As 2021 comes to a close, join us in celebrating unsung stories of India's small entrepreneurs

With this ebook, 'The Unsung Heroes', we bring 25 stories of grit and passion and of ingenuity and resilience. Make it your go-to book for inspiration as you get set to take the next leap.

Friday December 31, 2021 , 4 min Read

Good Morning,

2021 has been a rollercoaster of a year, with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic posing uncertainty for India's micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) — that form the backbone of India's economy and contribute 30 percent to the country's GDP.

But many MSMEs surfed over the tide of digitisation and leveraged their digital infrastructure to pivot to newer business models.

Having told such stories of grit and determination over the last four years, SMBStory has now launched 'The Unsung Heroes: Inspiring stories of small and medium businesses' — an ebook that tells stories of women and men who have braved odds to start their businesses, entrepreneurs who have innovated to stay on top of their game, business owners who have overcome challenges on their path and are better off for it.

The book tells stories of brothers who clocked Rs 15 crore revenue by selling fruit juice packs for Rs 10, a mother-daughter duo who launched an ethnic wear brand from home, and a farmer’s son who went on to build an award-winning machine tools business.

For more such stories of ingenuity and resilience, download 'The Unsung Heroes: Inspiring stories of small and medium businesses' here.

On the last day of 2021, we wish you and your family a very happy new year and hope the coming year brings you prosperity and success.

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Editor’s Pick: 25 startup stories from 2021 that’ll enthuse you

The year 2021 saw startups taking the lead to solve the country’s on-ground problems. The Indian startup ecosystem rewarded them for their resilience and devotion, as 44 of them crossed the billion-dollar valuation mark this year — the highest ever.

From GoodFellows — founded by Ratan Tata's business assistant, Shantanu Naidu — that employs young graduates to create intergenerational friendships between them and the elderly, Teachmint helping one million+ tutors across India teach online for free, to BITS PIlani batchmates creating a new business model in the real estate sector — check out the list of 25 Indian startups did stellar work in 2021.

YourStory also presented Tech50 startups — our list of 50 of the most innovative, disruptive startups, cutting across sectors and demographics that we are convinced have the potential to solve problems at scale and redefine the future.

Download YourStory's Tech50 report here.

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Raising financial awareness among children

After having conversations with friends and teenagers, Sambhav Jain and Kush Taneja realised young adults in India were not equipped to have money conversations.

This led them to start fintech startup FamPay. A YourStory Tech50 2021 startup, FamPay is a finance app that aims to drive conversations around money and finances in children and teens below the age of 18. It has over two million users. Read more.

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Global community of AI developers

Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts Vivek and Vishal Singhal envisioned building a strong community of trained AI developers and the ensuing business opportunities to be built on top of it.

CellStrat, a YourStory Tech50 2021 startup, has curated a global AI community of over 15,000 enthusiasts through its edtech platform and is now growing a global developer platform for AI projects and APIs on the cloud. Read more.