Ruchi Kalra: How 73 Rejections Led to India's First Couple-Led Unicorn

What if every "no" was actually a stepping stone to building something worth ₹52,000 crore? Ruchi Kalra's story proves that sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come after the most devastating setbacks.

In 2015, when Ruchi Kalra co-founded OfBusiness, she faced a brutal reality check – 73 investor rejections. Most entrepreneurs would have thrown in the towel. But Kalra, armed with her IIT Delhi engineering degree and McKinsey consulting experience, saw something others missed: India's SMEs were drowning in inefficient B2B transactions and desperately needed a lifeline.

Here's what makes Ruchi Kalra's journey fascinating – she didn't just build one unicorn, she built two. After OfBusiness reached a ₹44,000 crore valuation, she co-founded Oxyzo Financial Services with her husband in 2017. This fintech venture became India's first couple-led unicorn when it hit a $1 billion valuation in 2022.

But here's the lesser-known insight that sets Kalra apart: while most startups chase growth at any cost, she obsessed over profitability from day one. Every transaction at OfBusiness was designed to extract profit, creating sustainable unit economics that investors eventually couldn't ignore.

Perhaps most remarkably, Kalra achieved this in sectors traditionally dominated by men, becoming one of India's rare female unicorn founders with a net worth exceeding ₹2,600 crore.

For young entrepreneurs watching from the sidelines, Ruchi Kalra's journey offers a powerful lesson: rejection isn't failure – it's market research. Every "no" taught her something new about her business model, her pitch, or her market timing.

The question isn't whether you'll face rejection, but whether you'll use it as fuel to build something undeniable.