CashKaro's Swati Bhargava opens up about her inspirational journey back to health

Swati Bhargava, Co-founder of CashKaro and EarnKaro, is one of those rare founders who always seems to have a million-dollar smile firmly in place. Nothing—not even her long-standing kidney condition—can deter her spirit and determination.

When we spoke to Swati recently, it had been just three months after her kidney transplant. Without even a hint of self-pity, Swati talks about her kidney condition, how she has handled it over the past 20 years, and how she managed a fundraise in the midst of tests for her transplant.

Swati’s condition was discovered 20 years ago when she had just started her studies at London School of Economics (LSE). Her parents were concerned and wanted to take care of their daughter at her home in Ambala. But for Swati, the world was not enough, and she continued her studies at LSE and conquered the professional world thereafter.

When she began working, some wondered if she would feel exhausted with her condition.

Swati says, “I used to work from 8 am till midnight, and people used to say, ‘With your kidney problem can you work?’ I was like, ‘Where is it written that hard work is a problem?’ So, the way to deal with a setback is to have confidence and know that everyone has challenges in life. This is just my tough card and I’m going to deal with it.”

It’s this grit and determination that drove Swati to work hard on a fundraise for CashKaro, while also preparing for a transplant surgery in November last year.

Swati says, “Last year, we were in the middle of fundraising, and I spoke to my doctor and he said, ‘You have to get a transplant done now.’ So, I decided fundraise will go along with it. Sometimes, I would do an investor call and go do my tests.”

The announcement about the fundraise was made on November 3, a Friday, and Swati was in hospital for her transplant on Monday, i.e. November 6.

When asked about the way forward for CashKaro, a cashback and coupons platform, and EarnKaro, a deal-sharing platform, in 2023, Swati says, while layoffs are not on the cards, performances would be watched closely, because high performance is the name of the game. 

Swati elaborates, “At CashKaro, we are not doing layoffs because we don’t have a cash crunch; even if we had, we would really like to find other ways of controlling costs. But, having said that, if there are people in the team who are not performing, then one does feel that I’m not doing layoffs but I can’t have people on the team who take that for granted, because there are a lot of people who want jobs—so how are we being fair to them?”

While the environment may look gloomy, CashKaro seems to be weathering the storm steadily.

Swati says, “Last year we did about 4,000 crores in sales through our partners, we earned about 225 crores in revenue, we’ve got 20 million users registered through the site. So, we’re going on building CashKaro.

“We’ve also got EarnKaro, a social cashback app. We’ve also launched the CashKaro store network, which is our foray into rural India; so, we’ve got kirana store users who have been taught how to use CashKaro.”

Swati’s mantra is to not take anything for granted. As she contemplates the past few months and the way ahead for herself and her company, it’s clear that this is a motto she lives by.