TOP STORY: Hitched at 20, battling different difficulties, she has set up a second endeavor after Rs 5 crore turnover organization

Just ask Vineeta Agrawal, founder-CEO of VinzBerry, a Kolkata-based personal care, and wellness brand. For Vineeta, this is her second venture, after setting up a successful CA firm, ARVG & Associates, whose turnover touched Rs 5 crore in FY 2021-22. She started the CA firm with Rs 2 lakh along with her partner, Vikram Khaitan, in 2012 Launched in March this year, VinzBerry has already generated revenue of Rs 30 lakh and is expected to close at Rs 1 crore by the end of this financial year.

Growing up in a large middle-class joint family in Kolkata, she learned to be penny-wise from a young age. So, I learned the value of money at quite a young age, She says, giving us an insight into her family background and those happy growing-up years in Kolkata. Vineeta was born in Kahalgaon, a small town in Bihar, and moved to Kolkata when she was a year old after her father got a job at Usha Martin, a steel wire manufacturing company.

“People would laugh at me and bully me when I spoke in broken English, she says, who speaks fluent English now. He wanted to see at least one of his grandchildren married before his death, so I got married in 2002 when I was just 20, she says. Vineeta was in college at that time, but she completed her B.Com Honours from Shivnath Shastri College, Kolkata, the next year, though she could hardly attend any classes during the final year.

"I had to find, or rather fight for, my way, she says, because I knew that without a professional degree, I would be unable to pursue my own life and career. Those couple of years were the most challenging years of my life because managing my studies while meeting the expectations of the family as a newly married daughter-in-law and wife was difficult. She worked at Accenture, IBM, and DB Desai, before starting her own chartered accountancy firm in 2012, along with Vikram, also a CA, who was her colleague at DB Desai.

“We started with Rs 2 lakh, renting an office and buying an economical laptop,” She says. I devote just 5 percent of my time there now since last year,” She says, who is focusing more on her new startup these days. Vineeta started VinzBerry, an intimate and personal care company, in June last year and launched the brand in March this year. VinzBerry is a bootstrapped start-up with an initial investment of Rs 50 lakh, where Vikram is a partner too, but plays no role in operations.

Vineeta says, "VinzBerry was started from the need to acknowledge and prioritize a woman's intimate wellness and hygiene needs.” Vineeta explains how the idea for this came about: "I have been a working woman my entire life. We hope our products provide relief to women and create a platform for starting a conversation about intimate hygiene." Vineeta, who started working on this at the beginning of the pandemic, adds, "It has been my lifelong dream to build something meaningful, positive, which builds an identity, and is a problem solver.

With a team of eight members working in a hybrid model, She says, "We are shaping our products around the growing desire among women to nurture the least spoken of and the least prioritized body parts." Currently, VinzBerry has 14 SKUs and will be adding more in categories such as oral wellness, mental health, intimate hygiene, and so on. When Vineeta is not working, she loves to dance, listen to music, potter in the garden, and travel.