[100 Emerging Women Leaders] How Veena Ashiya is making women's footwear more sustainable

Growing up in a perfume business family, Veena Ashiya was no stranger to entrepreneurship. However, she was also acutely aware of the gendered power dynamics in traditional Indian business communities where women often find themselves on the periphery.

"You could belong to a Rs 1,000-crore family but if you looked at your own balance sheet, you would have nothing," Ashiya notes.

For Ashiya, this early experience of watching limitations placed on the women in her community in Odisha, including her mother, and her father encouraging her to dream big, fuelled her determination to become financially independent through entrepreneurship.

After working with Versace in New York, she entered the footwear industry and started Monrow Shoes in 2019 to make sustainable and environment-friendly products.

Limited options for Indian customers

“My entry into the footwear industry was driven by a desire to address a glaring gap in the market,” Ashiya tells HerStory.

“When I began exploring the women's footwear market in India, I was surprised to find that the vast majority of shoes were designed for European or American feet. This led to the proliferation of narrow-fitted shoes that were uncomfortable for Indian women,” says Ashiya.

Recognising this issue, Ashiya started with a six-member teamand embarked on a mission to reengineer the category. They collaborated with orthopaedic specialists, scanned the feet of 3,000 Indian women, and developed shoes that were specifically designed for the unique structure of Indian feet.

“This was a move that set us apart in the market,” she remarks.

The women's footwear market in India is expected to reach Rs 30,260 crore by 2025, according to a GlobalData report. Alongside well-established brands like Bata and Liberty Shoes, emerging domestic brands like Monrow and Metro are carving out niches by focusing on comfort, sustainability, and style.

In addition to focusing on comfort, Ashiya decided she would make sustainability a core value of Monrow and work with vegan materials for her shoes to offset the environmental impact of leather production. Cattle farming, high water consumption, chemical pollution through waste disposal and tanning, and solid waste generation make leather production harmful to the environment.

“We understood that this mattered deeply to the younger generation,” Ashiya notes.

After a period of testing and refining their products, the team decided to launch 12 different styles in the market. However, the COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant threat to the company. Ashiya credits its survival to a strong product-market fit and a robust support system, which led to Monrow achieving profitability in 2023.

"We have grown almost 70% between January and now," says Ashiya.

Staying resilient

Beyond the pandemic, the company also faced the uphill task of raising capital and navigating the male-dominated venture capital ecosystem. The brand has raised Rs 20 crore so far.

“With 95% of VCs being men, and only a small fraction of women VCs in decision-making positions, we have had to work hard to educate investors about the potential of our brand. I have faced my own share of discrimination, such as being asked for my husband's signature as a co-borrower for a business loan, which I refused to accept,” recalls Ashiya.

She believes that confronting these challenges head-on and speaking out against discrimination paves the way for future generations of women entrepreneurs. "Being vocal is so important. Otherwise, people won't even realise that they're discriminating against us," she says.

While Ashiya is focused on the brand’s values of comfort, sustainability, and product quality, she also wants to create opportunities for other women. "We need more women entrepreneurs to share their stories," she says. "When I was growing up, I didn't have many role models. We need the spectrum to be wider."