Indian husband and wife entrepreneurs mint own unicorns within a year

Ruchi Kalra co-founded digital lending startup Oxyzo Financial Services; her husband Asish Mohapatra set up OfBusiness to provide financing using technology.

An Indian couple became the country’s first husband and wife to build their respective startups into enterprises with at least $1 billion valuation, also known as unicorns.

Oxyzo Financial Services, a digital lending startup co-founded by Ruchi Kalra, said Wednesday it hit the milestone with its maiden fundraising round of $200 million led by Alpha Wave Global, Tiger Global Management, Norwest Venture Partners and others. Less than a year earlier, her husband Asish Mohapatra’s OfBusiness reached the same valuation after backing from SoftBank Group Corp. and others.

Kalra, 38, and Mohapatra, 41, are alums of Indian Institute of Technology and met while