The global economy has always been positively impacted by the introduction of startup companies, which has paved the way for the growing importance of their establishment among different countries.
This has made the governments of the respective countries come forward to encourage their growth and rapid development, along with apt regulation. This startup growth has been witnessed across different sectors of the industry in India as well as the rest of the world. India is one of the leading countries in startups, the government of India recognized 14,000 new startups in 2021. Some of the startups have also joined the Unicorn club. Here are some of the successful richest founders in India.
Zerodha – Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath
Swiggy – Sriharsha Majety
OYO Rooms – Ritesh Agarwal
Byju’s – Byju Raveendran
Ola Cabs – Bhavish Aggarwal
Zerodha – Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath
Nithin Kamath created Zerodha, a brokerage firm with an open and low-cost business approach, in 2010. Zerodha, presently led by both Kamath brothers, Nithin and Nikhil, is the country's largest brokerage, with an estimated 5 million active clients.
After reports in recent months that approximately Rs 80,000 crore of Indians' money sits unreported in various banking and Demat accounts, Nithin stated in September that Zerodha would be introducing an 'alert tool' to its platform to notify beneficiaries when an account becomes inactive.
Since they were teenagers, Nithin and Nikhil had been trading. The kids of a veena teacher and manager of Canara Bank grew up in Bengaluru's Basavanagudi, which is known for its lively traders. Nithin confesses that "greed" drew him into trading in the first place.
They'd joined Reliance Money and Way2Wealth as sub-brokers, respectively. Kamath Associates, a firm that handles money for others, was founded because of its trading prowess. The trading brothers had a sneaking suspicion that the firm was about to be disrupted. "When the jobs accomplished per transaction are the same, why should fees be dependent on transaction value?" had been a problem Nithin frequently pondered.
Nithin was aware of the industry's lack of transparency. The number of securities financial transactions tax or brokerage imposed by brokers was sometimes unclear to clients.
Despite the epidemic, Zerodha had its biggest year ever, with 1.5 million new users. Nikhil started his fund, True Beacon, for high-net-worth clients last year. It is still modest, with a corpus of Rs 380 crores, but it has gained an amazing 35 percent during the last 14 months.
For the time being, the Kamath brothers are concentrating on what they do best: providing the best trading experience and a risk-free alternative to investors. There is also no stock study and no sales targets for any of the employees, which leads to misselling. They've introduced Varsity by Zerodha, which includes market tutorials. And the primary broking service continues to be unadvertised.
Nithin, the company's CEO, makes product choices and oversees producing them, while Nikhil, the company's CIO, manages risk and deals on their account. They've invested in various firms in the investment field and given money to climate change solutions, thereby channelling their brokerage earnings for a good cause.
Net worth
They are the biggest Indian entrepreneurs under the age of 40, according to the IIFL Wealth Hurun India '40 and Under Self-Made Rich List' 2020, with Rs 24,000 crore. SEBI recently authorized them to establish an asset management firm.
Awards and recognitions
- The Confederation of Indian Industry bestows the Emerging Entrepreneur Award (CII).
- In its annual business review, The Economic Times recognized Kamath as among the 10 Indian entrepreneurs to follow in 2016 who have the most impact in their industries.
- Forbes Finance in India in 2016: 30 Under 30.
- According to the CII's CEO, "use technology to manufacture affordable things".
- Economic Times, December 31, 2015, "10 Businessmen to Watch in 2016".
Swiggy – Sriharsha Majety
Sriharsha Majety, Swiggy's co-founder and CEO, was always a little of a hermit. Sriharsha tries to stay out of the limelight, despite the Swiggy brand being everywhere, on billboards, on TV and online commercials, on your smartphone through the app, and so on. He doesn't make many media appearances, and he also doesn't hand out many press interviews.
A low profile, on the other hand, does not imply that he lacks an adventurous spirit or not be a risk-taker. He had resigned his position as a banker at Japanese investment banking titan Nomura to trek across Europe on a bicycle before founding his now-defunct first business enterprise. He rode his bike nearly 3,000 kilometres over Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Greece.
He returned and co-founded Bundl, a distribution system for online stores, with buddy and fellow BITS Pilani alumnus Nandan Reddy, who later went on to co-found Swiggy. It was a firm that aims to fill the void in the e-commerce fulfilment industry left by Amazon, Flipkart, and eBay.
However, by the time they launched their services, most large e-commerce companies were already handling their shipping, forcing Bundl to shut down. However, due to a lack of a technical co-founder, that company failed to take off, something Sriharsha has freely discussed in the past.
So, in 2014, Sriharsha and Nandan recruited IIT Kharagpur graduate and former Myntra web developer Rahul Jaimani as the 'tech brain' to launch Swiggy, equipped with a sense of discovery and lessons learned from the unsuccessful firm. As they say, the rest is history. Rahul left Swiggy last year after six years, although he remains on the board of directors and is still a shareholder.
