From Making Chocolates to Launching an AI-powered Global E-commerce Accelerator, The Inspiring Story of Dr Somdutta Singh

Somdutta Singh who left her home with Res 2000 in her pocket at the age of 16 is now a serial entrepreneur whose latest venture is an AI-powered global e-commerce accelerator. 

Somdutta Singh was born in a traditional Bangali household to doctor parents. Since childhood, she was advised to follow in her parents’ footsteps and become a doctor. She remembers being very close to her father. But when Somdutta chose a different career path than becoming a doctor, her father asked her to leave home. Somdutta thus left her home with Rs 2000 in her hand to pursue her education in management. It was the year 1999 and she was 16 years old. She then reached Bangalore and joined Mount Carmel.

To meet her needs, she started sewing and making chocolates through which she earned almost Rs 5000 a month. All her collegemates were from well-off families, which was good for her business. But Somdutta began to crave her parents and the pampering from them. 

Three years later, she topped Bangalore University.

Soon she started working with Akamai and went on to complete her MBA from ISB followed by a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Later, she also worked with RedHat before starting up.

Somdutta set her first venture Unspun, a tech-driven marketing company in 2013. Unspun today manages two products that include ACT and Mypr.io. ACT caters to e-commerce businesses and helps them to understand a consumer’s online behaviour like demography, location, and interests. It creates, profiles and analyses target customers’ behaviour, scores their online activities and then recommends the right marketing channel. On the other hand, mypr.io caters to media houses. While the SaaS-based product lets companies publish their news, journalists too can find relevant information and connect with the companies.

She later went on to launch the Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence (CEE) which looks into policy matters, funding and digital education. For digital education, CEE reached out to semi-urban and rural areas where the youngsters are trained digitally.

Besides, she also founded Ira an online and offline marketplace. The platform allows fashion designers including homemakers and others to submit designs online. Based on the feedback, these designs are scraped or sent for manufacturing. Further, depending on the units sold, the designers are given a royalty. At present, Ira has stores in Kolkata and Bengaluru and soon plans to launch its third store in Mumbai.

And Her latest startup, Assiduus Global Inc,  an AI-powered cross-border e-commerce accelerator, helps direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands launch, scale, and grow across e-commerce marketplaces and geographies by enabling their digital commerce through end-to-end distribution and supply chain management. Assiduous globally fulfils and manages any products from brands like Cipla, Bulletproof, Swiss Image, Strive, and Poorna Gummies bought online from geographies like Japan, the US, and GCC.

Over the years, Somdutta has added many feathers to her cap by founding many startups. Also, she is a member of the Forbes Business Council. By 2025, Somdutta aims to make Assiduus Global into a billion-dollar revenue-generating e-commerce accelerator partner.

Credits: HerStory, EconomicTimes