The famous ride-hailing platform Ola has decided to shut down its used cars division, Ola Cars and its quick commerce business, Ola Dash.
At a time when the quick commerce segment in India is expected to reach $5.5 billion by 2025, growing 15 times its current size, why did Ola decide to close Ola Dash operations?
Ola Cars which allowed customers to buy and sell second-hand cars is also being closed down within one year of its launch. For what reasons Ola Cars was shut down? Find answers to all of these questions in this article.
Ola said that they decided to shut down both of their businesses since they wanted to focus more on Ola Electric. But, is that it? Or is there something more to it? Let’s uncover the exact reasons that led to the closing down of Ola Cars and Ola Dash.
No Laser-Sharp Focus
Ola originally started with a ride-hailing business model. In that sector, Ola became very successful. Although the company has always tried to enter new sectors. This is not the first time that Ola is closing one of its startups.
In 2015, the company founded a food delivery service Ola Cafes, a similar service to UberEats.
Ola Cafe
The company also launched a grocery delivery service Ola Stores. Both of these businesses were shut down a year later because the company was not able to attract a lot of customers.
In 2019, the company again tried to jump into the food delivery service by acquiring Foodpanda. However, the company was not able to gain the expected revenue and the company was shut down.
Even after shutting down 3 of its subsidiaries Ola’s will to experiment didn’t stop. In 2019, the company launched Ola Foods, a cloud kitchen business where the company planned to build 500 facilities across the country. But, only 50 cloud kitchens were set up in 2020.
Unfortunately, Ola Foods also failed and now the company is selling its cloud kitchen equipment at a 30-50% discount.
This year Ola tried to leverage the rapidly growing quick commerce segment with Ola Dash but, as you know, this business failed as well.
All these things show us that the company lacked the laser-sharp focus that any business needs in order to be successful in the market. There is nothing wrong with entering different markets but, you should first understand the market conditions.
Ola has 4 failed startups because the company never understood the competition and market conditions. When Ola tried to enter 3-4 different markets where the company didn’t have any expertise the company was not able to properly strategize and allocate resources to different sectors.
On top of that, Ola’s primary ride-hailing service was incurring heavy losses as well. A lot of drivers were leaving the company due to huge salary cuts. Customers as well were not using Ola due to a surge in prices.
Due to all of these reasons the company had no option other than closing down Ola Cars and Ola Dash.
Uncertain Nature of Quick Commerce
As we all know all the companies which are in the quick commerce segment are facing heavy losses. Be it Dunzo, Zomato or Swiggy Instamart.
Ola was also one of those companies which were incurring heavy losses in the quick commerce segment. But, why are these companies incurring losses?
There are two reasons for this: No customer loyalty and heavy discounts. Let’s understand both of these aspects in great detail.
To acquire customers in the quick commerce segment, you need to give heavy discounts to customers on groceries and other items in order to encourage them to try the app. When companies are giving discounts they are not making any profits. But, still, the companies are giving heavy discounts because this is the only way to make customers habituated to your app.
But, here the question arises: How long can you give customers discounts? At a certain point in time, any company like Zomato or Ola Dash have to stop giving discounts.
As customers are using their service just for discounts, there is no customer loyalty. Due to this Ola was not able to make a loyal customer base.
Apart from this, the increased competition in the market from newly launched startups like Zepto and Dunzo made things worse for Ola and the company decided to shut down Ola Dash.
Future Plans of Ola
The quick commerce segment is booming in India. There is a tough fight going on with so many startups like Zepto, Dunzo and Swiggy Instamart in order to capture the quick commerce market in India.
In December 2021, Swiggy invested $700 million into Instamart.
On the other hand, Zomato recently acquired Blinkit, a quick-commerce grocery delivery platform for Rs 4,447.
Zepto, a very popular 10-minute delivery platform, raised $200 million, taking the total valuation of the company to $900 million.
If so many companies are draining millions of money in this sector why did Ola decide to shut down Ola Dash?
Ola said that the company wants to focus more on Ola Electric. Instead of dabbling between multiple businesses Ola has reassessed its priorities and decided to use all of its resources in strengthening its electric sector.
Ola Car’s infra, technology and capabilities will be repurposed towards growing Ola Electric’s sales and service network, the company said in a statement.
Ola’s decision to shift its complete focus on the electric business makes sense because, within months of its launch, Ola Electric has already become India’s largest EV company.
Ola Electric
Ola Electric is delivering huge profits for the company, Rs 500 crore revenue in its first two months of FY 22-23. The company is on its way to surpassing a $1 billion run rate by the end of this year.
Due to all of these positive correlations the company has understood that if they want to stay in the race for a long time it must focus on its electric scooters. Ola has also planned to launch its second electric scooter before the end of this year.
Apart from focusing on its electric sector the company also wants to invest in new areas like cell manufacturing and financial services. To enter the world of fintech Ola has acquired Avail Finance, India’s first neobank that aims to provide financial services to the blue-collared workforce.
Conclusion
As Ola is now allocating all their resources towards Ola Electric it would be interesting to see the future of this company. Even though Ola Electric is India’s largest EV company, it did face a lot of problems in the past for its faulty batteries.
The competition in the electric sector has increased tremendously with players like TATA Motors, Mahindra, Okinawa, Tunwal and Kia Motors. Ola needs to continuously innovate and understand the market conditions if they want to be successful in the EV sector.
FAQs
Why did Ola shut down Ola Cars and Ola Dash?
Ola decided to shut down its used car division, Ola Cars and its quick commerce business, Ola Dash because the company wants to use all of its resources in strengthening Ola Electric. Ola Car’s infra, technology and capabilities will be repurposed towards growing Ola Electric’s sales and service network.
What is Ola Cars?
Using Ola Cars customers could buy and sell their used cars. Under this business, the company would purchase used cars from people and from the company’s driver-partners and would sell them to interested buyers.
Knowing your potential is not enough unless you act on it. You have always known you could be an entrepreneur but hesitated, doubted your capabilities?. Do not, because India has entered the age of free enterprise, private businesses if you have not already noticed.
World Bank has predicted 11+% GDP growth rate for India in Year 2021-22 far higher than any major world economy. Is it possible without the start-ups/entrepreneurial spirit? No, it is not. So why not dismiss your fears and be a part of India’s growth story.
Have you been dreaming to get into transport/cab business. This write-up covers everything you need to know.
Ola & UBER are two mega multi-national transportation companies of the world that though provide public transport but give the benefits & feel of a private transport to its commuters. That was the main motivation for people to choose their services and they succeeded in meeting their customers basic needs – Quick, cheap, ease & round-the-clock hassle free service that was.
The fundamental business model of these cab aggregators is simple. That is connecting commuters (customers) seeking on-demand cabs with the company’s driver-partners through a company owned mobile app.
The company earns its revenue by way of commission or fees levied on each ride hailed. (Both these taxi services can be booked through their respective websites too.). So in how many ways can one do business with UBER and Ola. In addition, what is the process from start to finish. Let us find out.
How to Start a Business with Uber?
There are three Ways to Earn With Uber Drive Business:
Driver cum owner
You have a car, are willing to attach it with Uber and you also drive your own car.
Commercial driver under partner
You do not own the car but wish to drive under the Uber platform. You get to drive a vehicle owned by an Uber non-driving partner.
Note: You can even choose to drive a commercial auto-rickshaw or motorbike/scooter if that service is available in your city.
Non-driving partner
You own the car, attach it with the Uber platform without self-driving any but have to manage at least one driver.
There you go. Choose any of the three depending upon your resources and earning needs.
Step-by-Step Process
Step 1. Sign up on the Uber platform through its website, by entering your basic details like name, phone no, email, city.
Step 2. If you choose first or third option from above, you’ll land up on this page
If you choose the second option, you’ll land up on this page
Step 3. Now set up your account as directed i.e. by submitting all of the above document files online. If you do not have them online, click a picture from your mobile or scan it using a cam-scanner app and upload. You can upload all the docs in the same manner. It is much easier & faster than submitting hard copies by queuing up in the office.
Step 4. To Activate your account, Bring your car to a local green light hub. These hubs are locations in a city where you must bring your car for inspection and other things. Requirements vary by city, so sign up to know.
Step 5. Once your account is set up, you can look up all the necessary information you need to know about doing business with Uber. You can even get help by contacting their phone support number.
You have a car that you want to attach with Ola platform. You also drive your own car.
Register yourself in less than a minute by entering your name, phone no. and your city. Ola team will get in touch with you within 24 hours. Additionally, be ready with these basic documents.
Benefits of this plan are:
Choose your own working hours
Choose from 100 cities to work in
Daily payments 365 days a year
Get a booking on your way home
24/7 helpline for support
Lease a Car
You know driving and need a car to drive. Ola provides you with a car without you having to worry about maintenance and insurance. Register yourself in less than a minute by entering your name, phone no. and your city. Ola team will get in touch with you within 24 hours.
Following documents are all you require to begin driving independently with Ola.
Other benefits you will derive with this plan:
Get a car at zero risk
Free accidental insurance of 2 lakhs
Zero maintenance cost
Drive a new car of your choice
Two paid holidays each month
24/7 helpline for your support
Note: If you are an auto driver, you can also attach your auto by submitting the documents, downloading the app and start to drive with Ola.
Become a fleet operator
You own a fleet of cars and you want to attach it with Ola. You just need to track & control your fleet through specialised app.
Register yourself in less than a minute by entering your name, phone no. and your city. Ola team will get in touch with you within 24 hours.
Following basic documents are required. These are also the exact same documents you will need under option one i.e. to become a ‘partner with a car’.
Benefits under this scheme:
Get detailed reports of total earnings
Monitor driver logins and other trip details
Live tracking of all your drivers and cars
Get alerts like payments, logouts, etc.
Check your fleet’s performance anytime
Receive 24/7 phone support
Sure you will have further queries like ‘registration charge, initial payment if any to lease a car or two drivers for a single car’ etc. For this, you just have to visit the Ola Partner Portal.
Note: You can also attach your Rickshaw or Bike with Ola. To know more, visit the above web page & send your enquiry through a quick action tab.
Things to Consider Before Starting business with Ola or Uber
There is no definite answer but there is an answer definitely that can help you decide whether to do business with either/both of them or not. Here are two Factors to consider.
