With the evolving digital platforms, the world is growing as well. And so the business industries, several startups and established businesses are shifting completely to digitalization.
Digital media is providing all kinds of features and facilities for businesses to develop enormously. In fact, many business owners have made digital their business. And these are growing with an exponential graph of success. Therefore, such entrepreneurs are termed as digitalpreneurs or digital entrepreneurs.
You might be wondering, what exactly is a digital entrepreneur? A digital entrepreneur is a business owner, founder or manager who has an internet-based business such as OYO or Paytm.
In India, there are a vast number of such digital entrepreneurs who have expertise in their field of interest and business with great graph success. India provides all kinds of facilities to its entrepreneurs to grow their businesses successfully.
It also brings development for the country as India is growing towards the digital world with extensive manifestation. Digital entrepreneurs in India have developed some great online platforms that have been proven absolutely promising and convenient to use.
Through this article, we present you with those top digital entrepreneurs who have been a great example to the young generation and are extremely successful. Let’s get started!
Top 5 Tips To Become A Successful Digital Entrepreneur
Byju Raveendran
Digital EntrepreneurByju Raveendran – BYJU’S Founder
Founder of BYJU’S study app, Byju Raveendran is well known for his tremendous work that is helping millions of students. He is one of the youngest billionaires in India. He launched BYJU’S app in 2015 and within 2 months, it reached millions of students who downloaded it.
BYJU’s current value is worth $5.7 billion. Its EdTech company is established in Bengaluru and is considered as the top-notch learning and thinking platform for millions of students. In fact, it has been rated with the “Best Self-Improvement” app in 2016, on Google Play Store.
Shradha Sharma
Digital Entrepreneur Shradha Sharma – Yourstory Founder
Shradha is a very well-known digital entrepreneur of India. Shradha Sharma is the founder and Chief Editor of Yourstory.com. It is a startup media platform that brings the stories of startups, entrepreneurs, change-makers, funding analysis and resource pieces.
Yourstory media has been an absolute success which has around 20,000 stories based on entrepreneurs and tons of several other matters. It provides the facilities to read any story in 12 different languages. Moreover, it has reached more than 10 million readers daily who find this online platform very considerate and interesting.
Digital Entrepreneur Ritesh Agarwal – Founder of OYO Rooms
The well-known personality, Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms. OYO rooms are widely famous around India for their incredible service of booking the top branded hotels online or offline. Ritesh Agarwal is a digital entrepreneur who started his journey at just the age of 16 years and now ruling a business worth millions.
He travelled all the fractions of the country with a budget plan settlement. This gave him the idea to build such a platform that would provide the facility to book any hotel at affordable rates. OYO Rooms is one of the fastest-growing online platforms in India.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma – Founder of Paytm
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of a very famous digital payment company, Paytm. Vijay Shekhar Sharma with a net worth of $2.1 billion, was included in the list of the youngest billionaires of India by Forbes.
Paytm is considered one of the most promising and convenient digital payment platforms. Along with the Paytm app, Vijay Shekhar Sharma also developed Paytm Mall, Paytm payment bank, and e-commerce business.
Youngest Digital Entrepreneur Sanjay and Shravan Kumaran – Founder of GoDimensions
The youngest Indian entrepreneurs, Shravan and Sanjay are siblings merely of age 17 and 15 respectively. Together they built the mind-blowing digital platform, GoDimensions. Shravan and Sanjay are the youngest digital entrepreneurs of India.
GoDimensions are aimed to achieve the simplest and most convenient technical antidotes for digital media. Once in an interview, Shravan and Sanjay were asked about the reasons behind their success, they respond, “Reading a huge number of books and solving the problems that come on the way.”
There are plenty of entrepreneurs who have been brilliant and successful on digital platforms. Before you decide to initiate your startup, take a step hold and look for the business models of such successful entrepreneurs mentioned above.
They have contributed majorly to the successful growth of digital media. The digital platform has taken over almost all our essentials from traditional media to stores. It has given digital a new outlook which is tremendously popular. These experts would provide you with the best business idea for your startup to make it a success.
FAQs
Who is an entrepreneur?
An entrepreneur is an individual who sets up a new business by taking a risk in order to make money.
Who is a digital entrepreneur?
