- Personal Life
Radhika Aggarwal- Early Life
Radhika Aggarwal- Education
Radhika Aggarwal- Professional Life
Radhika Aggarwal- Women Empowerment
Radhika Aggarwal- ShopClues
Radhika Aggarwal- Kindlife
Radhika Aggarwal- Awards
ShopClues- Competitors
Radhika Aggarwal- Personal Life
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal was born to an Army family. Her father was employed in the Indian Army and her mother was a dietician by profession. She got married to Sandeep Aggarwal, whom she met during her college days. However, the couple eventually got divorced in 2017. Their relationship started turning bitter when Sandeep was arrested by the FBI in 2013.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation charged Sandeep Aggarwal for insider trading. Sandeep worked as an analyst at the US-based Collins Stewart before he started the dotcom venture. This was when he was involved in leaking non-public information to a former SAC Capital portfolio manager. Sandeep was arrested by the FBI in San Jose, California after which he resigned from the company, giving way to Sanjay Sethi, another Co-founder of the company to become the CEO of ShopClues. The couple eventually saw their way to separation.
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal currently lives in Gurgaon, Haryana, as per her Twitter profile.
Radhika Aggarwal- Early Life
Being an Army ward, she grew up in ten different cities including Pathankot, Ahmednagar, and Jodhpur, and attended several schools throughout her childhood. Traveling to new places gave her the opportunity to meet new people and adapt to the formidable change, which further helped in running a business without getting affected by daunting changes and challenges.
Perseverance is yet another quality that she learned while growing up. Her attitude of not giving up helped her in standing against all odds in the startup world.
Radhika actively helped her father, who started his health club after he left the Army at the age of 45, in 1992. She served as a fitness trainer during the early days of her father's entrepreneurship venture. This way she also earned her first-ever pay cheque of Rs. 400. Following her father's entrepreneurial mind, she founded her very first advertising agency in Chandigarh in 1997. Though the entrepreneur in her was also there, founding her advertising agency happened primarily due to the dearth of options available there in Chandigarh, as she would like to put it.
Radhika Aggarwal- Education
Radhika Aggarwal completed her graduation and eventually went for an MBA in 1999 after ending her brief stint as the founder of an advertising agency that she founded in 1997 while in Chandigarh. Radhika pursued an MBA from Washington University, in St. Louis, US. She also holds another post-graduation degree in advertising and public relations. Furthermore, Radhika also participated in an executive program at Stanford University.
Radhika Aggarwal- Professional Life
Radhika Aggarwal started her career, working in the marketing field for companies like Nordstrom, headquartered in Seattle, Washington (2002-2005). She joined the core team for strategic planning at Goldman Sachs in 2001. She was a part of internal consulting resource for the product development group.
She worked as a Marketing strategist in Abhivyakti Infotech for about one and a half year i.e., from January 2006- June 2007.
Prior to this, she ran a fashion blog at South Asian women (2007-2009). She didn't raise money through this blog but learnt the thriftiness that was replicated while launching ShopClues.
She has the experience of working in diverse sectors like e-commerce, fashion, lifestyle, and retail for about fourteen years in US.
Radhika founded her e-commerce venture ShopClues with her husband, Sandeep Aggarwal, and Sanjay Sethi in 2011. It emerged as a unicorn company in January 2016, India's fourth unicorn company. She currently serves as the CBO and Co-founder of Shopclues.
Radhika Aggarwal- Women Empowerment
When asked if she has been able to change the convention towards women employees across the industry, Radhika Ghai Aggarwal – Co-founder & CMO, shopclues.com said :
"The best way I deal with this is to avoid gender-based discrimination in the first place. At ShopClues, we empower a good worker and we provide equal opportunities that can help maximize potential. If you're an able worker, gender doesn't even come into the picture. At ShopClues, we have women leading our vibrant community of merchant partners. Our women employees know I have their back, and that they are at par with our male employees, with many of them in the leadership team."