Profitability
You will surely get a ‘fare’ share of the rent but will you also get a ‘fair’ share? Is it profitable to attach car with Ola or Uber? To find an answer to this, you need to know the cost structure of both companies. Here’s the cost break-up if you rent a car:
According to the source site, you have to work 3-4 hours just to break even i.e. to earn enough to not make a loss. Therefore, in order to make any profit, you will need to work more than 3 hours a day.
And what if you attach your own car. You already have all the cost & pricing details, so just pick up a pen-paper and calculate your likely earnings, deducting all the costs.
This is a very crude analysis, which you can take as a starting point. However, it can certainly help you build a business/earning plan that suits your specific requirements.
Ease of operation & technological superiority
These two factors directly add to your job satisfaction. Consider each carefully. App features-wise & its daily payment feature make Ola look superior to Uber. Even though some may contest that Uber is cheaper in general.
However, according to user experiences, Ola & Uber fare differently in different cities. Hence, a ground study & research is the best approach before you decide to choose one of the two.
Conclusion
Both Ola & Uber have ambitious plans for the future. While Uber has a vision of becoming the top urban mobility platform, Ola is striving toward building mobility for a billion people. Whoa! Why dream small, right!
FAQs
Can I do business with Ola & Uber both?
Yes, you can do Cab business with both Ola and Uber.
Are there fixed work hours or timings for Cab drivers in Ola and Uber?
No, there is no fixed time or hours of business with either Ola or Uber. You can choose when & how much you want to work.
What are future service offerings of Ola & Uber?
For Uber few of the future business offerings could be electric scooters, bike-sharing & autonomous (driver-less) vehicles. Apart from its wide range of cab booking services, Ola plans to launch its own line of electric scooters via its ‘Ola electric mobility’ subsidiary.
Is putting the car in Ola profitable?
You can easily profit over Rs. 15,000 a month by giving car to Ola.
What percentage does Ola/uber take?
Both Ola and Uber take 25–40% of the amount as their commission.
Gig employment has revolutionized the Indian economy in recent years, providing a large number of jobs for the population and adding to the country’s GDP in the long run. It is getting so popular that people are actively choosing gig work over regular work due to the convenience and flexibility of the job. Companies that recruit gig workers save money on office space, equipment, and other expenses, while workers enjoy flexible work schedules and the opportunity to do something they like and also earn more by doing multiple gigs.
Gig jobs were already popular before the pandemic, but since the COVID outbreak, many individuals who lost their normal employment have turned to gigs, which are very easy to find and offer an excellent opportunity to make money. More businesses are turning to gig workers in place of full-time staff, and their operational methods are shifting as a result. This allows them to hire more talent but at a lower cost.
Companies that provide gig jobs are expanding in India, and they are assisting a large number of people who are looking for work. We’ll take a look at a few of these businesses in this article.
About Gig Economy and Benefits and Challenges of Gig Workers
Flipkart
Flipkart – Gig Economy Company
Most of the gig workers working at Flipkart are delivery service people. Founded in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, the e-commerce giant connects sellers to the consumers and delivers the products to the customers. Flipkart also provides training to its supply chain employees and provides them with all the gear necessary for the job.
Urban Company
Urban Company – Gig Economy Company
Urban Company is an on-demand home service platform that allows consumers to access a variety of services from the comfort of their own homes. Urban Company currently has 35,000+ skilled professionals providing 7,50,000+ services each month, as well as having a worldwide presence in four countries.
Bigbasket
Bigbasket – Gig Economy Company
Founded in 2011, Bigbasket is an online grocery delivery service that brings goods to your home once you place an order. The company employs roughly 35,000 people across 30 Indian cities, a large percentage of which are delivery drivers.
Swiggy is an online food delivery service that brings food right to your door. Founded in 2014, Bangalore-based company that operates in 500+ cities. Swiggy is also known as one of the fastest-growing unicorn companies in India. This delivery business, which employs over 1,30,000 people, makes around 1 million deliveries every day.
Zomato
Zomato – Gig Economy Company
Zomato was launched in 2008 as Foodiebay, and in 2010 it was renamed Zomato Media Pvt Ltd. Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah were the founders of the Zomato. The business joined India’s Unicorn club in 2018. It is available in a variety of countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom.
Amazon
Amazon – Gig Economy Company
Amazon first entered the Indian market in 2013, and it has since grown to become one of the country’s largest online retail platforms. Amazon has created Flex, which provides part-time delivery work and other Amazon gig jobs in India for workers who want to make extra money. Those who have their own vehicles are eligible to apply for the delivery job, and can earn around Rs.140 per hour.
Dunzo
Dunzo – Gig Economy Company
Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Agarwal, Dalvir Suli, and Mukund Jha established Dunzo in 2014. It’s an online service that delivers necessities and groceries to customers’ homes. The company is headquartered in Bangalore. Jaipur, Gurgaon, Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Hyderabad are among the eight major cities in India where Dunzo is now active.
PharmEasy
PharmEasy – Gig Economy Company
PharmEasy is an online drug and healthcare supplies delivery service based in Mumbai. The application also provides online doctor consultations and telehealth. PharmEasy app works by taking the customer’s prescription, verifying it at the store, and then delivering the medications as needed. During the pandemic, the company also launched the gift a mask campaign, in which customers were encouraged to donate a mask to frontline employees, with the company matching each donation.
Ola Cabs
Ola – Gig Economy Company
Ola cabs, often known as Ola, is an online taxi and rideshare service that offers consumers rides that can be simply booked online. The company, which is based in Bangalore, provides services in practically all of the country’s main cities. Despite its many issues, Ola continues to have a large user base in the country.
Porter
Porter – Gig Economy Company
The company was founded in 2014 and is active in over 13 cities and has served over 50 lakh customers. The Porter provides transportation aids to the customers, which also helps the owner-drivers with employment and provides them with a consistent source of income. For now, the company has around 2 lakh owner-drivers.
Uber
Uber – Gig Economy Company
Uber began operations in India in 2013, and it has since served over 95 million riders and drivers. It is an online taxi and rideshare company that accepts online reservations for rides. Uber India has supplied gig jobs to a large number of drivers, however the Uber structure in India is very different from that in other developed countries.
Mr. Right is a home service business that offers a variety of services such as appliance repair, deep cleaning, and more. The company accepts orders online and will send a professional with a good track record to the customer’s home to complete the work. The organization employs over 60,000 freelancers and offers a variety of home services.
Blinkit
Blinkit – Gig Economy Company
Blinkit, formerly Grofers, is an online platform for ordering groceries and other necessities. Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar founded the company in 2013. The company began operations in Delhi and has since expanded to other cities. The company’s goal is to alleviate the problems and inconveniences that customers and merchants face as a result of the market’s disorganized setup.
Conclusion
Gig jobs are slowly but steadily gaining popularity in India. Because of the pandemic, there has been an increase in gig workers, and some individuals are enjoying it and do not want to return to their former jobs. Gig jobs offer convenience and flexibility. Gig workers make up a major portion of the country’s workforce and contribute significantly to its GDP. It is something that the authorities must address, and actions to protect gig workers and provide them with fair working conditions must still be taken.
FAQs
What is gig work?
Gig workers work as short-term, temporary, or independent contractors for one or more companies, rather than a regular, in-office, full-time position with a single corporation.
How much do gig workers earn in India?
The average salary for gig workers in India is around Rs 12,000 to Rs 16,000.
What is the most popular gig job?
Delivery driver is the most popular gig job.
What is called Gig economy?
Gig economy is a workforce environment for short-term employment, contractual jobs, and independent contractors who do not get monthly wage, isntead they get paid for completing a Gig.
You must have already heard about Ola Electric scooters, popularly dubbed as “A revolution on two wheels”? They are the reason for the popularity of #JoinTheRevolution.
Promising exceptional acceleration, remarkable handling, and strikingly large boot space, Ola’s electric vehicles can be charged anytime, anywhere and will eventually have the world’s largest and the most advanced factory in Tamil Nadu. They have certainly come up with revolutionary vehicles with an eye towards a sustainable future.
The Ola Electric scooters have already been available for pre-booking with a token sum of Rs 499 from July 15, 2020, and have witnessed more than 1 lakh registrations within the first couple of days. Words are going around that Ola will have these scooters home delivered for the people who will register for them online and the deliveries have also been started lately amidst the numerous roadblocks that the EV mobility makers had to face due to the global crunch of semiconductors.
With an aim to empower cleantech when it comes to transportation, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has revealed the plans of the Indian government to create special mobility zones for electric vehicles and the focus on implementing effective battery-swapping policy along with the formation of interoperability standards during the Union Budget speech 2022. Though the setting up of EV charging stations across the country is something that has been going rounds for months now, this new focus on battery-swapability is something new and interesting!
Though the luxury carmakers, the likes of Mercedes and Jaguar Land Rover have already been delivering their vehicles home for their customers for quite a while now, Ola will certainly be the first vehicle manufacturer in India to do so!
So, have you already booked the Ola scooters for yourselves? If not, then here are some alternatives that you can check out in case you are planning to buy electric scooters:
Ather 450X was launched in 2020 and has remained a best-seller in its category to date. And why not? The vehicle simply packs some of the best features of its kind.
The Ather electric scooter can be charged from 0-80% in around 3 hours 35 minutes and offers a driving range of 116 km when fully charged. The ex-showroom price of the vehicles starts from Rs 1,32,426 in Delhi.
Simple One
Simple Energy was incorporated in 2019 and is a Bengaluru-based electric startup company. Recently they have announced that they are about to launch their first electric scooter, Simple One, which will be released in August 2021.
These scooters will offer a driving range of 240kms in one 70 minutes charge. The ex-showroom price of these vehicles would likely be starting from Rs 1,10,000 and are deemed to be one of the prominent rivals of Ola Scooters.
TVS iQube
TVS Motor Company is one of the oldest, popular motorcycle manufacturing companies of India, which is currently the third-largest motorcycle company with a revenue of over Rs 20,000 crores in the last fiscal.
TVS has been in the league of electric scooters since 2008 when it first launched TVS Scooty Teenz. Its iQube is the second model in the same segment. Launched on January 25, 2020, iQube has become one of the best-selling electric scooters in Indian markets.