A digital entrepreneur is one who works in the digital media space and makes his living by selling digital media or downloads. In other words, a digital entrepreneur is anyone who works online in the digital environment.
What is the job of digital entrepreneur?
A digital entrepreneur job is to utilise the reach and power of the internet to offer products or services for profit.
How do you become a digital entrepreneur?
Learn digital marketing skills – Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media Marketing (SMM).
Once you learn these skills, you can freelance in these fields.
You can start a digital marketing service or build products.
You can also become a social media influencer.
Start any services or products that you can offer virtually.
What are the 4 types of entrepreneurs?
The four types of entrepreneurs:
Coasting, opportunity comes to them (or it doesn’t)
Conservative (very moderate use of resources, protecting existing resources)
Our India stands as the second-largest population in the world with a rapidly thriving economy over the past few decades. Before India’s Independence, agriculture played a vital role in developing the economy.
Following the 21st century, we have witnessed numerous entrepreneurs arising in every corner of India with a motive to bring a prosperous future for Indians.
Conscientiously, India became the third-largest in terms of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) after the United States of America and China. Because of this fact, our entrepreneurs are the sole reason for the success of the Indian Economy, which stated that over 58.5 million entrepreneurs are there in India, of which nearly 13% are women.
Without any background or experience, some self-made business people took the determination to create a miracle in burgeoning the economy and ultimately becoming the richest entrepreneur at a very young age.
Net Worth – $1.5 Billion Founded – Zerodha Education – Graduation in engineering
Nithin Kamath – Youngest Billionaire in India
With an aim of breaking all barriers which are faced by investors and traders in India regarding cost, technology and support. Nithin Kamath, a Chartered Accountant (CA) took part in building a hassle-free online discount brokerage firm- Zerodha. He is the Founder as well as the CEO of Zerodha. He is mostly known for tweeting educational and informative content on social media.
Ultimately, the company became India’s first discount brokerage firm, after it was founded in the year 2010. As of 2021, Zerodha is said to have over 5 million active clients. The net worth of Nithin Kamath is INR 14500 Crores.
Nikhil Kamath
Net Worth – $1.5 Billion Founded – Zerodha Education – School Dropout
Nikhil Kamath – Youngest Billionaire in India
Nikhil Kamath is the Co-founder of India’s biggest trading platform, Zerodha. Although he dropped out of his school at a young age, he hustled and secures a job in a call centre, when he was just 17. Nikhil Kamath, after getting into trading along with his brother founded Zerodha. When he got into stock markets, he decided to start trading.
Zerodha solves all the problems and barriers faced by traders and investors. The current net worth of Nikhil Kamath is INR 11100. Zerodha was founded by Nikhil Kamath and his brother in the year 2010. He is one of the richest self-made billionaires in India at the age of 40.
Divyank Turakhia
Net Worth – $1.76 Billion Founded – Media.net Education – Graduated from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics
Divyank Turakhia – self made Billionaires in India
Divyank Turakhia being tech-savvy, began his career in coding at the age of 8 and mastered every aspect of computer programming. He was born on 29th January 1982 and did his schooling at Arya Vidya Mandir in Bandra and holds a degree in the field of Commerce and Economics from Narsee Monjee College in Mumbai. He founded media.net and later sold it to Chinese consortium for $900 million.
According to IIFA Wealth, He is the second richest self-made entrepreneur under 40, and his net worth is estimated to be 12,500 crores.
Ankit Bhati
Net Worth – $615 Million Founded – Ola Education – IIT Bombay
Ankit Bhati – Youngest billionaire in India
Ankit Bhati is the Co-founder and was the former CTO of one of India’s most popular and used ridesharing Ola Cabs. Ola Cabs was founded in the year 2010. . Recently, Ankit Bhati has launched a new SaaS startup named Amnic. The net worth of Ankit Bhati is INR 1600 Crores. With the increasing demand for ridesharing systems, Ola Cabs are one of the two ridesharing companies that are dominating the Indian market.
Bhavish Agarwal
Net Worth – $990 Million Founded – Ola Education – IIT Bombay
Bhavish Agarwal – Youngest billionaire in India
In recent times, Ola resulted in a turning point in the development of the Indian economy, where people encountered comfortable rental transport at an affordable rate. Bhavish Aggarwal commenced their idea of innovating technology-based cab services in India and started Ola and became one of the richest entrepreneurs with a net worth of close to INR 7500 Crores.