Radhika Aggarwal promotes women to share their opinions, challenges, and issues that matter to them. She gathers her women employees at a cafeteria for the discussion. One of her young woman employees once said that she was the first person to wear jeans and take up a job in her family. It was her way of breaking stereotypes.
The girl joined ShopClues because of the woman co-founder. An empowered woman inspires another woman to break the stereotypes and live their dreams.
"Every step we take towards achieving our goals is one step closer to breaking these archaic stereotypes. As I said, I personally don’t encourage extra accolades to a woman employee just because she’s a woman and has achieved something. I treat all my employees as equals, gender no bar.", said Radhika Aggarwal, ShopClues
Radhika Aggarwal- ShopClues
Radhika's 14 long years of experience in the corporate world has brought rich exposure to best-of-breed global brands. Her vision and entrepreneurial acuity have gradually nurtured the brand. With a keen understanding of the customer's pulse, she is the marketing veteran, which made ShopClues one of the luminaries today as an Indian online marketplace.
ShopClues was founded in 2011, headquartered in Gurgaon. The company came into the limelight when the founder claimed that the e-commerce venture became profitable by 2017. It has more than 25 million registered buyers, 500,000+ merchants, and the company ships over three million products each month.
Radhika is a Co-founder and holds the position of CBO of Shopclues since February 2011. She claims that ShopClues is one of the fastest growing e-commerce platforms in India.
Radhika Aggarwal- Kindlife
Radhika Ghai Aggarwal, Shopclues Co-founder has started Kindlife.in, her next venture, as of September 6, 2021. Kindlife is deemed to be a marketplace for organic products spanning across a range of categories.
The website of the brand is equipped with different spaces, pages, and forums of varying topics like nutrition, grooming, wellness, and others along with a list of products that can be bought.
According to the website of Kindlife, Alphacama is registered as the parent entity for the brand and Vidit Jain is listed as the director. Deltacama Pvt Ltd and Zetacama Pvt Ltd are two other entities incorporated by Ghai where Jain also serves as a director for the other two entities along with Ghai.
Radhika Aggarwal- Awards
Radhika has been conferred with some awards and recognition as well. She won the following awards in the year 2016.
- Outlook Business Woman of Worth at Outlook Business Awards
- Woman Entrepreneur of the Year at Entrepreneur India Awards
- Exemplary Woman Entrepreneur of the Year at CMO Asia Awards
- CEO of the Year Award at CEO India Awards
ShopClues- Competitors
It was obviously not a cup of tea to build an e-commerce website from scratch, especially with a good amount of competition that was already in a rage back then. ShopClues was established at a time when Flipkart and Snapdeal were already in the business and had raised a considerable amount of money and popularity.
Jabong and ShopClues were founded in the same year. An inordinate amount of money was spent by the founders to grow their market respectively. However, Radhika aimed at making ShopClues a profitable venture. Shopclues tossed a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of $1.2 billion in Financial Year 2016, just 5 years after it launched!
As of now, September 8, 2021, the competitors of ShopClues further multiplied with Flipkart and Snapdeal already cementing their positions as homegrown eCommerce giants along with Amazon India, which together emerge nothing less than household names in eCommerce. Some other competitors of Shopclues include Jabong, Myntra, Naaptol, HomeShop18, Yepme, and more.
Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs
What is ShopClues net worth in FY20?
ShopClues has an operating revenue of INR 89 Crores in FY20, the year that ended on March 31, 2020.
Is ShopClues a unicorn?
ShopClues became India's fourth unicorn firm valued over a billion dollars at $1.1 billion in January 2016 within just 5 years after its launch.
Is ShopClues an Indian company?
Yes, ShopClues is an Indian company headquartered in Gurugram, India.
Author: Megha Rani
Source : https://startuptalky.com/radhika-aggarwal-cbo-shopclues/
Date : 2021-09-08T10:54:00.000Z