These scooters can achieve a 40 kmph speed within 4.2 seconds. Furthermore, they offer a maximum distance of 75 km in a single, full charge and are definitely a big, old rival for Ola’s e-scooter.
Founded as early as 1887 in Japan, Yamaha Motor Company is really one of the oldest motor companies in India that have built enormous trust with its quality products and services.
Yamaha has already seen a successful run with its scooter models and has announced the forthcoming launch, in June 2021, of its electric scooter in the Indian market. The motorcycle maker has also stated that it is currently being thorough with the Indian policies around electric vehicles before unveiling its electric bike.
Suzuki Burgman Electric
Suzuki Motorcycle India, an Indian subsidiary of Suzuki, Japan, is one of the Big Four motorcycle manufacturers from Japan along with Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Honda, and has already witnessed a successful venture with its scooters and motorcycles in India.
Given the latest hype surrounding electric scooters in India, Suzuki India is also planning to launch its first electric bike, Suzuki Burgman Electric, which is to hit the roads in December 2021 and is billed as a powerful alternative to Ola Electric.
The scooters will likely wield a top speed of 80kmph, and sport a driving range of around 125km. They might also have swappable/portable battery technology. Burgman’s petrol scooters are priced around Rs 1 lakh mark, and the electric offering might be starting from Rs 1.50 lakh, on-road.
Hero Gogoro
Hero Motorcorp, which was formerly known as Hero Honda, is the largest two-wheeler manufacturer in the world as well as in India. The Indian motorcycle manufacturing giant based in New Delhi, India, has already won the hearts of the Indians with their varied motorcycles for all kinds of customers and is now eyeing a similar success with its electric bike that is set to launch in 2022.
Hero has already partnered with EV behemoth, Gogoro, and is all set to set up charging infrastructures all over the country, then release their electric scooter. Coming quite late in the market Hero-Gogoro vehicles are deemed to have a good understanding of the market and will be foolproof against any odds!
As of July 2021, we can expect a price tag of Rs 1.3 lakh, until any further updates but it will surely be a challenger to all the electric vehicle manufacturers including Ola Electric.
Bajaj Auto Limited, a part of Bajaj Group, which was founded in the 1940s, had been quite popular with its two-wheelers and three-wheelers ever since its vehicles hit the road. Bajaj Chetak, the most popular scooter from the house of Bajaj, has already established a legacy, from 1972-2006, in the Indian scooter market.
Bajaj launched its Chetak Electric in January 2020, to recreate the magic. With a riding range of 90 km on a full charge, and promising a full charge of 100% within 5 hours, Chetak Electric is holding a strong position in the market as of now.
Conclusion
With a battleground ahead to make a place for themselves in the two-wheeler market of India, Ola Electric should surely prove its resilience to stay strong in the upcoming years. Nevertheless, the future for Indian two-wheelers is indeed in the safe hands of a bunch of trustworthy vehicle producers, who are not only racing for their own benefit but for the overall good of the country and the world with their eco-friendly vehicles.
FAQ
What is the price of Ola electric scooter in India?
The Ola electric scooter is priced around Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh in India.
Which is best electric scooter in India?
Revolt RV400, TVS iQube Electric, Bajaj Chetak, and Ather 450X are some of the best electric scooters in India.
What is the range of Ola electric scooter?
The Ola electric scooters can achieve a range of 130-150 kilometers.
Ankit Bhati is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Ola Cabs. He founded Ola with his companion Bhavish Aggarwal in 2010. He is also the Co-founder of ANI Technologies. Speculations arose that Ankit Bhati distanced himself from the ridesharing company last year owing to some serious conflicts between him and the founder of the company, Bhavish Aggarwal. Nonetheless, his contribution to the company is way more than such conjectures. So, let us know more about him in the article ahead.
Ankit Bhati was born in the year 1987 in Jodhpur, India. He currently resides in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. He is considered an introvert who spends his time coding while sitting in a corner. He likes to spend his spare time playing video games with his friends. Ankit Bhati is active on social media platforms including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
During his academic career, he was not interested in extracurricular activities rather he was more interested in computers. Ankit used to spend most of his time at the computer center. Bhati was less of a guy who would hop to the basketball court in his leisure but more of one who would sit in front of a computer. Ankit also became the administrator in the computer center he mostly used to hang out. Along with diving deep into video games, Ankit also loved to build websites and worked on freelance projects to make money during his college days.
Apart from computers, he has a great interest in cycling and adventure trips that he took where he also tagged his friends along. The idea of building a trip website (Olatrips.com) was initially out of his interest in adventure trips.
“It always is about being able to simplify things,” says Ankit, which is what technology is credited with. Therefore, Bhati stayed confident with their idea of OLA cabs because that also was about simplifying the experience for the customers and the driver-partners.
Ankit Bhati – Education
In 2004, Ankit Bhati took admission to the Indian Institue of Technology, Bombay for a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering. He knew that the only field where he can grow heights is computer programming and technology. He later got enrolled for M.Tech in CAD and automation and completed his Master’s in 2010. During his college days, he also worked on freelance projects in building websites to make money. After completing his higher studies in Mumbai, Ankit Bhati founded ANI Technologies in Bangalore, Karnataka. He is known to keep a low profile image as he is hardly seen on any event or product launches.
Ankit Bhati started working on several freelance projects in 2009. Bhati contributed to the growth of several startups like Wilcom, Make sense, QED42, and more. It was only in April 2021 that Bhati as a Venture Catalyst has funded a Noida-based Edtech startup – Qin1.
He was highly motivated to start his own company and give up on his authoritative professional life. He further moved on with Ola Cabs journey in November 2010.
Ankit Bhati is a computer programmer and contributed to the Ground Transportation industry. He has 6,231 colleagues in 633 companies situated in 59 countries. Moreover, 1,722 executive movements have been recorded in the last year.
Ankit Bhati, Co-founder and former CTO of OLA, has launched a new startup, as per reports dated January 7, 2022. The startup that goes by the name Amnic is designed to operate as a SaaS startup, co-founded by Nimish Joshi and Satya Nagarajan. Both of the co-founders were Ola executives and held the posts of VP and Head of Strategy and Business Development, and VP and Head of Software Engineering and AI respectively. Amnic will be reportedly operating in the DevOps toolchain space.
Ankit Bhati – Success Story
Ankit Bhati struggled in his old apartment near IIT Bombay, inspecting his intellect to code the Ola website. He vividly recalled those days when he used to save money from his pocket to visit a cyber cafe. He used to spend his time in chat rooms to discover the world of the internet.
When Ankit joined IIT Bombay, he spent most of his time at the computer center. Technology has changed a lot today and he thrives to deal with the challenges on daily basis. His 10 long years of experience has led him to encounter many technical glitches, though he manages to strive the team on. He eventually got to know the importance of data that helped him combat the technical glitches and driver partners for Ola.
Ankit Bhati is the co-founder of ANI Technologies. He founded the company with his college senior Bhavish Agarwal in 2010. ANI Technologies Private Limited is an online transportation company. It offers cab booking, riding, and renting services. Ola Cabs is the portal of ANI Technologies and it serves customers worldwide.
Ola was launched on 3 December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati as the Founder and Co-founder of the ride-sharing company respectively. Initially, Ola was launched to offer holiday packages and weekend trips on Olatrips.com. The business merely changed to, what we today know as Ola Cabs.
Ankit Bhati was responsible to handle the technical facets of Ola Cabs to assure a swift, convenient and spontaneous experience for the customers and partners. Ankit Bhati had mentioned that his mornings in Ola used to start with understanding data. This ritualistically started every day with his gaining insights into the rides that OLA offered and which of them gained the most traction. Furthermore, he also looked into the needs of the customers, the ratings of the drivers, figuring out the quickest routes for drivers, calculating the time taken by drivers to reach a yonder point, whether a passenger would be willing to share rides, and for how long he would wait for the same and much more. Absorbed in all these complexities, Bhati decided to pave way for OLA.
Ola Cabs is one of the fastest-growing startups in India. The tech team of the company today holds over 1,000 people.
Ankit Bhati – Foodpanda Controversy
Ankit Bhati – Foodpanda Controversy
In 2017, Ola Cabs acquired food delivery start-up Foodpanda to rival Uber Eats. Some serious conflicts arose among Bhavish and Ankit when Ankit agreed to the contract of delivering food through Foodpanda via Ola Cabs. It has also been pointed out that Bhavish had issues regarding the food delivery matter through Ola Cabs.
Speculations arose again when Bhavish restricted Ankit inOla Electric. Ankit was only a small part of it through ANI Technologies. Ola Electric is Bhavish’s project to build a network of electric charging stations across the country. Bhavish bought 92.5 % of the Ola Electric. This is when Ankit decided to distance himself from the company. However, the distancing and the split of the OLA co-founders, as far as the rumor goes, are nothing but baseless rumors, as announced by Bhavish Aggarwal in his latest statement. The OLA co-founder said, “It’s a shame that baseless rumour-mongering and speculation is being fanned,” while denying the Moneycontrol report.
Ankit Bhati currently holds 7,62,385 shares in Ola’s India operations, which sums to around 25% stakes in the company. Furthermore, Bhati also holds 1,66,185 shares, which amounts to 6% stakes in the US operations of OLA.
Ankit Bhati – A Fresh Start with Amnic
While looking at the professional front, Ankit Bhati had last been associated with Ola Play. However, Ankit had taken what seemed like quite an exit from the day-to-day operations of the firm since the end of 2017. No official statements nor any notice was out on Ankit Bhati’s exiting the company and as we have mentioned Bhati still holds a considerable amount of shares.
Ankit Bhati simply took a break and it is now clear what he was doing in the meanwhile. Yes, we are talking about the new startup Amnic that Ankit Bhati co-founded along with two other Ola execs – Nimish Joshi and Satya Nagarajan. Amnic Technologies will be focusing on the Saas segment in DevOps toolchain space, goes the reports published on 8th January 2022. Furthermore, the report also mentioned that Amnic would be raising $15 Mn- $20 Mn from Sequoia Capital as part of its seed round. Zauba Corp already has this company listed since June 3, 2021, which is “involved in other computer-related activities”, such as maintenance of other company’s websites and creating multimedia presentations. However, confirmation is still pending from the alleged co-founders of Amnic. Their social profiles also refrain from mentioning any updates of the same.