Net Worth – $1.3 Billion Founded – Paytm Education – Bachelor of Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering
Vijay Shekhar Sharma – Youngest billionaire in India
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is one of those Indian billionaire businessmen who achieved many things at such a young age. He is none other than the founder and chief executive officer of the financial technology firm, Paytm. He sold the website that he created while in college, named indiasite.net for $1 million.
He then started One97 Communications where they provided people with exam results, cricket scores, ringtones and jokes. In 2010 it became the parent organization of Paytm. In 2017, Forbes ranked him as India’s youngest billionaire and in the same year, he was headlined in Time Magazine’s World’s 100 Most Influential People 2017 List.
Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffet subsidized $300 million in the business in 2018. And again in 2020, Forbes featured him as the 62nd richest person in India and his net worth is $2.3 billion.
Binny Bansal
Net Worth – $1.3 Billion Founded – Flipkart Education – Graduate from IIT Delhi
Binny Bansal – Self-made Billionaires in India
Binny Bansal is the founder of the e-commerce platform named Flipkart. He co-founded Flipkart in 2007 and now he has become one of the biggest names in the Indian e-commerce industry. At first, Binny Bansal worked at Sarnoff Corporation, Binny Bansal completed his degree in computer engineering from IIT Delhi. He was the former CEO of Flipkart.
Flipkart was launched in 2007, at first it was more like a small book store, then it become an e-commerce platform. In 2018, Walmart acquired Flipkart. Today the valuation of Flipkart is around $37.8 billion.
Sachin Bansal
Net Worth – $1.3 Billion Founded – Flipkart Education – Graduate from IIT Delhi
Sachin Bansal – Self-made Billionaires in India
Sachin Bansal is an Indian entrepreneur who co-founded one of the most popular Indian e-commerce platforms Flipkart. Flipkart is an e-commerce company that is famous for selling consumer electronics, fashion, groceries and lifestyle-related products. Flipkart was acquired by Walmart in 2018. Sachin Bansal got his degree in Computer Engineering after attending IIT Delhi and founded Flipkart along with Binny Bansal. The net worth of Sachin Bansal is INR 8848 Cores.
Ritesh Agarwal
Net Worth – $1.1 Billion Founded – Oyo Rooms Education – College Dropout
Ritesh Agarwal – Youngest Billionaire in India
This 27-year-old Ritesh Agarwal is one the youngest billionaire in 2021 in India. He is the Founder and CEO of OYO Rooms. He commenced OYO Rooms as a small lodging portal under budget.
In 2012, it was added to the accelerator program by Venture Nursery. In 2013, it won $100,000 in the Thiel Fellowship program and in 2013, he launched OYO Rooms. The company was a success and the stakes tripled when Agarwal purchased $2 billion worth shares in the company.
He is named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Asia and also is nominated for the Business World Young Entrepreneur Award. As per reports, Ritesh Agarwal’s net worth is around $1.1 billion.
Net Worth – $650 Million Founded – Zomato Education – Graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Deepinder Goyal – Self made Billionaire in India
Deepinder Goyal is the founder of Zomato, which delivers food from restaurants to every corner of the city. Foodiebay was the name of the firm when they initially started, that is in 2008 and later in 2010, they renamed the company Zomato when the company gained popularity among the people.
It also acquired Cibando, Gastronauci, Poland’s restaurant search assistance in 2014, and Seattle founded Urbanspoon, it turned out to be their massive gain. As per the report, Deepinder Goyal’s current net worth is around Rs 2,200 crore.
Conclusion
Our entrepreneurs are the sole reason for the success of the Indian Economy. Many fresh talents are rising from the corners of the country and are giving a hand in creating a prosperous. As of 2021, there are many such successful entrepreneurs, here we have just mentioned a few.
FAQs
Who is the youngest self-made billionaire in India?
Nikhil Kamath, the co-founder of Zerodha is India’s youngest billionaire at the age of 34.
Who is the youngest self made billionaire entrepreneur in the world?
Austin Russell founder of Luminar Technologies is the world’s youngest self-made billionaire.
