List of 10 Youngest Self-made Billionaires in India
India is one of the best countries to start a business, boosting a large market, low operation costs, business-friendly laws, and government initiatives. This economic growth has led to the vast expansion of entrepreneurial and service-based industries in the region.
As a vital component of India's economic development, entrepreneurial activities have yielded productivity, wealth creation, and an improved standard of living for many.
With the increase in potential output, India has emerged as the fifth-largest economy by real gross domestic product and the third-largest economy in terms of PPI (Producer Price Index).
Consequently, more entrepreneurs are surfacing and becoming billionaires while impacting the financial strength and sustainability of their economy.
This article reveals the top 10 youngest self-made billionaires in India, their achievements, and valuable ideas to steal for business success.
1. Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Net Worth: 1.2 Billion (Forbes)
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is a successful digital entrepreneur, one of the most influential business owners, and a self-made billionaire in India. His entrepreneurship journey began at age 19, during his college days when he invented Indiasite.net.
He sold the site to a US-based advanced tech company, Lotus Interworks, propelling him to a net worth of over $1 million. Apparently, this became a major turning point for him in business.
In the year 2000, Sharma founded One97 Communications Ltd, a company that provided Indians with cricket scores, exam results, jokes, and ringtones.
The company became the parent organization of Paytm, an India-based transnational fintech company that specializes in digital payments and financial services, in 2010.
Since the establishment of Paytm, it has relentlessly fostered digitization of exchange means across various aspects of marketing, both offline and the eCommerce value chain.
With the unified payment interface, millions of users have enjoyed a great ease of payment. Owing to this achievement, he attracted more stakeholders and noteworthy recognition.
2. Binny Bansal
Net Worth: $1.4 Billion (Forbes)
Binny Bansal is an internet entrepreneur and one of the youngest billionaires in India. He graduated from IIT Delhi College, where he bagged his first degree in Computer Engineering in 2005.
Early in his career, Binny worked with Sarnoff Corporation and Amazon, after which he quit to co-found Flipkart, India's most prominent eCommerce platform, in 2007.
Binny's innovation has passionately worked towards improving the shopping experience, creating employment opportunities, leading the way in innovation, and paving the way for other eCommerce companies.
As the company expanded, he emerged as the Chief Executive Officer, Group CEO, and Chairman of the group. In 2018, Walmart became the major shareholder of the group, after which Binny resigned to start his eCommerce venture, Oppdoor.
Today, the former CEO, Binny Bansal, has become one of the biggest names and richest entrepreneurs in the history of India's business industry.
3. Sachin Bansal
Net Worth: $1.3 Billion (Forbes)
Sachin Bansal is a business magnate and one of India's richest entrepreneurs who co-founded the well-known Indian eCommerce marketplace, Flipkart. He acquired a degree in Computer Engineering at IIT Delhi in the same year with his friend, Binny Bansal.
The business icon resigned as a Software Engineer at Amazon to co-establish Flipkart with Binny Bansal in 2007. During his career at Flipkart, he emerged as the chief executive officer and chairman and later quit following the acquisition by Walmart.
Sachin Bansal, along with other investments, is now the CEO of Navi Technologies, a fintech startup. His firm is one of the fastest-growing financial service companies, providing Indians with low-risk loans, mutual funds, and insurance with a digital-first approach.
4. Nikhil Kamath
Net Worth: $1.1 Billion (Forbes)
Nikhil Kamath is a business tycoon and one of the youngest billionaires in India. Although he has no formal education, he became a 10th-grade dropout at a very young age. Kamath is the second youngest and richest self-made entrepreneur in India.
The business icon started his career at age 17 as an employee at a call center and engaged in stock trading on the side.
In 2010, he co-founded a discount brokerage firm, Zerodha, with his brother Nithin Kamth known for sharing educational and informative content on social media.
Zerodha is India's biggest stock broker offering zero-cost investment services with the aim of transforming the trading perception and encouraging more people to become investors.
Nikhil is a co-founder of True Beacon, an asset management firm, and Gruhas, a real estate and prop tech investment firm.
Forbes' list of India's 100 richest people shows that he became the youngest self-made billionaire at the age of 37.
5. Ritesh Agarwal
Net Worth: $1.1 Billion
Ritesh Agarwal is a renowned entrepreneur and the youngest billionaire in India. He launched his first business, “Oravel Travels,” at 18 years old, a small lodging portal dedicated to helping budget travelers afford satisfactory accommodations that meet basic needs.