FAQs
Who is Ankit Bhati?
Ankit Bhati is Co-founder at Ola since September 2010.
Where was Ankit Bhati born?
Ankit Bhati was born in 1987 in Jodhpur, a city in Rajasthan, India.
What is Ankit Bhati education?
Ankit Bhati has done B.Tech in Mechanical engineering and M.Tech in CAD & Automation from IIT, Bombay.
What is Ankit Bhati net worth?
Ankit Bhati has a net worth of around INR 1400 crores, when last reported in September 2019.
Indians are fixated on the startup culture. People are choosing entrepreneurship over mundane, 9-to-5 jobs. However, not everyone succeeds as an entrepreneur. A survey revealed that approximately 11% of the Indians are engaged in ‘early-stage entrepreneurial activities’. And only 5% of these early-stage entrepreneurs actually went on to establish their startup.
But keeping these statistics aside, some Indian startups have gone on to dominate their target segments. This post is dedicated to some of the most successful entrepreneurs from India whose ventures have revolutionized the daily life of millions, if not billions, across the globe. The path to name and fame wasn’t easy for them; it involved several trials and tribulations.
Ritesh Agarwal founded OYO rooms in 2015. He was the recipient of the TiE – Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award (2014), became the first Asian to win ’20 under 20’ Thiel Fellowship (2013), was named one of the top 50 entrepreneurs by TATA First Dot Awards (2013) and became the world’s youngest CEO at the age of 17. Ritesh Agarwal, an Orissa boy coming from a business-oriented family, went to Kota to become an engineer.
But unlike other JEE aspirants, his passion caught hold of him and he did not take JEE preparation seriously. Instead, he wrote a book called ‘Indian Engineering Colleges: A Complete Encyclopedia of Top 100 Colleges’; the book became immensely popular on Flipkart.
He was just 16 when he was selected for the Asian Science Camp held at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR). With a penchant for traveling and having lived in tons of hotels, Ritesh observed a common problem at the places he stayed – the exorbitant price of the hotel room was not proportional to the facilities provided. He felt that majority of the hotels in India couldn’t satisfy the basic needs of a traveler on a budget.
Thus, he started Oravel Stays,his first venture in 2012. He improvised his business model and re-launched Oravel as ‘OYO’ which is short for ‘ON YOUR OWN’. Ritesh Agarwal became one of the most revered Indian entrepreneurs through OYO. At the age of 26 he became a billionaire.
Net worth of Ritesh Agarwal as of now is $2 billion. He became the second youngest billionaire after Kylie Jenner in the world.
An epitome of courage and wisdom, Shradha Sharma was at the top of her career while working with famous news media houses such as Times of India and CNBC (Mumbai). During her stint with these organizations, she noticed that no one was willing to promote and air the stories of entrepreneurs—both successful and not-so-successful. She figured out that there are millions of stories storming around but no medium to share them with the masses. Shradha decided to create YourStory, an online portal that hosts entrepreneurial stories and other share-worthy content.
YourStory was started in 2008 and has allowed over 70,000 stories to come to the fore. Shradha Sharma leads a team of 100+ people who work together to offer content in 11 Indian languages. YourStory’s aim is to provide a voice to the roller coaster of emotions that an entrepreneur goes through. Shradha Sharma is the recipient of the L’Oreal Paris Femina Award and has been included in the list of Worlds’ Top 500 LinkedIn Influencers. She is one of the most followed female entrepreneurs in India. Her channel has earned more than 26 million individual views.She is one of the most followed female entrepreneurs in India.Her net worth is of $1.3 billion.
Bhavish Aggarwal, an IIT Bombay alumnus, co-founded the most popular cab aggregator in India – Ola Cabs – with Ankit Bhati. He is the recipient of the Billionth award in 2013, Best startup of the year by IAMAL, and was listed in Forbes30 under 30 list. Bhavish revolutionized the idea of cab-hailing in India by making use of smartphones. Ola Cabs was different from the other cab services at that time in the sense that it leveraged smartphones and GPS technology; thus, it became easy for people to book cabs from anywhere, at any time. Bhavish Aggarwal left a well-paying job at Microsoft to work on Ola Cabs. No one supported his idea but it was his strong will, determination, and eagerness to take risks in life that led him to the pinnacle of success. Bhavish Aggarwal is counted amongst the most successful Indian entrepreneurs. According to Time magazine Bhavish Aggarwal is one of the 100 Most Influential People this year. His Net worth is $ 500 million.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the founder of Paytm, the cornerstone of digitized payments in India. Vijay is from Aligarh, India. A graduate of the Delhi College of Engineering, Vijay worked on several projects and at a small startup before taking the entrepreneurial plunge. He put in USD 2 million to get One97 up and running. One97 is the parent company of Paytm. The payments platform gave Indians access to a mobile wallet, the facility of making payments using QR codes, simplified bill payments, and a lot more. These features made Paytm wildly popular. In this manner, Vijay Shekhar Sharma became an inspiration to budding entrepreneurs all over the globe. He Won the Best Serial Entrepreneur Award at the Rural and Urban Development Summit and Awards 2022 presented by the Minister of State for Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India.
Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, founders of Zomato
Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah revolutionized the food delivery segment in India through its first foodtech unicorn Zomato. The duo are IIT Delhi graduates. Zomato started out as ‘Foodiebay’ and was first launched in Delhi. It was later extended to Mumbai and Kolkata. Now, there is not a single place in India where Zomato doesn’t render its services. Zomato’s mobile app is its USP; the app has an excellent user interface that lets you order food from the restaurant/eatery of your choice and make hassle-free payments. In Jan 2020, Zomato acquired one of its competitors- Uber Eats in India for a valuation of $300 million. In July 2022, Zomato went public with its stock listing at a premium of 53% over its issue price and it commanded a market cap of Rs 43,000 cr as of Mar 2023. In 2018, Prakash Chaddah left Zomato to venture into different fields. Net worth of Zomato CEO Deepinder Goyal is estimated to be Rs 2,000 cr as of Mar 2023.
Kunal Shah graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Wilson College, Mumbai, and briefly pursued an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies before dropping out. Shah’s first startup was a company named Paisaback, which provided cash-back promotions for organized retailers. Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon are the founders of one of India’s most innovative business models – Freecharge. CRED is Shah’s second venture after he sold Freecharge to Snapdeal in 2015 for $400 million. He is definitely one of the most famous entrepreneurs in India.
Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal, founders of Flipkart
Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are the founders of Flipkart. The e-commerce segment in India underwent a drastic change courtesy of Flipkart. Sachin and Binny found discrepancies while searching for products on Amazon’s online store. The duo realized that the USP of their e-commerce initiative would be the timely delivery of products complemented by a simplistic user interface that leveraged the latest technology. Both the founders have now stepped down from their positions in Flipkart after it was acquired by Walmart in 2018. Flipkart is still giving a tough fight to all the e-commerce platforms out there and continues to win the hearts of Indians. India Today ranked them 50 Most powerful people of 2017 list.
Deep Kalra is the founder of MakeMyTrip. The credit for the introduction of online train bookings in India goes to Deep Kalra. A graduate of St. Stephen’s College with an MBA degree from IIM Ahmedabad, Deep worked for GE Capital and ABN AMRO bank. But the office culture and 9-5 job couldn’t captivate him enough. With a $2 million investment from eVentures and his co-founders, Deep Kalra founded MakeMyTrip, (earlier known as ‘India Ahoy’) in the year 2000. The company was listed on NASDAQ in August 2010. After IRCTC joined the race, Deep diversified MakeMyTrip by introducing hotel bookings. MakeMyTrip has mergers with MyGola, TrulyMadly, and the ITC group, to name a few. Deep Kalra is the chairperson of the NASSCOM Internet Working Group, a member of the Executive Council of NASSCOM, and is part of CII’s tourism sub-committee. He was ranked no 1 in a list of most powerful digital influencers in India by KPMG in 2011. His net worth is $ 136 million.
BYJU’S has helped thousands of students who struggle with subjects such as mathematics and science crack some of the hardest entrance exams like the JEE, NEET, and UPSC, CAT, IAS, and international examinations such as GRE and GMAT. BYJU’S has dominated the online education vertical for quite some time now. Byju Raveendran is the founder of BYJU’S. He is an engineer who worked in a shipping firm and accidentally stepped into the field of teaching when he assisted his friends with their CAT exam. Raveendran’s friends cleared the exam with flying colors and this motivated him to take up teaching on a full-time basis. Byju Raveendran started BYJU’s with an initial investment of just INR 2 lakhs. The startup’s valuation has recently crossed $22 billion as of March 2022, and the company have over 115 million registered students.In January 2022, the company joined Simplilearn, Unacademy, upGrad, PrepInsta Prime and Vedantu to become one of the founding members of IAMAI’s India EdTech Consortium.
In March 2022, the company signed a contract with Qatar Investment Authority to establish a new edtech company and a R&D center in Doha.
The concept of bringing the grocery store to one’s doorstep has done wonders across the globe. With it, the problem of waiting in long queues at groceries has now gone for a toss. Indians too now prefer the online route for grocery shopping. And who has dominated this segment? BigBasket. Hari Menon is the founder of BigBasket. With sales of over INR 150 crores per month, BigBasket has cemented its place as one of the big shots in the Indian e-commerce domain. It is operational in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata at present. In 2021 Tata Digital buys 64% stake in BigBasket His company received a lot of awards such as Consumer Internet Company of the Year by VC Circle Awards 2016, Best Online Grocer at Coca Cola Golden Spoon Awards 2016, Best retail and e-commerce app of the year at AWS Mobility Awards 2017, etc.
Albinder Dhindsa wanted to provide the services of a grocery, bakery, and general store through a consolidated platform. His dream took the form of Grofers, an Indian online grocery service. Albinder Dhindsa and Saurabh Kumar founded Grofers. The duo worked hard to infuse new ideas into the online delivery system in India. Grofers is worth around $650 million today. The company has shifted from a B2B to a B2C business model. Grofers was named one of the Top 10 startups in Delhi and Gurgaon in 2014. Grofers had attained unicorn status or $1 billion in valuation, after raising over $120 million from food aggregator Zomato Ltd. On December 13, 2021, Grofers changed its brand name to Blinkit. As of 2021 Albinder holds 5-10% stake in the company.
