[100 Emerging Women Leaders] This young entrepreneur is creating a healthier, more inclusive space for female employees
Founder of Ampana Life, 21-year-old Anvi Lohia is an entrepreneur, passionate about gender equity and social impact. In an interaction with HerStory for 100 emerging women leaders, she reflects on her journey so far.
Anvi Lohia founded
in 2022. With Ampana Life, she aims to direct corporates towards a sustainable future backed by better healthcare and workplace inclusion for women.For Lohia, entrepreneurship began at an early age. At the age of five, she would make her relatives buy her scribbles. “Although formal entrepreneurship did not start until much later, I have always had entrepreneurial instincts. I have always wanted to make things and sell them,” she says.
As she grew older, she realised the impact she could make as an entrepreneur.
At the age of 14, she started a venture to help local artisans of Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have an online presence. While this venture did not work out, it came with essential learnings for the young entrepreneur.
“I think everyone always tells you that you are supposed to succeed at everything that you do, but you really do not have to. No matter how smart, driven, or passionate you are, you are going to fail at some point in time. And it is just the biggest learning because it teaches you what you did wrong and how you can fix that,” she says.
When Lohia started Ampana Life, her primary aim was to facilitate accessible healthcare services for women. Soon after, she added other services to the pre-existing model.
She explains, “We facilitate female healthcare, gender equity, inclusion, and sustainability services to smaller corporations and emerging startups. We develop plans for them to become sustainable, more interesting, and appropriate for young individuals.”
Ampana Life is supported by an advisory board and external consultants. The overall team consists of gynaecologists, female health experts, retired senior bureaucrats, sustainability experts, scholars, and so on.
Today, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, Lohia continues to work on her aspirations.
While people are surprised to learn that she has built all this from scratch, at such a young age, it does not bother her. In fact, Lohia urges people to listen to the younger generation.
“When you talk to someone who is, say, 15, you realise that they are much more optimistic and idealistic about the state of the world than people who are older. I think that is why younger people have the potential to enact more change than the older ones. With age, you become more set in your ways and start accepting the world as it is,” she says.
Edited by Megha Reddy