Net worth
Sriharsha Majety net worth is estimated to be INR 1400 crores based on a 5% stake in the company. His earnings are kept under wraps.
Awards & Recognition
- India's 40 and Under Self-Made Rich List 2020, compiled by IIFL Wealth Hurun
- 2019 ET Awards Entrepreneur of the Year
Pratyusha Srivastava
OYO Rooms – Ritesh Agarwal
Ritesh was born in Bissam Cuttack, Orissa, to a business family. He had a lot of fun messing around with the computer and looking for possibilities to improve mistakes so that he could learn new things. And as a result, he developed a strong interest in software.
He began programming when he was just 8 years old, which is quite remarkable. As a result, software had become his passion. By the time he was in the tenth school, he already made it a priority that he planned to focus as a programmer.
Ritesh arrived in Delhi in 2011 intending to create his own business while also studying for the SAT to study in the United States. Money was not an issue for him back then as he had savings from Kota and his pocket money was adequate; around Rs.15,000 per month. SAT, on the other hand, never happened, thankfully or sadly. As a result, all he did was connect and study about businessmen, startups, enterprises, and, particularly, Airbnb!
Ritesh has witnessed and always believed that affordable hotels in India didn't even fulfil the most basic requirements of a budget tourist during his time in India. As a result of this opportunity, he launched his first company, Oravel Stays, in 2012. It was a search engine for bed and breakfast accommodations throughout India. It was designed to be a location for brief and midterm rentals of bed & breakfasts, private rooms, and serviced apartments, to put it another way.
With his newfound confidence, he began working even harder, but to his dismay, their company plan did not appear to be taking off. And no matter how hard he tried, nothing seemed to fit.
Ritesh even recruited Manish Sinha of Gurgaon-based Cinnamon Stays as a co-founder, but it didn't help, and Manish was forced to leave the company. They tried to copy the Airbnb concept, but that didn't work either, and the firm was unable to take up or receive significant transactions.
That's when Ritesh started thinking and realized that finding a good, reasonably priced, and perhaps most importantly "currently offered" hotel to stay in was the worst pain on the face of the earth while planning to travel, but as usual, many of us stayed in a terrible place with equitably terrible employees, meals, and so on, which ruined the entire trip.
This rekindled his desire to build an online but social community that would compile knowledge about all the nice places in one spot. Finally, Ritesh adjusted his current business strategy and re-launched Oravel as "OYO Rooms" in 2013.
Oyo Hotels & Houses is an Indian chain of hotels that has grown to be the biggest and fastest-growing hospitality chain in the country, with rented and franchised hotels, residences, and living areas.
During its early years, OYO mostly dealt with inexpensive hotels. Later, the company grew globally, with hotels worldwide and holiday homes in cities across India, Malaysia, Nepal, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, and others.
Following 2013, OYO continued to develop. It began operations in India and now runs in 800 cities across 80 nations. The business became a fully leased and franchised chain of hotels in 2018 and it raked in $211 million in income from 75 million worldwide stayed room nights, about 6 times more than the previous year. It had global staying room nights of 13 million, 6 million, and 4 million in 2017, 2016, and 2015.
OYO's revenue in 2019 was $951 million, up 740 million dollars from 2018.
It has bought over a million rooms with over 43,000 properties so far. The firm's holiday homes division allows access to over 130,000 homes across the world for tourists and city people.
Net worth
Ritesh Agarwal is among India's wealthiest men, with a net worth of $612.1 million (Rupees – 4,605 crores). As per the Hurun report, Ritesh Agarwal's net wealth has decreased and now he has lost his billionaire title due to the impact of COVID-19.
Awards and recognitions
- The TiE-Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award was given to him (2014).
- The first Asian American to win a Thiel Fellowship in the '20 Under 20' category (2013).
- Tata First Dot Awards named him one of the Top 50 Entrepreneurs (2013)
- India is a finalist in the Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards.
- Business Insider named her one of the "8 Hottest Teenage Start-Up Founders in the World" (2013).
- At the age of 17, the world's youngest CEO (recognized at 16).
Byju’s – Byju Raveendran
Byju Raveendran is the Founder and CEO of one of the most prominent EdTech startups in India Byju’s. The veteran Indian entrepreneur was born in 1981 at Azhikode, Kerala. He did his schooling from a Malayalam medium school, where his mother “Shobhanavalli” and father “Raveendran” were mathematics and physics teachers respectively. After schooling, he pursued B. Tech from the Government College of Engineering, Kannur.
Then after completing his graduation in the year 2003, he started working as a service engineer at a reputed MNC. Then after two years he quit his job and started helping people prepare for the CAT examination. In 2007, he commenced the test preparation business “Byju’s classes” which was a success, such that he opened his start-up Byju’s alongside his wife in 2011.