Who is India’s youngest millionaire entrepreneur?
Sunil Butolia is India’s youngest millionaire at the age of 18.
Who are self made entrepreneurs?
Self made entrepreneurs are the people who have started with a lack of money, education, or social status and have become both rich and successful through their own efforts.
Who is the world’s youngest billionaire?
The world’s youngest billionaire is German heir Kevin David Lehmann, who is just 19.
How many Indian billionaires are there now?
Currently, there are 215+ Indian billionaires, with 58 new additions, as of March 2022.
A traveller, a tourist and a first-time backpacker. These three have something in common despite their differences in experience. They all want a peaceful night to stay after having a long walk to someone’s dream place or to a normal visit or a trip. The business of giving people home or a place to stay dates back to AD 707.
The hospitality business is one of the indestructible industries wherein famous chains have generations of families leading, in particular, the empire built by people through hospitality. Hotels are the face of this industry. There are buildings that provide people with a place to stay with the utmost comfort. They make people feel cosy in corners not owned by them, yet have rights over them.
Thehotel industry was once owned by the owners with no regulatory bodies on the top of their heads. They had their own business model. But the new generation turned the system into a marketplace that involved filters of the various layers. The whole system was immediately converted into a well-oiled machine. A new system that sided with the huge Indian population.
This huge system turnover was brought by a 22-year-old Indian Boy named Ritesh Agarwal.
The Tourism and Hotel Industry in India is one of the main drivers of growth among the services sector of the country. The tourism industry in India has significant potential as it has rich & diverse culture, historical heritage, a vast range of ecology, and flora and fauna. Indian is known for its geographical diversity, attractive beaches throughout the coastline, 27 world heritage sites, 10 biogeographic zones, 80 national parks and more than 441 sanctuaries.
According to reports, over 39 million jobs were created in the tourism sector which equates to over 8% of the total employment in India. By 2029, the country’s tourism sector is expected to grow 6.7% to reach $488 billion, which will account for 9.2% of the country total economy. The industry has slowed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, as the country had many lockdowns and restrictions on travel.
As per the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI), the Indian hotel industry had a loss of approximately $17.82 billion in revenue due to the ongoing pandemic. Despite taking a hit, the industry is looking to come back up with the help of schemes and opportunities provided by the government. The Indian Government is providing free loans to the MSMEs to help them deal with the crisis and revive the tourism sector.
It is also planning to tap into a staycation, which is an emerging trend where people stay at luxurious hotels to revive themselves of stress in a peaceful getaway. With many upcoming developments, the international tourist arrivals are expected to reach 30.5 billion and generate revenue of over $59 billion by 2028. OYO and Airbnb have in many ways helped the industry grow especially in 2020 and 2021, as domestic tourists are expected to drive the growth post-pandemic.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Experience in Industry
Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO of OYO Rooms
When it comes to trust, experienced companies are trusted more.
Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of OYO, formed the most famous chain of leased and franchised hotel chains. We Indians often refer to it as a place to look for the best deals for hotels, The Oyo Rooms. Oyo Rooms started 7 years ago with a bunch of hotels. The company has now expanded globally with thousands of hotels and vacation homes. Oyo Rooms was started in the year 2013.
Ritesh is the second youngest self-made billionaire in the world.
Airbnb’s Founders
Airbnb was conceived years ago by two roommates who rented out an air mattress in their living room. This turned their whole apartment into a bed and breakfast. This was done to sustain the high-priced living in San Francisco. This gave the company its name Airbedandbreakfast. Airbnb was started in 2008.
So the winner here is, Airbnb, which has a lot of experience.
Both the companies share a common goal, i.e. to provide accommodations, a safe place and comfortable corners to people. Yet both the companies have a very different working business model.
Oyo is often believed to be India’s answer to Airbnb. This article will take you through the different business models and things that are uncommon between the two companies.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Front-end
OYO Rooms
OYO, as people know, is a website where one can go through various filters and find a hotel. But this is the front-end of how the Oyo company is. Oyo is a marketplace for only hotels.
Airbnb
However, Airbnb is a marketplace that helps a traveller find an abode of his type. It can be for lodging, primarily homestays and homestays. It also lets the provider of the property fix a price. This helps both sides as well as Airbnb. The company has recently started offering experiences too.
