Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (1953-) Founder of BioCon, India's first biotech company Started: 1978 Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw's qualified as India's first female master brewer, but became an entrepreneur after failing to find a job in brewing. At the age of 25, she started Biocon in a garage with the equivalent of less than $200 in today's money. As a woman and one of the first pioneers of biotechnology in India, she found it difficult to obtain both staff and funding. Mazumdar-Shaw persisted and Biocon, one of India's leading drug companies, is now worth $800 million and employs more than 6,000 people at its vast campus in Bangalore.