eNews
Rejected by Google in 2013, entrepreneur returns as boss of startup division
GURUGRAM: Life moves in circles, not straight lines. Ragini Das, who fumbled Google’s final interview round in 2013, has just been handed the keys to Google for Startups India this October—a delicious plot twist that took 12 years, two groundbreaking ventures and one failed final round to materialise.
Back in 2013, Das had two shots on goal: Google and Zomato. Google said no. Zomato said yes. That rejection turned into a six-year masterclass in building consumer-tech brands. She went from selling ad space across Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi to spearheading Zomato Gold’s meteoric rise from zero to 2 million users, launching the subscription service across ten international markets from Australia to Lebanon. The company awarded her its first-ever “spark award” for spreading Zomato’s culture inside and outside the firm.
In 2020, Das took the entrepreneurial plunge, co-founding leap.club—India’s largest social-professional network for women. Over five-and-a-half years, she scaled it to 25,000-plus paid members and $3 million-plus in revenue, creating an online app and India’s first women-only offline club. The venture raised $2.2 million from venture capitalists and angel investors, with women comprising half the cap table. “If member love was an actual currency, leap.club would have been a unicorn,” Das wrote when announcing the pause in operations this June.
After the shutdown, Das spent the summer recharging: creating art, chasing fitness goals, travelling and photographing Jimmy, her dog. Then August arrived with a role at Google that sat squarely at the intersection of everything she’d built—zero-to-ten ventures, founders, growth. Two months of conversations later, the job was hers.
Now Das leads Google’s mission to connect Indian startups with the right people, products and practices to scale. She’s also taken on a voluntary role as chair of FICCI’s women in startups committee, championing visibility, capital access and policy influence for women-led ventures. A member of the 6 am club, she reserves weekends for mentoring young women in business and, naturally, Jimmy.
Twelve years ago, Google’s rejection stung. Today, Das walks through the front door—as the boss. Full circle doesn’t begin to cover it.
eNews
Swiggy sees record orders during India vs New Zealand T20 final
Chicken biryani tops match-day menu as fans order 7,500 times per minute at peak.
MUMBAI: India’s T20 final didn’t just break stumps, it broke Swiggy’s delivery records, proving cricket fans celebrate victories with plates, not just flags. Swiggy, India’s leading on-demand convenience platform, reported a sharp spike in food orders during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final between India and New Zealand. On 8 March 2026, overall orders rose 23.2 per cent year-on-year compared with the same date in 2025, driven by fans turning living rooms into mini stadiums complete with match-day feasts.
Key highlights from the evening:
- Orders during peak match hours (7–10 pm) were 2.1 times higher than pre-match levels.
- The highest order rate hit 7,500 orders per minute at 19:45.
- Chicken biryani reigned supreme as the most-ordered dish, followed by masala dosa, chicken fried rice, garlic breadsticks and paneer butter masala.
While metros such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad led volumes, the cricketing fever spread nationwide. Among emerging cities, Thiruvananthapuram, Surat and Rajkot recorded the strongest order growth. Smaller markets including Shillong, Agartala and Port Blair also showed significant appetite, underlining the expanding footprint of quick-commerce food delivery across India.
The surge reflects a growing trend of pairing major sporting events with doorstep delivery, turning big matches into shared, convenient celebrations. In a night where every boundary mattered, Swiggy proved the real MVP might just be the delivery partner who kept the snacks and the vibes flowing without missing a single wicket.
