Our founder Soumya Dinesh has been the managing director and co-founder of Atula Technologies since October 2020. Soumya has an extensive background of 26 years of business experience spanning from floristry to chocolate and tech, with business experience in both the UK and India.
Growing up Soumya excelled academically and despite her initial interest in aviation, she went on to study finance at Pondicherry University, in India, where she grew up. She then worked for one of the biggest accounting firms in the world meaning she became a trendsetter for her peers, being one of the very few women in the company. While Soumya enjoyed finance she realised it wasn’t her passion so at the age of 22 took the reins of an at-home flower delivery company based around her parent’s flower shop in Bangalore.
Three decades ago being able to order flowers to arrive at your door blew the mind of Soumya’s peers. The florist shop grew from just one single unit on a high street, to the most well-known florist in India, with their deliveries and branding being seen nationwide. When it came to selling the business, it was valued higher because of the wide network she had built across the country.
Leaving India behind Soumya moved to the UK with her husband Dinesh and retrained in IT. It wasn’t long after that, unknowingly, Soumya started her next business venture with just a little bit of cocoa, milk and sugar.
Taking in dozens of chocolates for her work colleagues to sample, Soumya soon had orders flying out the door and a brand she would go on to call Cherish Chocolates. Her chocolates were sold up and down the country and later she found out her husband Dinesh had secretly entered her into the Great Taste Awards. This came with the news that several of her flavours had been given the coveted award.
With the business accelerating and Soumya’s children growing up fast, she felt the need to press pause on chocolates and focus on her family. She found it a very difficult decision but felt it was the right thing to do.
Then 2020 hit and along came the Covid pandemic which gave Soumya and her husband Dinesh an opportunity to bring their IT knowledge and business experience together. Since launching Atula Technologies, it has been a rollercoaster and earlier this year Soumya’s husband and business partner Dinesh passed away suddenly. This threw Soumya’s family and business world up in the air and led her to take up the reins by herself of Atula Technologies. While things are very different now, the company has exciting plans for growth.
Now Soumya spends her days overseeing a team of developers and designers while managing the regular communication with clients. From taking briefs, understanding client’s needs and applying her technical knowledge, no two days are the same. What Soumya loves the most is that we have been a huge part of our client’s success and growth.