Ananya Birla
Chairperson/Director, Svatantra Microfin; Aditya Birla Management CorporationAbout
Ananya Birla is not a typical heiress. She has been chasing her passions, starting from music to empowering women, and that finally coincided with the interest of her family—doing business. Svatantra Microfin, a small-ticket loan provider to women in rural India that Ananya founded when she was 17, has grown to become the second-largest NBFC-MFI with ₹13,885 crore in assets under management (AUM), 2,024 branches, and a workforce of over 22,000. Svatantra serves 4 million customers across 19 states. The 30-year-old Ananya, daughter of industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla, recently forayed into the beauty market with the launch of colour cosmetics brand Lovetc and perfume Contraband. She is also on the board of the group’s apex strategic body—Aditya Birla Management Corp. “We completed a successful acquisition [Svatantra’s acquisition of Chaitanya India Fin Credit for ₹1,479 crore], began a merger and delivered the highest RoA in the industry,” says Ananya. “On the other end of the spectrum, launching two beauty brands within weeks of each other was intense, but we pulled it off... We’re just getting started,” she adds. Her vision and execution earned her the trust of global investors. In March 2025, Advent International and Multiples invested ₹1,930 crore in Svatantra—one of the largest PE deals in Indian microfinance.
