(February 7, 2026) This year’s National Startup Day, observed on January 16, will always be special for Yosha Gupta, the founder of MeMeraki. The date marks the moment when her venture received the National Startup Award, at a ceremony presided over by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. For the entrepreneur who moved back to India after nearly 15 years of living and working abroad, the recognition carried deep personal and professional meaning. The ceremony that celebrated women-led, purpose-driven, and impactful startups represented everything she had set out to build with MeMeraki.
Through MeMeraki, Yosha has built a platform that works with hundreds of master artisans across India to document endangered craft traditions, create education and marketplaces around them, and build sustainable, long-term demand for craft across homes, institutions, and public spaces. Over the past five years, the platform has paid out more than seven crore directly to master artisans, many of whom are now earning more consistently than they ever did through seasonal fairs or intermediaries.
Yosha Gupta, Founder of MeMeraki
Rewinding to the past
The startup emerged at the intersection of her lived experiences, a love for art, a career spent thinking about scale and systems, and a personal commitment to fairness and human dignity. It became a way to bring together what she values most: craftsmanship, cultural continuity, and modern tools that allow tradition to survive and thrive in a contemporary world.
MeMeraki officially took shape when the pandemic forced physical markets and exhibitions to shut down. “In response, we launched live, digital art workshops led by master artisans, creating a way for them to continue earning while reaching audiences across geographies. These workshops became the foundation of what MeMeraki is today. Unofficially, though, the journey began nearly two years earlier,” Yosha shares with Global Indian.
“At the time, I was working with master artisans to create beautifully handcrafted handbags — a different product category but driven by the same mission. That phase taught me an important lesson: the channel or format may evolve, but the core insight remains constant. Everything we have built since then has been rooted in customer behaviour, lived feedback, and a deep respect for both the maker and the end consumer,” she adds.
Education, global exposure and coming back home
Currently based in Mumbai, Yosha moved back to India two years ago after spending close to 15 years living and working abroad. While her professional life took her across countries and continents, she comes from a deeply close-knit family that has remained her emotional anchor throughout.
MeMeraki Art Installation at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Mumbai
She studied at Lady Shri Ram College, where she formed deep friendships that continue to ground her. Professionally, she spent over a decade working in fintech and development across the Asia-Pacific region, including roles with the World Bank Group and the Gates Foundation.
“Those years taught me how institutions work, how scale is built, how impact can be designed deliberately, and how to work with people across cultures and countries — lessons that now shape my work as a founder,” she remarks.
Being arty
Art, however, was always a constant thread. Even while living outside India, she remained closely connected to Indian culture, organising classical music performances in Hong Kong, training intermittently in Indian classical music, and returning to the stage after a 14-year break to perform with a full philharmonic orchestra. Living in cities like Hong Kong and Sydney also shaped her love for the outdoors, a sensibility that continues to influence how she thinks, builds, and creates.
“Today, MeMeraki brings together everything I care deeply about — art, culture, technology, entrepreneurship, and community. Moving back to India and building this from Mumbai feels like coming full circle. More than a venture, MeMeraki is my single-minded pursuit to create something of lasting cultural and economic value in this space,” she says.
A pull towards craft
Craft felt like a calling long before MeMeraki formally existed. She has always been drawn to handmade objects and the quiet human effort embedded within them. “I grew up around art; my mother painted beautifully as an amateur artist, and some of my earliest memories are of feeling most at ease when surrounded by creativity. That emotional connection stayed with me, even as my professional life took me into technology, fintech, and global development,” she adds.
What pulled her decisively toward craft, however, was not nostalgia but a growing sense of injustice. “Craft represents some of the most intensive, skilled, and deeply human labour in our economy, and yet it remains among the least understood, least visible, and most undervalued. As someone who cares deeply about fairness and dignity of work, this imbalance troubled me. I felt strongly that this gap needed to be corrected not through charity, but by building systems that create visibility, demand, and sustainable value for makers,” she adds.
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Craft cues
At MeMeraki, the work sits at the intersection of craft, technology, content, and commerce. “We currently work with 500+ master artisans across more than 300 craft traditions from across India. Our engagement goes far beyond selling products. We document endangered and region-specific crafts, create structured educational content and masterclasses, and work closely with artists to translate their practice into formats that work for today’s audiences, whether that’s art for homes, workplaces, or large public spaces,” shares Yosha.
Building sustainable demand
On the consumer side, the team runs a curated digital marketplace for handcrafted artworks and objects, supported by strong storytelling, research, and content. On the institutional and B2B side, they act as art consultants and collaborators, designing murals, installations, and large-scale cultural interventions for airports, hotels, corporates, museums, and public institutions.
“What ties all of this together is a long-term approach. We build deep, ongoing relationships with artists, focus on fair compensation, and think carefully about scale and how to grow without reducing craft to a commodity,” she says.
Measuring impact
The impact is not an abstract metric; it is very tangible and deeply human. At the most basic level, it shows up as income, continuity, and dignity of work. “One of the moments that stayed with me was watching international audiences engage deeply with Indian master artists during live workshops, asking detailed questions about process, symbolism, and materiality. It reinforced something I’ve long believed: when craft is presented with context and respect, it resonates universally. Another has been seeing Indian crafts occupy spaces like global tech platforms, international exhibitions, and large public environments, places where these traditions were historically absent,” says Yosha.
Future perfect
The team has been deliberate and thoughtful about fundraising, choosing partners who align with our long-term vision rather than chasing capital for its own sake. The funding we have raised so far has been used to build foundational infrastructure — the kind that is often invisible but essential — across technology, content, research, and operations.
“Going forward, capital will be deployed across three key areas. The first is deepening our work with artisans, expanding documentation, onboarding new craft traditions, and investing in education and capacity-building so artists can engage more confidently with digital platforms and global audiences. The second is strengthening our technology and distribution, improving discovery, storytelling, and access through our platform, while scaling B2B and institutional collaborations that create higher-value, longer-term demand for craft. The third is building a strong, mission-aligned team across design, technology, content, and operations,” says Yosha.
Kalamkari Mural by MeMeraki
Lessons of life and obligation to add value
Yosha carries pieces of every place and person that has shaped her. “From my mother, a lifelong homemaker, I inherited a deep love for art, people, and empathy. From my late father and brother, both entrepreneurs, I learnt resilience, perseverance, and the courage to keep reinventing oneself, no matter the odds. My father ran a small business in Aligarh and struggled for many years, but his work ethic never wavered. Watching him start over in his early sixties, despite debt and repeated setbacks, left a lasting impression on how I approach risk, failure, and long-term commitment,” she says.
She admits that having benefited from global education and opportunity, she feels a deep obligation to use that privilege to build something that creates long-term value at home for people whose knowledge has travelled far less easily but whose work deserves a place on the world stage.
Looking ahead
“My focus going forward is on building MeMeraki into long-term cultural infrastructure rather than chasing short-term growth. That means deepening our work with master artisans, especially in documenting endangered and lesser-known craft traditions and ensuring that this knowledge is preserved accurately while remaining economically viable for the artists who carry it forward,” she concludes.
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