The College Dropout, Ritesh Agarwal, secured funds through the accelerator program by Venture Nursery in 2012 and a grant through the 2013 Thiel Fellowship Program.
In May 2013, he relaunched his company as OYO Rooms. This magnificent achievement made him India's youngest billionaire, according to Hurun India's rich list, and the second-youngest self-made billionaire in the world in 2020.
As a way of encouraging young startups, he dishes out informative content that challenges mainly youths to believe they can achieve success just like him.
6. Ankit Bhati
Net Worth: $1 Billion
Ankit Bhati is the CEO of Amnic Technologies and co-founder of Ola Cabs. The ride-sharing company Ola Cabs is one of the most used ride-hailing service providers by cab drivers in India.
He co-founded the company together with his friend Bhavish Agarwal in the year 2010. Having served as the Chief Technology Officer, he launched a Service startup called Amnic Technologies.
Amnic is a cloud intelligence platform that offers IT operations, software development for website maintenance, and multimedia management. With Amnic's innovation, organizations can seamlessly manage their IT space and web presentations more efficiently.
7. Bhavish Agarwal
Net Worth: $1.4 Billion
Bhavish Agarwal is the co-founder of the Indian-grown taxi aggregator Ola Cabs and the founder of Ola Electrics.
Ola Electric is India's largest manufacturing company of two-wheeler electric vehicles. The establishment of the company has helped in reducing the emission of gas pollutants and fuel dependency of ICE vehicles across the country.
With the setup of charging stations across the city, the company gained popularity among the people. Many residents of India now enjoy efficient means and reduced cost of transportation.
At 28, Bhavish Agarwal was ranked among Forbes 30 under 30 and the richest of the year at the ET award at 32.
8. Deepinder Goyal
Net Worth: $650 Million
Deepinder Goyal is the founder of Zomato, one of India's largest restaurant aggregators and food delivery service providers.
The food-based company initially launched as Foodiebay, serves more than 24 countries of the world, achieving the largest hyperlocal delivery networks in India.
In 2014, Deepinder Goyal acquired Cibando, Gastronauci, Poland's restaurant search assistance, as one of its subsidiaries.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Zomato experienced a fall in its food list delivery and considered grocery delivery as it was in rising demand. In June 2020, Zomato closed operations of grocery delivery as demand for food delivery recovered.
Deepinder Goyals' brilliant ideas have enhanced a positive change in the lives of Indians.
9. Divyank Turakhia
Net Worth: 1.54 Billion (Forbes)
Divyank Turakhia is tech-savvy and an Indian-born billionaire. He graduated from Narsee Monjee College in Mumbai where he acquired a degree in Commerce and Economics yet honed his skills in computer programming.
At 16, he co-founded a tech company with his 18-year-old brother Bhavin Turakhia, funded by their father, who was a chartered accountant.
He later became the founder of the Ad-tech company called media.net, which was later sold to a Chinese consortium for $900 million in 2016. The company functions as a vertical ad network that helps advertisers deliver specific adverts to their target audience.
Divyank Turakhia's skills have enhanced a positive change in the Indian marketing industry.
As part of his achievement, he ranked the second richest self-made entrepreneur in India under 40.
10. Kaivalya Vohra
Net Worth: Rs 1,000 crore
Kaivalya Vohra, a Stanford University dropout, is a food-based entrepreneur. He dropped out at 18 years old, together with his friend Aadit Palicha, to co-found Kiranakart before launching Zepto in 2021.
Zepto is a Mumbai-based startup that offers on-demand grocery delivery services. Vohra's initiative has transformed India's food-based shopping experience by providing a reliable e-grocery store for daily needs.
The brand landed him and co-founder Aadit Palicha on the same rich list as Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani.
As seen on the IIFL Hurun India Rich List of 2023, Kaivalya Vohra emerged as the youngest richest Indian in the next decade after Ritesh Agarwal.
11. Aadit Palicha
Net Worth: Rs 1,200 crore
Aadit Palicha is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Zepto, an online grocery and food delivery company in Mumbai, India. He obtained a diploma in Mathematics and Computer science at GEMS Academy with
Palicha dropped out of Stanford University the same year with his friend Kaivalya Vohra to co-found Kiranakart, a 45-minute e-grocery delivery store, before launching Zepto.
Zepto's proposition of delivering groceries within 10 minutes made waves amid the COVID-19 pandemic, helping the Indian economy navigate through the effects of population growth.
Palicha's accomplishments as Zepto's CEO have earned him notable recognition as its rapid emergence as the fastest-growing on-demand grocery business impacted the Indian economy.
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