This shows a more varied and real-world applied concept. So, Airbnb has a better front-end.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Places to Stay
OYO Online Booking
Oyo used to get hotels and book a majority of the rooms for a definite time. It then standardizes the room according to the Oyo standards. Later, list the hotels on its website with huge and heavy discounts. The whole business model used to work by acquiring clusters of hotels for a definite time. Standardizing them and making them proper before listing.
Airbnb Online Booking
Airbnb is based on the sharing economy. It makes owners share the property or rooms they own with travellers who in turn share money with the owners. It is believed to be the most successful business that works on sharing economy. A two-faced system that works for the public.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Stay Duration
Oyo works on hotel stays, so an individual can stay there for a good amount of time. Oyo rooms have no particular rule about leaving a room after a set date. The whole system is similar to how one can stay in a hotel. But in Airbnb, there is a 90-day rule. This rule was introduced in 2017. This rule is only for areas in London. The listings in that area cannot be occupied for more than 90 days.
This makes Airbnb not suitable for very long.
Oyo had 5,855 hotels in its network in the year 2016 with an inventory of over 68 thousand rooms. If compared to today it has a portfolio of more than 35 thousand hotels and 125 thousand vacation homes. It has over 1.2 million rooms across 80 countries and 800 cities.
But, the founder and CEO of Oyo – Ritesh Agarwal made an announcement in the year 2017 that the company had evolved its Oyo business model to 100% franchise, managing, or operating. He also mentioned that his company would no longer go for hotel aggregation and will shift towards becoming a proper full-scale hospitality company. The CEO stated that this change in business model will reduce operational costs. Hence, improve service.
Oyo changed its business model to the Franchise model in the year 2017. The company earlier used to take up some rooms on lease and would sell them to customers. This model involves partnering with many hotels and asking them to operate as a franchise. Then selling their rooms to all the customers at competitive prices.
Airbnb, known for not owning any of the properties. Yet known for having a business that does work on providing shelter. All the company does is providing a platform. A platform on which all the people can rent out properties they own or spare rooms to guests. The property prices are set by the owner themselves. But the company intervenes when it comes to the collection of money.
The Business model of Airbnb is a multi-sided marketplace that connects all the travellers with the host and experience providers. The company makes money from the fees that come from bookings from stays and experiences. Airbnb’s model is exponential when it comes to growth.
Airbnb has a better business model in terms of customer comfort and reach.
Airbnb’s business model is quite simple yet very innovative which often dubs it as the world’s fastest-growing travel site.
Oyo charges around 22% of commissions. This has to be paid every month by the hotels’ owners. However, commissions may vary as per the services and features offered. Oyo also charges a commission out of the room reservation fee according to their services chosen.
Airbnb makes all the money through commissions. It charges a 3% commission on every booking from hosts and between 6 – 12% from guests. Unlike Oyo, Airbnb takes reviews and feedback from both ends. Be it the host or the guest, this makes it a proper marketplace.
Airbnb seems to have an upper hand at everything, making it a proper place to visit before actually vising one.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a tool that lets a company store customer and prospect contact information. It also helps the company identify sales opportunities, record service issues, and manage marketing campaigns. Depending on what type of CRM a company has, they can get basic information about their prospective customer and interact with them. CRM helps the company in better analyzing and understanding their customers, which will help them offer better and more efficient customer service. Airbnb and OYO have very different CRM strategies.
CRM of OYO
The CRM that OYO uses is Blueshifts Programmatic CRM, which has helped the company to become a leader in 1:1 customer engagement across all marketing channels. With Blueshift’s precise recommendations and targeted triggers, OYO has been able to achieve 5X higher bookings from email and mobile channels. The company also has a mobile-first approach which has helped it to expand in over 500 cities across ten countries.
