[100 Emerging Women Leaders] How Neha Kumari is taking crypto trading platform Carret to newer heights

Born and raised in Shahpur Patori, a small village in Samastipur, Bihar, Neha Kumari’s early years were marked by academic excellence and a strong will to break barriers. 

After completing her schooling from Samastipur, Kumari moved to Kota, Rajasthan to prepare for IIT-JEE. After an initial setback in 2010, she cracked the entrance exam the following year and joined IIT-BHU to pursue electronics engineering. The diverse nature of the course exposed her to computer science, algorithms, and data structures, giving her a strong footing and shaping her future in the tech industry.

“After graduating from IIT-BHU in 2015, I joined Oracle as an associate application developer in Hyderabad, and after a year-and-a-half moved to Bengaluru to work with fintech startup Phenomena. After the startup’s eventual closure, I joined Flipkart in 2017, gaining more experience in the fast-paced tech world,” she says.

Kumari was intrigued and fascinated by cryptocurrency and its potential to revolutionise finance. “I actively participated in blockchain hackathons and explored investment opportunities in crypto,” she shares. 

As she gained more experience, Kumari realised that most platforms in India were primarily focused on trading and did not cater to investors looking for structured, long-term solutions.

“As an Indian user, I realised that while there were multiple platforms established outside India where I could do KYC and onboard to start my investment, in our country, there were mostly trading platforms. Getting onboarded to an international platform, where you don’t have a lot of knowledge about how to convert INR to USDT and transfer USDT on blockchain may become challenging,” she explains. USDT is the currency code for Tether, a cryptocurrency that is pegged to the US dollar. 

The decentralised nature of blockchain and its ability to provide financial independence intrigued her. Kumari saw a clear gap in the market where Indian investors lacked seamless access to reliable crypto investment products.

Crypto investment platform for institutions and retail users

Coming from a family rooted in business for three generations, the idea of starting up had always appealed to her. In 2021, Kumari felt it was the right time to bank on her experience as a crypto investor to start Carret, a crypto investment platform for institutions and retail users. 

One of her friends from IIT-BHU connected her to Shuja Hussain from IIM-Ahmedabad. Their interests aligned, and they came together to build Carret.

Unlike traditional crypto exchanges that cater to retail traders, Carret specialises in institutional-grade investment solutions and over-the-counter (OTC) trading.

“Carret helps institutions invest and trade in cryptocurrency with ease. Our investment products allow users to diversify their portfolios, while our OTC trading desk provides personalised trading solutions,” she explains.

For institutional clients, Carret offers structured investment portfolios, risk-managed strategies, and personalised trading solutions with large transaction handling. Their OTC trading services enable high-value transactions with optimal rates and liquidity.

For retail users, Carret’s flagship investment product, 24Carret, offers a fixed return on crypto investments, much like a high-yield savings account or a fixed deposit. Retail users can deposit stablecoins and earn passive income on their holdings with competitive returns. 

Carret’s target audience is mainly large family offices, HNIs, UHNIs who are looking to diversify their investment in crypto or institutions who want to diversify their trading strategies by enabling crypto.

On the retail side, she says the 24Carret product attracts people in the 23-39 years age group.

“Our revenue model on the investment side of things is that we take a certain cut of the asset we are managing. On the trading side, we have a fixed fee of around 0.1%. Here we can end up making more depending on how much spread we are able to make from the buyer and seller,” she elaborates.

Carret has seen impressive growth, with over 50 institutional clients across India, UAE, and Hong Kong, along with a growing base of retail investors.

Navigating crypto challenges in India

Operating in the cryptocurrency space in India comes with its fair share of challenges. The regulatory landscape remains uncertain, and banks have historically been reluctant to work with crypto businesses. However, Kumari and her team have proactively established strong banking relationships, securing partnerships with over 14 banks.

A major milestone for Carret was being recognised as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) under India’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). “Being a reporting entity under FIU ensures that we comply with all KYC and AML norms, giving users more confidence in our platform,” she states.

Despite the challenges, Kumari remains optimistic about the future of crypto in India. “The regulatory developments in the last two years have been positive, and we continue to work closely with authorities to ensure compliance.”

Despite the crypto industry being predominantly male-dominated, Kumari has never allowed gender to stand in her way. “The conversations in this space are highly technical. As long as you add value, your gender doesn’t matter,” she says.

Kumari and her team of 15 are now focused on scaling Carret to new heights. Their immediate goal is to reach $1 billion in transaction volume, expand deeper into the Indian market, and explore opportunities in other Asian markets.

She encourages more women to explore entrepreneurship and tech. “Having deep domain knowledge and building an ecosystem around yourself is crucial. The more value you create, the more support you’ll find. Understand your domain thoroughly and build something that adds value—not just to your business but to the larger ecosystem,” she says.