Revathi Roy's Women Delivery Startup: How Personal Tragedy Built Asia's First All-Female Fleet

What if I told you that a widow who started driving to support her three sons ended up creating Asia's first all-women delivery service? Meet Revathi Roy, whose journey from personal struggle to pioneering entrepreneur proves that sometimes our greatest challenges become our most powerful innovations.

Revathi Roy is a celebrated social entrepreneur in the field of women's empowerment and workforce participation since 2007. She holds the distinguished pride of pioneering Asia's first-ever women's cab service way back in 2007 and now runs Hey Deedee, the groundbreaking women delivery startup that's transforming lives across India.

The story behind this women delivery startup is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Roy took to the driving wheel to raise three sons, post the untimely demise of her husband. What started as a necessity became a vision—if she could drive professionally, why couldn't other women do the same?

She launched Hey Deedee delivery service in 2016, a private limited firm based out of Mumbai that works with underprivileged women. Currently Hey Deedee employs around 100 women at a salary of Rs 10,000 per month. A further 2,823 women are undergoing the 45-day training programme through her associated learning platform.

But here's what makes this social impact business model truly revolutionary: it's not just about employment—it's about transformation. Hey Deedee is India's first all-female hyperlocal and last-mile delivery startup, operating in a traditionally masculine logistics industry where women drivers were almost unheard of.

The business strategy is brilliant in its simplicity. Revathi Roy, the CEO of Hey Deedee, an enterprise that addresses the need for last-mile delivery by employing only women, is targeting rapid expansion to 15 more cities, seed funding and even a new B2C venture. She's not just running a delivery service—she's building an ecosystem that proves women can excel in any field.

For young entrepreneurs, Roy's journey offers a masterclass in purpose-driven business. She didn't start a women delivery startup to chase a market trend—she created it to solve a real problem while empowering others facing similar struggles.

The real lesson? Sometimes the most disruptive business ideas come from asking a simple question: "If I can do this, why can't others like me?"