Sanjiv Bajaj is known as the Chairman and Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv. Born into a family of the Bajajs, a business house started by Jamnalal Bajaj, who led the Bajaj Group to glory, Sanjiv had the zeal to raise their family business to amazing highs. Sanjiv is the son of Rahul Bajaj and great-grandson of Jamnalal Bajaj. After completing his Btech. in Mechanical engineering, followed by a Masters in manufacturing systems from the University of Warwick and an MBA from Harvard Business school, Sanjiv started his career with Bajaj Auto in 1994.
He had been a promising businessman from the very first, which helped him scale numerous prestigious designations within the organization. He had brought the American-style supply chain management to Bajaj Auto. Bajaj is currently serving as a non-executive director of Bajaj Auto.
Along with Bajaj Auto, Sanjiv also contributed to Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Bajaj Finance for which he was appointed as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman. Sanjiv even led Bajaj Allianz General Insurance to emerge as the 2nd most profitable insurance company in India. Being an accomplished entrepreneur, Bajaj won a range of awards for the same, like the Entrepreneur of the Year” Award 2015-16 from Bombay Management Association, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2017, Economic Times Awards for Business Leader of the Year 2018. Therefore, Sanjiv Bajaj can be regarded as one of the greatest entrepreneurs and business leaders that India has seen to date. Sanjiv Bajaj has a revenue of over ₹ 36,692 crore ($ 4.4 billion) and profit of over ₹ 2,866 crore ($ 348 million) for H1 FY2022-23.
PolicyBazaar has certainly grown to become one of the best insurance aggregators and a global technology company but it might not have secured the illustrious position that it now stands on if it was not for the Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder of the company, Yashish Dahiya. Dahiya was a student of IIT Delhi, from where he did his Bachelors in Engineering. He then went on to complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad, which was followed by an MBA from INSEAD in 2001.
Yashish was the MD of the pan-European travel distributor, ebookers.com, and had previous experience of working as a strategy consultant of Bain & Co. in their London office before he founded PolicyBazaar in 2008. Yashish Dahiya had a major contribution to PolicyBazaar since he founded the company along with Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar in 2008, which has successfully become a key influencer in consumer decisions around insurance now. Furthermore, the platform hosts over 100 million visitors a year on average on its platform.
Dahiya was honored with the EY Entrepreneur of The Year (EOY) 2019 award in the Financial Services category and more for all that he had done for PolicyBazaar. Yashish Dahiya is also an extraordinary sportsperson along with a celebrated entrepreneur. He is the Indian masters swimming champion and has taken part in several world masters swimming championships representing India. Furthermore, Dahiya also boasts of having the 3rd fastest half ironman timing and the 5th fastest Ironman timings amongst Indians across all age groups along with having the fastest timings in his age group. In June 2021, Policybazaar obtained the insurance broking license from IRADA and announced that it would set up 100 offline outlets across India. The company also surrendered its web aggregator license. PB Fintech Ltd, the parent company of Policybazaar, opened its initial public offering (IPO) and raised ₹5,625 crore(US$700 million).Shares of PB Fintech Ltd began trading on National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in November 2021.
It seems nothing less than a dream when we talk about a fan of Manchester United, Mumbai Indians, and the Indian cricket team, who founded a company named Dream11 for the love of sports that he nurtures. Yes, it happened with Harsh Jain, who with his founding partner, Bhavit Sheth, founded Dream11 and Dream Sports, India’s no. 1 sports fantasy platform for sporting enthusiasts. That allows users to play fantasy cricket, hockey, football, kabaddi, handball, basketball, volleyball, rugby,futsal, American football,and baseball.
Harsh was the son of Anand Jain, an Indian business magnate previously associated with Mukesh Ambani. He was born in Mumbai, India, and was an engineering student at the University of Pennsylvania, after which he went for an MBA from Columbia Business School. Harsh began his career with Microsoft from where he completed a 2 months Summer Internship from June 2006 to August of the same year after which he went to work in Jai Corp Limited as a Marketing Manager. His father, Anand Jain was then the Chairman of the company. Jain worked at Jai for 13 months, when in 2008 he decided to establish Dream11.
Harsh is currently serving as a Culture Enforcement Officer (CEO) & Co-Founder of Dream Sports (Dream11, FanCode, DreamX, and more) and one of the leading entrepreneurs of India. Harsh is a major inspiration for the budding entrepreneurs of the country for sure. In April 2019, Dream11 became the first Indian Fantasy sportcompany to become a unicorn.In November 2021 Dream11 was valued at $8 billion.In December 2022, Dream11 had 160 million active users in India.
Supam Maheshwari is better known as the CEO and Co-Founder of Firstcry, India’s online marketplace for baby products. Supam was a postgraduate student from IIM Ahmedabad and started Brainvisa, as his first company with Amitava Saha, back in March 2000. The Pune-based company witnessed a steady growth before it was acquired by the US-based group, Indecomm Global in 2007.
Supam served as the Co-founder and the CEO of Brainvisa till December 2009 in order to found another company. He founded FirstCry.com in August 2010 along with Amitava Saha, Prashant Jadhav, and Sanket Hattimattur.
The idea of establishing an eCommerce company focused on baby care products was rooted deep in his personal experience as a first-time parent, who faced numerous challenges in sourcing the best product for his baby. Firstcry has grown to be a market leader when it comes to baby products online. The company currently boasts of over 380 stores across India.
His net worth could be estimated at 190 million USD.The baby products marketplace’s valuation stands at 1.9 billion USD after an equity funding round of 13 million USD with pi Ventures As of 2021.
FirstCry had increased its IPO size from around $700 Mn to $1 Bn, aiming at a valuation of around $6-7 BnIN Aug 2022
Richa Kar is the face of one of India’s largest online lingerie stores, Zivame. Richa was born in a conventional family in Jamshedpur. Kar was an engineering student, who completed her graduation from BITS Pilani and eventually went for a corporate job in Bangalore. Richa eventually left her job in order to pursue an MBA, after which she joined Spencers Retail and then SAP Retail.
Her exposure in the retail industry helped her develop knowledge and practical skills beneficial for the retail industry. While working with SAP, Richa was intrigued about Victoria’s Secret, America’s largest retail company for women’s lingerie, and the success it enjoys. Soon after, she realized that India hasn’t got any such websites empowering women to shop for their own lingerie online smoothly and fearlessly.
Though Richa had a considerable experience of around 8 years by then in the retail industry, her parents didn’t get the concept of selling lingerie and weren’t sure how they would speak of her daughter, who is involved in such a profession to others. Therefore, she gravely lacked any support from her family but with her strong will and zeal to found a startup, she ultimately managed to establish Zivame with Kapil Karekar in 2011. Zivame has now become an online leader in its segment, offering more than 5,000 styles, 50 brands, and 100 sizes. Zivame products come at affordable prices with high quality.
The company that initially started with Rs 35 lakhs, which Richa borrowed from her friends, is currently one of the best women’s lingerie marketplace in India. Zivame has received $69 million in funding at a valuation of $98.6M and her net worth is Rs 749 crores, according to reports. The company currently holds about 26% of the market share of the women’s online lingerie market in India, which stood at Rs 430 crore in FY19.
Ashish Hemrajani is an Indian entrepreneur, popularly identified as the Co-founder and CEO of Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of India’s biggest online entertainment ticketing platform BookMyShow. Ashish Hemrajani completed his MBA with Marketing as his specialization from Sydenham University in 1997.
As soon as he completed his MBA, he went to work with J. Water Thompson. However, after working in the client management segment of the firm for 2 years, Ashish left the company in order to start his new venture with Bigtree Entertainment and BookMyShow in 1999.
BookMyShow still stands as a leading online ticketing solution for Indians. Under the leadership of Ashish, the company further expanded to New Zealand, UAE, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. BookMyShow also had a feature to buy tickets of sports matches like IPL, ISL, etc. They now have employ over 400 people across offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore. Ashish Hemrajani Net worth is estimated at Rs.3000 Crore as of 2021.
Shiv Nadar is a founding member of HCL Technologies and a prominent Indian entrepreneur, billionaire industrialist, and the recipient of India’s 3rd highest civilian award, Padma Bhushan. Shiv Nadar is the 3rd richest person of India, as of September 2021 with a net worth of around US$29.3 billion. Nadar goes by the nickname “Magus” (meaning: wizard in Old Persian), which he received from his friends.
Nadar was educated in the St. Joseph Boys Higher Secondary School, Trichy, and received his pre-university degree from the American College, Madurai. He again pursued Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, and received his Bachelor’s in engineering.
Walchand Group’s Cooper Engineering Ltd., Pune, which he joined in 1967, marked the start of Nadar’s career. However, he soon left his job role and founded Microcomp, a company that focused on selling teledigital calculators in the Indian market. Soon after that, he founded HCL in 1976 in collaboration with several friends and colleagues and with an investment of Rs 187,000.
The company made revolutionary advancements in the Indian IT landscape and is still regarded as one of the best among the homegrown IT companies whereas Shiv Nadar stands tall and towering as one of the top entrepreneurs of India.
The founder and CEO of the cyber security company, TAC Security, Trishneet Arora, was named in Forbes 30 Under 30 2018 Asia list and also in Under 40 List of India’s Brightest Business Minds 2019 by Fortune magazine, in 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year in Service Business-Security, 2021 Fortune India 40 Under 40 and 2022 he was Awarded as global leader of tomorrow.
Arora failed in the 8th standard but his relentless love for computers and coding drove him through the path of glory to become a professional ethical hacker and a renowned cybersecurity expert. Arora dropped out of school but continued with his studies along with fixing computers and cleaning up software.
Trishneet was only 19 when he founded his own company, TAC Security Solutions in 2013 and he has never looked back since then. The cybersecurity company, TAC Security offers protection to numerous corporations like Reliance Industries, CBI, Gujarat Police, and Punjab Police and others, against network vulnerabilities and data theft. Trishneet Arora’s net worth is $5 million as of now.