CRM of Airbnb
The CRM that Airbnb uses is Twilio, which helps connect with hosts. How it works is, when a traveller makes a reservation through Airbnb, the host has 32 hours to respond to a booking request and this is possible because of its CRM. There is systematic mobile communication between hosts and travellers using a text message. The host can also decide whether they want to accept or deny the customer. The company also uses Hootsuite social media management, which helps them monitor their follower’s growth and social CRM. The system also helps the company to find certain keywords that can eventually be used in campaigns.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Marketing Strategy
OYO – Marketing Strategy
Oyo is known to use the 360-degree marketing method as it implies having a presence on all forms of digital and traditional media. They also have their unique room strategy which helps in attracting more customers with lower room prices in comparison to the base price of the hotel. Besides that OYO has made many successful multimedia marketing campaigns such as #AurKyaChahiye. It also shares location-based posts, promotional posts, which helps people to browse destinations to travel, check for new offers & discounts and encourage them to book OYO.
Airbnb – Marketing Strategy
Airbnb on the other hand uses the marketing approach to building and maintaining a strong community among its users. It also mainly targets long term loyalty from both the guests and hosts. The main marketing strategy of the company is to take your business in front of your potential guest and turn them into bookers. The customers who previously enjoyed their stay with Airbnb places are sent an email encouraging them to list their own property. Airbnb India aims to make its guests feel welcome, its app did the same, as it has a unified interface on Android and iOS platforms.
OYO Vs Airbnb – Social Media
OYO on Social Media
Over the years the company has leveraged the power of social media as it has been able to retain its ranking and stay ahead of OYO competitors in the market. OYO currently has over 169k followers on Instagram and 65.4k followers on Twitter, with actor Sonu Sood as its current brand ambassador. On all the social media platforms, the company promotes itself as being a brand that offers two types of services which are promoting tourist spaces and a safe space to spend time with your loved ones in your own city. OYO also uploads many ad campaigns like ‘Fir Badhega India’ and ‘Sanitised Stays’ that helps in engaging with their customers especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Airbnb on Social Media
Airbnb has a different approach to social media marketing as it heavily relies on awareness generating strategy. The company also uses travel influencers to further promote the platform as it does its social media relies on user-generated content (UGC). So far the company has over 4.9 million followers on Instagram and 733k followers on Twitter. It also has over 6.3 million photos using #airbnb on Instagram which shows us how widespread the company is. Airbnb also heavily invests in video marketing as a part of telling its brand story, it currently has more than 500 videos generating over 100 million views on YouTube.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Airbnb and Oyo share the same kind of services, i.e. hospitality service. Moreover, Airbnb is a website for people to list, find and rent lodging whereas Oyo is a chain of budget and premium rooms partnering with different hotels. Oyo is all about providing a customer experience within a stipulated budget range while Airbnb doesn’t control the customer experience as such.
FAQs
What is the difference between Airbnb and Oyo?
OYO has more hotel rooms whereas Airbnb has more residential plots. In Airbnb, the apartment may have been misinterpreted, not so in the case of OYO as an audit is done every week.
Are OYO Rooms similar to Airbnb?
OYO’s business model is kind of similar to that of Airbnb, i.e. they are an online aggregator of budget hotels. Bookings for these rooms would be made via the website and the mobile app of OYO Rooms. However, the main focus is always is the quality of service provided.
How to give your property to OYO Rooms?
For OYO Rooms registration, you can write an email to partner@oyorooms.com or give a call to this number +91 70530 70530.
Is OYO successful?
OYO Rooms has been one of the most successful startups in India being the country’s largest budget hotel chain. It focuses on standardizing the hotels in the non-branded hospitality sector.
Is Airbnb better than Oyo?
OYO is better in terms of privacy and security. OYO assures quality service while Airbnb doesn’t guarantee anything from their end.
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:
Oyo Rooms is the largest branded community of lodges presently running 450,000 listings in 5,000 towns in India, Malaysia, UAE, Nepal, China and Indonesia. The organization commenced its operations by constructing its enterprise version around the aggregator enterprise version.
Oyo rooms working model operates on the investment worth $1.7 Billion (modern investment raised on April 1st,2019). Meanwhile, the organization values $5.7 Billion with its headquarters in Gurgaon, Haryana. Oyo rooms offer their services in India in conjunction with worldwide locations like China, Malaysia, Nepal, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan with serving more than than 500 towns in India whilst running greater than 45,000 rooms globally as of January 2019.
Ritesh Agarwal, founder of Oyo Rooms stated that Oyo is now including 10,000 rooms or near 500 lodges each month below its franchise version. The shift in its enterprise version has additionally allowed Oyo to elevate its fee. Earlier, below the aggregator version, Oyo charged 18% fee from resort proprietors each month.
