At just 23, Ankush Barjata established a company worth Rs 5 crore — all while working out of a small Himachal Pradesh village called Bangana.
Growing up, he had a harsh childhood. His family of 12 lived in a makeshift tin structure before moving to a 2bhk home. His grandfather would peddle clothes door to door.
Ankush went on to pursue computer science and took up a sales and marketing job in a Hyderabad-based company.
As part of this work, he met a saree manufacturer. Speaking to him, he got the idea to start an online platform selling sarees that eliminates the middleman in the large saree industry, connecting customers directly to the manufacturers.
In 2021, he quit his high-paying job and launched his platform, Deeva. However, much against his hopes, he experienced extreme losses. Amid societal pressure, he moved to Chennai to escape the situation.
This was a challenging chapter of his life. “I was living in a small room on rent and survived on one meal a day to save money. There were days when I wanted to quit; I wanted to cry and go back home,” he recalls.
But Ankush remembered all the promises of an opulent life that he made to his parents. “I had to find ways,” he says.
Ankush outsourced a digital marketing company to advertise the sarees. “I started getting sales through social media and got my first boost in April-May 2022 when I made sales of Rs 15,000 in one day.”
This was when Ankush decided to come back to Himachal. Since then, there has been no looking back.
Today, he has established a multi-crore company that sells sarees across the country in 50 categories — including Patola, Kanjivaram, Chanderi, Banarasi silk, and Chiffon sarees.
Early this year, Ankush also bagged a deal of Rs 2 crore (Rs 75 lakh for six percent equity along with a debt of Rs 1.25 crore at 10 percent interest for three years) in the season 3 of Shark Tank India.
Looking back at his success, Ankush says, “Recently, I gifted a seven-seater car to my father. We are building our dream house with a helipad and rooftop swimming pool in Himachal.”
“Although these are materialistic things, having a bada ghar, badi gaadi (big house, big car) are dreams of a lower-middle income family,” he adds.