The founder of Reliance Industries, Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, or Dhirubhai Ambani, as he is popularly known, was a successful entrepreneur and business tycoon, who took Reliance public in 1977. Dhirubhai has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades heaped on during his lifetime and was also awarded the prestigious Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honor after he died in the year 2002.
Dhirubhai was a student of the Bahadur Khanji school. After the completion of his studies, he left for the Port of Aden, Yemen, to work for A. Besse and Co., for which he was later involved in selling shell and Burmah oil products. However, he left Aden and came back to his motherland to start his own company. Initially starting with “Majin” in partnership with Champaklal Damani, Dhirubhai eventually set up Reliance Commercial Corporation in 1966, which was later rechristened as Reliance Industries in May 1973.
Also, it was Dhirubhai who launched the popular textile brand ‘Vimal’. Dhirubhai died when he was 69 and was worth around $2.9 bn upon his death.
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is the Executive Chairman and CEO of the largest steel-making company in the world, ArcelorMittal, and an Indian steel magnate based in the United Kingdom. Besides, Mittal also serves as the Chairman of Aperam, a stainless steel manufacturer, which spun out of ArcelorMittal. Mittal owns around 38% stakes in his company along with another 20% stakes in the EFL Championship football club, Queens Park Rangers.
Lakshmi Mittal has also been appointed as a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs since 2008. Mittal was recognized with titles, honors, and awards of various kinds from time to time including “the third-richest person in the world” as announced by Forbes in 2005. He was also announced as the “Business Person of 2006” by Sunday Times, “Person of the Year” by Financial Times, In 2008 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, and more.
Born in a Marwadi family, Lakshmi studied at Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya in Calcutta and graduated from the University of Calcutta affiliated St Xavier’s College with a B.Com degree in the first class. Mittal first chose the business way by founding the steel factory PT Ispat Indo. He went to purchase numerous companies from abroad, like the Irish Steel plant, starting from the state-owned steelworks in Trinidad and Tobago, all of which were successful initiatives.
Mittal ultimately succeeded to come out triumphant in a hostile takeover bid of Arcelor and later renamed it to ArcelorMittal, which is currently responsible for bringing a lion’s share of revenues for Mittal. As of 2022, he was ranked as the 15th richest man in India by Forbes with a net-worth of US$17.8 billion.
Informally known as the Czar of the IT industry of India, Azim Premji is the face of Wipro. Premji is known as an entrepreneur, investor, engineer, business tycoon, and philanthropist who was responsible for cementing the position of Wipro as one of the most prestigious of the Indian multinational corporations through more than four decades of growth and diversification.
Azim Premji is the founding Chairman and a non-executive member of the board of the company and has been twice listed by Time Magazine among the 100 Most Influential people.
Premji went for a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University but he had to come back to take charge of Wipro, which was then termed as Western Indian Vegetable Products. He expanded the business to a large scale and later on discovered the vacuum that IBM left on its expulsion from India. He filled the gap by developing the IT wing of Wipro.
Premji is one of the most successful Indian entrepreneurs whose total wealth was estimated $9.3billion and $25 billion respectively as of feb 2023. Moreover, he is also recognized for his philanthropic nature. He makes most of his donations to the Azim Premji Foundation and had agreed to give away half his wealth by signing the Giving Pledge in 2013. In 2019, he dropped from the 2nd position in the Forbes India Rich list to 17th position after giving away a huge amount to charity.
He topped the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List for 2020
We all have heard about Dunzo but do you know who founded it? The 24/7 delivery app was founded in July 2014 by Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Agarwal, Dalvir Suri, and Mukund Jha. Kabeer Biswas is the CEO and Co-founder of Dunzo, who completed his B.E from the University of Mumbai and followed it with an MBA from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS).
He started his career with Bharti Airtel, Videocon Telecommunications, and then went on to found Dunzo. Dunzo currently provides its delivery services in eight Indian cities including Bangalore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Pune, Chennai, Jaipur, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
In August 2021, Dunzo launched a new service, Dunzo Daily, to deliver essentials and household items in 19 minutes. January 2022, Reliance Retail led a US$240 million funding round along with Dunzo’s existing investors Lightbox, Lightrock, 3L Capital and Alteria Capital. Reliance Retail invested US$200 million for a 25.8% stake in Dunzo.
Ratan Tata is the former Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group and is still the head of the charitable trusts of the company. A scion of the Tata family, Ratan Tata was the son of Naval Tata and later adopted by Jamsetji Tata.
He is well-known as an Indian industrialist, philanthropist, and one of the few business tycoons who are synonymous with success. Tata was the recipient of two of the highest Indian civilian awards – Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan.
Ratan Tata was a student of the Cornell University of Architecture and completed his Advanced Management Program from the Harvard Business school in 1975. Tata was the apparent successor of J.R.D Tata, who started with the shop floor of Tata Steel and was responsible for expanding the company on a massive scale.
Largely credited with the diversification and growth of Tata, Ratan Tata helped the company acquire numerous businesses and companies including Tetley, Jaguar Land Rover, and more, and scaled the company to unimaginable heights. Ratan Tata is currently featured among the top entrepreneurs of India and an inspirational figure for all the budding entrepreneurs and other individuals.
Nithin Kamath is the Co-founder of the biggest stock-broking company in India, Zerodha, an inspirational entrepreneur, and is famous as one of the self-made billionaires of India. Nithin along with his brother, Nikhil Kamat has also been declared as the richest self-made billionaire in India under 40, according to IIFL Wealth and Hurun India’s 40 & Under Self-Made Rich List 2020 with a combined wealth of Rs 24,000 crores, as assessed in 2020. In year end march 2022 zerodha net profit was 2094.3 crore.
The company has valued itself at $3billion, based on the valuations of employee stock option. Nithin Kamath was a student of Bangalore Institute of Technology but he was never quite inclined to academics. Kamath got into the world of trading at the early age of 17 and eventually, his love for trading grew.
Nithin was successful in trading but also lost quite a lot of his money in the early 2000s. Kamath then returned to a fixed job at a call center, where he worked for 4 years before joining Reliance Money as a franchisee in proprietary trading and advisory services. He worked hard and saved his capital to establish his own company Zerodha in 2010 and emerge at the top of his game with Nikhil.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur distinguished for being the executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited. Furthermore, she was also recognized as the former chairperson of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Kiran was the recipient of the Othmer Gold Medal for her contributions to the fields of science and chemistry.
Financial Times listed her among the Top 50 women in the business list while Forbes listed her as the 68th most powerful woman in the world. Furthermore, Kiran was also named the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year in 2020.
After completing her graduation from Bangalore University with a bachelor’s degree in Zoology, Kiran went to the fermentation science and brewing at Melbourne University and topped her class emerging as a master brewer in 1975. She struggled to join as a master brewer in India after serving Carlton and United Breweries because the breweries here believed that the job of a master brewer is a “man’s work.”
However, Kiran discovered huge opportunities abroad and joined Biocon Biochemicals Limited, and eventually started Biocon India. In 2015, she joined The Giving Pledge, promising that at least half of her wealth will be dedicated to philanthrop. In 2019, she was listed as the 68th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. She received Firodia Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 for her contributions to science and technology.
In January 2020 Kiran received the international award and became the fourth Indian citizen to be honored with Australia’s highest civilian award. In year 2023 they start
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw scholarship for the students who study in the fields of science, technology or mathematics at the Mount Helen Campus. By 2022 she has a net worth of $3.1 billion.
Back in 2010, paying gas, electricity, telephone bills, and recharging our mobiles, DTH, and more wasn’t as easy as it is now. Then, Freecharge was one of the companies that came into being, which greatly helped the Indian masses to empower their digital ways. Sandeep Tandon was one of the founders of this precursor of today’s digital payments app, Freecharge, which he founded in 2010 with Kunal Shah.
A technology investor and one of the most successful entrepreneurs of India, Sandeep Tandon was a student of Bombay Scottish, after which he pursued a Bachelor’s and then Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California. Sandeep started his career with a Los Angeles startup where he worked as an application manager.
However, it wasn’t long before he left the company and initiated his own venture, Celetronix but that was again sold to Jabil Circuits.
Freecharge was the next company that he founded, which emerged as the fastest-growing mobile payments app in India. After a short but successful period, Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal and then eventually acquired by Axis bank, which currently owns the company.
Being a successful entrepreneur with years of experience, Sandeep Tandon is currently serving as the Managing Director of Tandon Group, as an Angel investor, and a mentor to the young entrepreneurs.
As eccentric as its name, Bewakoof boasts of an incredibly successful run as a casual wear and accessories hotspot for the current generation and undoubtedly a major part of its success goes to its Founder Director, Prabhkiran Singh. He along with Siddharth Munot founded Bewakoof.com back in 2010, which has since been a raging success for its unique printed t-shirts, joggers, funky mobile covers, and other accessories.
Both being civil engineering graduates from IIT Bombay, Prabhkiran and Siddharth were well-known to each other. In fact, both of them started with their independent startups right after they completed studies but none of them truly worked before Bewakoof was launched, which disrupted the Indian markets, promoting the “silliness” when it comes to fashion.
The estimated annual revenue of Bewakoof in 2020 was INR 200 Crores. The net worth of Bewakoof is estimated at INR 100 Crores.
The Indian traditional consumer products market was all saturated and boring, hoping for an upcoming disruption, which Mamaearth brought with its honest, organic, and safe products. The initial idea emerged out of a real-life problem that Varun and Ghazal Alagh faced while raising their own baby.
All of us want to extend our utmost care and best quality products to a newborn and Varun and Ghazal Algh wanted the same for their baby. However, it was when they were expecting their baby that they found the reality about the Indian baby products, none of which met the safety standards required to be applied on a baby. They first started to import baby products from the US but that was neither feasible nor less of a burden to their finances.
This made the research, apply for proper certifications and resulted in the launch of Mamaearth after 4 years of hard work and R&D. Mamaearth is currently hailed as the first Asian brand with the MadeSafe certification for its toxin-free and entirely herbal products. Furthermore, it boasts of having served over 1.5 million customers across 500+ cities of India. The parents turned entrepreneurs, Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh have achieved an envious success and are looking forward to a brighter way ahead as one of the most successful Indian entrepreneurs.