With the rapid growth of the smartphone industry in India, he launched what we know today as “Byju’s the learning app”. Within three years, the app got success at both national as well as international levels, as the app expanded its operation to English-speaking countries, such as the United Kingdom, the United States, etc.
Byju’s app adheres to a freemium operation model, primarily aimed at preparing Indian students aspiring to clear examinations such as CAT, IAS, IIT-JEE, NEET, etc. It also helps to provide teaching assistance and facilities to students of classes 3 to 12th.
The company overall gained so much success that in 2019 it even bagged the jersey right of the Indian cricket team. With over 33 million users and 2.2 million paid subscribers, along with a net worth of approximately 16.5 billion dollars, Byju’s is ranked among the top 5 national internet companies.
Net worth
The net worth of Byju Raveendran is over 8 billion dollars, which has made him the newest billionaire in the world in the year 2018. In 2021, the annual income of the Byju family stood at Rs 24,300 crores, which surpassed the family income of the Jhunjhunwala family, which stood at Rs 22,300 crores. Thus, from his journey, we can learn that the passion of learning to learn, coupled with an overarching plan in place, one can achieve anything and everything in life.
Awards and recognitions
- Awarded the Manorma News Newsmaker Award in the year 2019.
- Fortune Magazine 2020 ‘40 under 40’.
- Ernst and Young 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist.
- Winner of the Business Transformation Award in 2020 by Ernst and Young.
- Winner of the Forbes India 2021 Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Mahenoor Mansuri
Ola Cabs – Bhavish Aggarwal
Bhavish Aggarwal is one of the most successful Indian entrepreneurs of the 21st century. Currently co-founder and CEO of Ola Cabs and Ola electric, Bhavish was born in 1985 in Ludhiana, Punjab in a Punjabi Hindu family, comprising of his father “Naresh Kumar Aggarwal” and mother “Usha Aggarwal”.
He completed his graduation in B. Tech from IIT Bombay and after cracked the job of Research assistant at Microsoft. However, an incident occurred in his life, which led to a drastic change in his life.
One day, he along with his friend Ankit Bhati (IIT Jodhpur student) went for rendering car rental service, which was a bad experience overall. This bad experience made them realize that the system of car renting in India must be mended for the betterment of people, a realization that led to the birth of Ola cabs.
So, in 2010, Bhavish Aggarwal along with Ankit Bhati established a website Olatrips.com initially aimed at facilitating outstation cab rental services to the residents of Mumbai.
Till the year 2014, the company established a network that was widely distributed and comprised of a total of over 2,00,000 cars across 85 cities. The success of its overall operations and latest incorporation led to them implementing the same policies and practices in cities like Delhi, Pune, and Chennai in one month. 2015 witnessed the entry of Ola in the cities of Chandigarh, Indore, and Jaipur. Then in 2016, two-wheeler services were started as another service of Ola as a trail venture.
As of today, the company offers its services through its 3000+ employees in over 250 cities in countries, which consists of Australia, India, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The company’s net worth stands at a stupendous 6.5 billion dollars.
Net Worth
The net worth of Bhavish Aggarwal as of now is Rs 3500 crores, with an annual salary of rupees 180 crores, which made him end up in the Forbes as India’s 11th youngest billionaire.
Achievements and recognitions
- Won ET Award for Corporate Excellence for his start-up “Ola Cabs”.
- World’s 100 most influential people.
- Winner of the South Asia mBillionth award in 2013.
- The CEO of the year awardee at the 2019 South Asia SABRE Awards.
- Made it into the Forbes ‘30 under 30’.
- Made it into the Hindustan Times ‘30 under 30’.
- Best Entrepreneur awardee at the HATT Awards.
Abinaya Arangarajan
Conclusion
With the increase in the support and assistance given by the government to the start-ups, the young and budding Indian entrepreneurs must keep these role models as their benchmarks of success. The early initiatives of these listed people got them to where they are now. The startup founders are the embodiment of creativity and innovation. Their journey offers some valuable insights, following which the entrepreneurs can push their initiatives towards glory.
FAQ
Who are the richest entrepreneurs in India?
Bhavish Aggarwal, Ritesh Agarwal, Byju Raveendran and Nithin Kamath & Nikhil Kamath are the richest entrepreneurs in India.
How much do startup founders make in India?
The average salary of a startup founder is between Rs 15 lakhs to Rs 80 Lakhs depending on the experience.
Who is the youngest CEO in India?
Suhas Gopinath is the youngest CEO in India, he took charge of the CEO of Globals Inc. at the age of 17.
Source :- https://startuptalky.com/ Author :- Srishti Ranjan Date :- February 10, 2022 at 07:56PM