KBC 14: Which businesswoman’s first major venture started in a garage and involved extracting an enzyme from papayas?
Answer: Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur. She is the executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bangalore, India.
She is also the former chairperson of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. In 2014, she was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to the progress of science and chemistry.
She started Biocon India in the garage of her rented house in Bengaluru with a seed capital of Rs 10,000. It was a joint venture. Indian laws restricted foreign ownership to only 30% of the company, which meant 70% of the company belonged to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.
The company’s initial projects were the extraction of papain and isinglass. Within a year of its inception, Biocon India was able to manufacture enzymes and export them to the US and Europe, the first Indian company to do so.
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