The company has expanded into offline distribution through multi-brand retail outlets and exclusive stores, to both online and offline markets. Their next step is to expand the offline business to 100,000 outlets and 100 Indian cities. The company has estimated revenue of INR964 crore in FY22, a growth of 109% over the past year.
PhonePe is akin to digital payments in today’s India. This market leader of a UPI-based digital payments platform was founded by Sameer Nigam, along with his co-founders, Rahul Chari and Burzin Engineer in December 2015.
Sameer Nigam has an MBA in Entrepreneurship from The Wharton School. After completing his schooling at DPS Noida, Sameer went to study Computer Engineering at the University of Mumbai and then completed a Masters of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Arizona, finally finishing his MBA in 2009.
Sameer served as the Director of Search Product Development at Shopzilla for a little over 6 years, after which he launched Mime360, an online social media distribution channel. Mime360 was eventually acquired by Flipkart, where he again served as a Senior Vice President, Engineering but he left the company after one and half years to start his own company, PhonePe.
PhonePe has since been a roaring success! PhonePe continues to be the top player in the Indian payments ecosystem and accounted for nearly 50 percent of all UPI transactions processed in December 2022, According to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
Conclusion
We hope this list of famous Indian entrepreneurs motivates you to act on that startup idea you have in your head. Who else do you think should be featured in this list? And what makes you go gaga over him or her?
Contact: shubham@startuptalky.com
FAQs
Who is the youngest entrepreneur in India?
Shravan Kumaran and Sanjay Kumaran are the youngest entrepreneurs in India. They co-founded the company called ‘GoDimensions’ a development unit, in 2011 at their home at the age of 10.
Who is the world’s richest person?
The world’s richest person is none other than the founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, who boasts of a net worth of $223 billion, as of February 28, 2022.
Who is the richest Indian?
Mukesh Ambani is the richest Indian with a wealth of $103 Billion, as of March 2022.
Is a CEO an owner?
The title of CEO is typically given to someone by the board of directors. Owner is a job title that is earned by sole proprietors and entrepreneurs, who have total ownership of the business. However, these job titles are not mutually exclusive — CEOs can be owners and owners can be CEOs.
Who are the leading Indian entrepreneurs now?
To name some of the most prominent Indian entrepreneurs, we must list:
Uber and Lyft are working together in creating a database of their drivers. They are creating a database of the drivers who have been accused of sexual assault from the customers. They are taking the list of drivers who have been banned from the platform for sexual assaults and other crimes.
They are creating a database of people who have raised passenger-safety concerns in their platform. This safety programme is done because of the promise made by Uber, they will look into the crimes related to sexual assault. 15 months ago, they had revealed around 3,000 sexual assault cases had been reported on the company’s platform by passengers.
Let’s look at the new initiative taken by Uber and Lyft towards increasing customer safety.
The database developed by Uber and Lyft will contain information about the drivers who have been banned from the platform. Due to their involvement in sexual assaults and other crimes.
In the initial stages, Uber and Lyft will list the drivers who have been banned by the platforms in the U.S. This database will be overseen by the company HireRight. HireRight is a company that specializes in background checks and they will take care of getting more detailed information about the drivers and listing them on the database.
Reason for Creating a Database of drivers
Uber and Lyft have been criticized in the past by U.S lawmakers regarding the safety concerns for their passengers. Since then both the companies Uber and Lyft are working together towards antitrust and privacy-related concerns.
Sharing the information about the sexual assault faced by passengers by the drivers is really important. Most of the time the victims don’t file a formal complaint against the drivers. This acts as an advantage for the drivers who have been involved in those crimes and they easily escape from facing the consequences for their actions.
These drivers would easily shift from one platform to another as there are no legal procedures and actions taken against them. This would increase such crimes and the safety of the customers would be at risk.
This database platform is mainly concentrated on increasing the safety of the customers. This will make the companies in selecting the right drivers for their companies which will increase the safety of the customers.
Uber and Lyft have said that they would maintain the privacy of the victims, and wouldn’t provide any information about the victims of the incidents.
They have categorized the incidents for dismissing the drivers in six different categories which are
Attempted non-consensual sexual penetration
Non-consensual touching of a sexual body part
Non-consensual kissing of a sexual body part
Non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part
Non-consensual sexual penetration
Fatal physical assaults
Uber and Lyft have said that only a very small amount of the drivers have been involved in behaviors that are listed in the above categories. Hence, the companies who have access to the database can allow drivers to provide services for their platform after their own background checks and investigations.
The Companies which are involved in food deliveries, e-commerce deliveries, and companies involved in similar business models would get access to the database. Since there is a third-party company that specializes in background checks, the companies will be able to get detailed information about their drivers.
Any company that has access to the information in the database is free to hire those drivers according to their own background checks. This database will help the companies in maintaining their goodwill and increasing the safety of their customers.
This added layer of protection is being added because of the criticization made by Rape, Abuse, and Incent National network. It is a victim’s rights group which stated that the platforms are not doing a proper screening of their drivers.
FAQ
Who are the Founders of Uber?
Travis Kalanick, Garrett Camp are the founders of Uber.
What is the valuation of Uber?
As of May, 2019 Uber’s valuation was $75billion.
Who is the founder of Lyft?
Logan Green and John Zimmer are the founders of Lyft.
Conclusion
Uber has been asked to pay a fine of $59 million by California’s Public Utility Commission. When Uber had released the details of the past abuses faced by the customers, the commission had asked for the details of the victims. Uber refused to provide the details of the customers as it wanted to maintain the privacy of their customers and hence the company was asked to pay a fine.
Lyft is waiting for Uber to solve the issue related to privacy concerns so that they can release the reports about the past issues faced by their customers. This joint initiative from both the companies can be really helpful for a lot of companies and make the customers using their platform to feel more secure and safe.
The Indian automobile industry is the world’s fourth-biggest, auto mobile industry after the USA. It is presently the world’s fourth-biggest producer of vehicles and 7th biggest producer of industrial automobiles .The size of the Indian automobile industry includes aspect manufacturing which is anticipated to attain Rs16.16-18.18 trillion ($ 251.4-282.eight billion) through 2026.
Two-wheelers dominate the enterprise and made up 80% of the home car income in FY19.Overall, Domestic car income multiplied at 6.71% CAGR among FY13-18 with 26.27 million automobiles was bought in FY19.Indian car enterprise has obtained Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth US$ 23.51 billion among April 2000 and September 2019.
Indian automobile industry growth recorded a boom in home income at 17.55%, accompanied by three-wheelers at 10.27% .The passenger automobile income in India crossed 3.37 million gadgets in FY19 and is similarly anticipated to boom to 10 million gadgets through FY20.Passenger automobile exports are anticipated to touch approximately 6,90,000 gadgets in 2019-20.
Indian Automobile Market by Vehicle type
COVID 19 automobile industry impact
Indian Automotive Industry, unfortunately, is going through a hard time. Due to COVID-19, New Emission norms, Weak client, and monetary sentiments, Coronavirus will extrude the future of the automobile organization and is forecasted to offer a protracted-lasting impact on a massive scale.
The dreary fact is that March and April remained the most tough months of 2020 for the auto sector, for the 40 days lockdown produced nil earnings and zero manufacturing. However, OEMs gave monetary beneficial resource and helped dealers to route out of these tough times.
Indian automobile industry slowdown
Demand for emblem new cars declined sharply in 2019, forcing automakers to reduce manufacturing throughout the year. Sales had been anticipated to revive in the festive season from October 2019 however they did not do so. In fact, there has been an encouraging spike in income in Q3 – inspired through promotional offers, competitive discounts, new version launches, and the growing availability of fashions supplying Bharat Stage-VI (BS-VI) emission standard.
Government Objectives for the Indian automobile industry
Government of India has shortlisted 11 towns for the advent of electrical automobiles (EVs). The Government plans to start with a delivery structure FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles in India) scheme.
The first section of the scheme had been prolonged to March 2019.The Government of India accredited the FAME-II scheme with a financial requirement of Rs10,000 crore which sums up to ($ 1.39 billion) for FY20-22.Under Union Budget 2019-20, the authorities introduced to offer extra profits tax deduction of Rs1.five lakh ($ 2146) on the loans taken to buy EVs.
Under FAME II, Government has sanctioned 5,595 e-buses in 64 towns in 26 states for inter-metropolis and intra-metropolis operations. Under the scheme, 2,636 charging stations in 62 towns throughout 24 States/UTs have been sanctioned.
Indian Passenger Vehicle Market Share
Moderating Economic Growth
The worldwide monetary slowdown has impacted the Indian automobile sector (and Europe and China).India’s GDP increase in Q3 2019 fell to 4.5% from 5% in Q2, and from 7.1% a 12 months ago, on account of decreased customer spending and reduced personal investment. A depressed rural monetary system with the decrease annual rainfall maintains to have a vast effect on two-wheeler demand.
Growing unemployment and a moderating monetary system led humans to delay car buying for decisions. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment charge became into at 8.5% in October 2019, the very best while you recall that August 2016.The International Monetary Fund has reduced its increased forecast for the Indian monetary system from 7% to 6.1% in 2020.
In spite of the plain slow down, MG Motors (an element of SAIC Group), BYD, and different main Chinese OEMs alongside with Changan Automobile and Great Wall Motors have critical funding plans for India and are showcasing their proposed fashions at this year’s Delhi Auto show.
Bucking the trend MG Motors and Korean automaker Kia Motors have had sturdy launches in their latest SUV fashions, receiving great orders months in advance.With the multiplied opposition in passenger vehicles in 2020, Counterpoint estimates those new automakers will nibble away at Maruti Suzuki’s and Tata Motors’ marketplace shares.
Growing Popularity of Shared Mobility
Shared mobility companies keep to dent the name for passenger cars in city areas, with human beings an increasing number of more who prefer shared-mobility offerings for his or her commute.
Based on variety one studies performed withinside the America of America in 2019, Counterpoint Research estimates out of 3 common customers of shared mobility offerings recollect ride-hailing more economical than proudly owning a car.Leading gamers Ola and Uberhave plans to increase offerings similarly into tier-2 and tier-three towns withinside the following couple of years.
Cautious Lending through NBFCs
Non-banking monetary companies (NBFCs) finance maximum automobile purchases and are used mainly in rural India. Dealers depend on NBFCs to fund their wholesale shopping of cars from OEMs. The problems surrounding India’s NBFCs introduced careful lending that has adversely affected car income in 2019 and suggests no signs and symptoms of improvement.
Sellers have approached India’s Finance Industry Development Council, searching for authorities intervention to enhance the monetary health of main NBFCs. Overall for 2020, Counterpoint Research’s car income forecast for India stays careful, with numerous factors – mainly tight credit score conditions, the moderating economic system, and the transition to BS-VI emissions standards – growing uncertainty, boundaries, and delays.
Today, Ratan Tata needs no introduction as he is the most respected business tycoon in India. He is an Indian industrialist, philanthropist, former chairman of Tata Group and Tata Sons. Post his retirement in 2012 he has turned into an avid angel investor who has left an everlasting impact. He is well-known for investing in some of the most successful startups today.
So far, Ratan Tata has invested in over two dozen startups, including top unicorns of India, like furniture e-tailer Urban Ladder, digital payments app Paytm, ride-hailing company Ola and its electric vehicle arm Ola Electric Mobility, Cure.fit, Urban Ladder, etc. His investment may only be a few million dollars, according to industry sources, but what’s invaluable is having the 81-year-old tycoon’s name attached to a young startup.
So, how Ratan Tata: the accidental startup investor turned into an avid angel investor? Let’s take a look.
Name
Ratan Tata
Born
Surat, India
Age
82
Citizenship
Indian
Education
Cornell University College of Architecture, Harvard Business School
Title
Indian Industrialist, Philanthropist, and a Former chairman of Tata Sons
Occupation
Businessman
Net Worth
Rs. 6396 Crore
Awards
CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in Business, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan
First Investment made by Ratan Tata
The 81-year-old also said that he became a startup investor by accident. He added that he used to look at the sector as exciting always but somewhat untouchable. Tata further mentioned that with two-three years into the sector, it has become a learning experience for him as he got to learn many aspects regarding investment in startups.
The business magnate, better known as the ”Accidental Startup Investor”, was always interested in the startup ecosystem. He mentioned that his tenure as the chairman of Tata Group as this sector meant conflicts if he would take up any entrepreneurial assignment. But once Mr. Tata retired, he wasted no time in becoming a full-time investor through his private investment vehicle—RNT Associates.
Ratan Tata said that when he retired, at first he started making small token investments in what he considered exciting companies. He admitted that in the beginning, he intended to take some more risks than he might have taken under different circumstances. With two-three years into this, it became a learning experience, as this sector is very active and has the best minds.
The first investment he made was in Snapdeal in 2014 which yielded great results. The CEO of Snapdeal, Kunal Bahl, has high regards for Ratan Tata and considers him to be a lucky charm for Snapdeal. He is believed to have bought a 0.17% stake in Snapdeal in August 2014, when he invested less than Rs 5 crore. Tata bought 256 shares from the e-commerce company’s angel investors, including Kenneth Glass.
Other Investments made by Ratan Tata
Following this, he has invested in 31 startups. After Snapdeal, the online furniture retailer Urban Ladder secured funding from Ratan Tata in November 2015. It was Tata’s second personal investment in an e-commerce firm. It is a popular furniture selling platform based in Bengaluru. It is currently present in 12 cities around India.
Paytm, a Noida-based digital-payments company saw an overnight jump in subscribers by millions, after Demonetization of announced by the government on November 8, 2018. The company had secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Ratan Tata in March 2015. Tata bought a stake in One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm.
Ola Cabs is India’s answer to Uber. Much like Uber, Ola provides cab services across all price segments, ranging from economic to luxury. Beginning its operations in 2010, Ola secured funding from Ratan Tata in July 2015.
Ratan Tata is the first Indian to buy a stake in Chinese tech giant Xiaomi best known for its affordable smartphones. It’s true, the amount Tata invested in Xiaomi was not disclosed. Similarly, services marketplace UrbanClap raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Ratan Tata in December 2015. In April 2016, Lenskart, the popular online retailer that sells eyewear secured funding from Tata.
Ratan Tata has invested in More than 30 Start-ups
Tata, while referring to the growth of budding startups said, “We are looking at the India of tomorrow and the day after, and the start-up industry is entering the global field in a manner where competition is open. The fact is we (Indians) are entrepreneurs at heart. Maybe what we need is the opportunity to flourish and I think the startup industry is doing just that.”
Ratan N. Tata has invested in over 30 startups. Among these, there are several technology-based startups too. Tata has made all these investments in his personal capacity. Ratan Tata has not restricted himself to a sector and stepped into a variety of diverse strata, be it clothing, weather, pet care services, etc., but technology catches his attention.
He holds the view that technology can be applied and used in any sector and the future is all about technology. He has recently invested in Tork Motors and Ola Electric. Ratan Tata has been supporting Ola since 2015. He openly expresses his excitement of participating in new areas and encourages young minds to search for domains yet to be explored.
Ratan Tata believes startups should get funded by Indian investors. According to him, the startup sector is growing rapidly with the best of minds involved in it. He regrets seeing such companies having great potential that could add value to the Indian economy but being bound to foreign authorities. Thus, Tata finds it unfortunate that founders get driven by foreign investments in the hope of an eventual acquisition by a larger entity.
He tells his decisions are intuition-driven, but the steps he has taken by now proves his intuitions are calculated risk oriented. He prefers getting into conversation with founders, analyze their personality, skills, their maturity, and the seriousness and most importantly, their zeal and dedication.
And like any other investor, he judges the future scope of pitched ideas. Tata has told in his case selection is more by intuition than by numbers. He further revealed that judging the intent of the founders and their seriousness influenced him more than any other factor.
How to Approach Ratan Tata for Investment?
Is Approaching Ratan Tata Difficult? As a matter of fact, its not. He is as approachable as any other investor. A few things to keep in mind if you plan to seek investment from the business tycoon:
Your idea should be unique and hold great potential.
The startup should have begun its operations, at least on a small-scale.
Tangible feedback on the startup and its product or service is a must. Remember, Ola got funding from RNT Associates 5 years after it began.
He is a man of experience, so it is advisable to be realistic and honest. Sniffing out non-sense is easy for him.
Being a personal investor, he prefers keeping the details of his investment private. He hates it when the media makes such information public. You will find it difficult to find the exact amount of his investments online, even when it comes to the biggest players he’s backing.
When asked what makes a good entrepreneur, he told what probably drives an entrepreneur to start a business is the fire in his belly that there is a better way to do something that has been done or a good opportunity to make a difference because something has not been explored well enough. And the confidence of staying with it is deciding factor of a good entrepreneurs. This is one thing to keep in mind while approaching Ratan Tata for investment.
The government of India brought in a lot of changes in the FDI norms. This was done keeping in mind the nation’s condition amidst the global pandemic. The main aim was to prevent foreign companies from opportunistic take overs of Indian firms.
The recent investments made their point on curbing Chinese investments in Indian Firms. As per the new FDI norm any country that shares a land border with India will no longer be able to use the automatic route in the FDI. The companies who would like to invest must seek government’s clearance over any investment proposal.
The changes were brought in late April earlier this year. The main aim was to stop Chinese Investors from their predatory behavior. These rules would be applied on countries such as Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Afghanistan. But there is a very small flow of investments from these countries. So, this is evident that the norms are to keep an eye on China for any signs of exploitative behavior.
All this was not done on any sudden decision. The reason behind all this is form the year 2015. Since 2015 China has increased its investment in India. This looks like a very strategic move. According to a report by the DPIIT, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade. The total amount of FDI that has flown from China to India is around $1.8 Billion. All this within a 2015-2019. In the year 2015 itself there was an investment of total $494.75 million.
The industry that has particularly caught the eye of the Chinese investor is the Indian Automobile Industry. Between the same period that is from 2015-2019. The automobile Industry has seen a total investment of $876.30 million. The electrical equipment manufacturing along with the book printing sectors have also seen a hug inflow. All this FDI flow confirms the foothold of Chinese investors in the nation.
Yearly FDI Inflows (in USD Million)
The companies that would be affected the most would be the companies like BigBasket, Paytm and Ola. These companies are just collateral damages of the governments new rules to protect minor companies. The online Grocery vendor Gofers along with the digital payment app and OLA have received millions of dollars as investment from Chinese Investors.
The new norms would effect the fresh funds that were supposed to role in.
“The new FDI guidelines essentially imply Chinese capital would require prior government approval. In effect, given the uncertainty around approval, startups will shy away from Chinese capital. In the immediate future, this could impact PhonePe and potentially Paytm at a later date,” said Ashneer Grover, CEO and co-founder, BharatPe
According to a report by the Think Tank Gateway House a total of $4 Billion has been invested in Indian startups by the Chinese tech investors. Another report said that 18 of India’s 30 Unicorn Startups are funded by Chinese Investors.
BigBasket the online grocery store got a $50 million funding from Alibaba. This investment rolled in when the company was facing its own share of problems in the lockdown. But these new FDI norms would hit the company. BigBasket would face troubles for its capital infusions with Alibaba. BigBasket would now have to search other places to reach its requirements on the basis of investments.
Paytm raised a huge sum of $1 Billion from the Soft Bank in Japan and from Ant Financial from Alibaba. Paytm faces tough competition from Google and PhonePe(owned by Walmart). To fight these competitors Paytm has to be always on the edge of innovation . But the company would face a major fallback after the new norms. Alibaba is the largest share holder in the company. This would indeed affect the digital payments platform.
Alibaba’s Ant Financial has been an investor in Zomato since the year 2018. Ant Financial invested $210 million in the food delivery app. It go a stake of 14.7%. By this Ant Financial became the company’s Largest investor. This stake was raised to 23%. According to news reports this was going to be increased earlier this year. But between that the Indian government revised its FDI norms.
18 of the 30 Unicorn Startups who are funded by Chinese Investors would face a lot of troubles. The move of making changes in the FDI norms is to hurt the Chinese Investors. But this would hurt the unicorn startups. This move has put many jobs on risk.