Moving to a franchise version had little or no effect on the pricing of rooms, the finance class of rooms priced Rs1,000-1,500 in line with nighttime will stay unchanged. The finances Oyo Rooms class below the franchise version will now fee everywhere among Rs1,000 and Rs2,500; the Oyo Town House class has a price range of Rs2,500 and above, and holiday houses below the Oyo Homes class will cost Rs1,000 in line with the room.
Oyo Rooms Dominate the Market by 68%
Earlier, the organization used to arrange the accomplice with lodges, rent a few rooms, and promote them below its personal logo. Even though the procedure remains the same, Oyo Rooms enterprise version has modified its path to a new structure. To preserve the logo image, they make the companion’s offer offerings at predetermined requirements whilst they lead them to greater visibility to their user-base.
Earlier the company used to rent lodges at a predetermined rate and supplied them to the customers at a take-up rate. This has been modified to a fee-based totally sales version. Oyo rooms charge a commission of 22% from its hotel partners. However, this commission does vary according to the services provided by the brand.
Agarwal was among the select few chosen for the two-year mentorship program run by Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, early Facebook investor and the person who many name as the worldwide tech industry’s influential figure.
Since its launch in 2013, Gurugram-based Oyo has emerged as one of the biggest motels and rooms platform for travelers looking out no-frills, cushy lodging at much less expensive prices. While Oyo Rooms has modified lots over the years, tweaking and re-modelling of the unique industrial enterprise concept for Oyo, the middle concept is to attach travelers with motels.
The company has gone from budget hotel aggregator to a hospitality chain and a real estate business too. Oyo rooms cost a fee of 22% from its lodge companions. However, this fee does range steady with the offerings furnished with the resource of using the brand. The beginning started out on an asset-mild version however over the years, with investments throughout numerous companies inside Oyo, the organization has long passed from rate range lodge aggregator to a hospitality chain and an actual property enterprise too.
Oyo Rooms Business Model
The organization could rent the lodge rooms and revamp it to a standardized format, allow reserving through its website or application. However, in 2015, the organization started moving to a franchisee version, wherein, in choosing leasing rooms, it started out offering partnerships to motels. Here are the numerous verticals that Oyo has brought over the years.
Hotel room aggregation
Franchise version
Owned motels
Co-living
Hotel Room Aggregation
Oyo in 2016 had 5,855 motels in its community with a complete stock of over 68K rooms, while nowadays it has a portfolio of greater than 35K motels and 125K holiday homes, and over 1.2 Million rooms throughout 80 worldwide locations and 800 cities. Its verticals range from vacation homes, enterprise motels, casinos and co-working areas.
That boom has additionally been made feasible because of the fact that the startup saved iterating the version and ensured that it now no longer stays restricted to the rate range lodge space. With extra than one round of investment secured from maximum important traders which include Softbank, the startup ventured into extra modern classes and has continuously released new ventures or manufacturers below its umbrella.
Oyo Rooms in India VS China
Franchise Model
In 2017, Oyo CEO Agarwal announced that the organization has “developed its enterprise to a 100% extraordinary franchise, manipulate or operate. We no longer anymore do lodge aggregation and feature flip out to be a full-scale hospitality organization.” Oyo’s shift from lodge aggregation to franchise version were given here in particular to lessen its operational fees and to enhance serviceability, the organization stated.
For instance, Oyo Townhouse is deliberate and constructed throughout the needs and desires of millennial visitors beginning in particularly designed beds, TVs, open areas for conferences and greater. While merchandise like Collection O is a mid-scale enterprise lodge presenting larger and spacious rooms with pinnacle rate furnishing and linen, on-request laundry, limitless breakfast, 24X7 in-room dining, high-velocity WIFI workstations in each room etc.
These merchandises were a separate Oyo product, in which the organization rents out homes and renovates them based totally on the wishes and plans. So, overall, the organization has stopped reserving unique rooms for Oyo visitors, however alternatively, books the complete lodge or flat below its call and rents it out to customers.
Owned Hotels
Further, the organization gives its lodge companions the choice to run the assets both themselves or allow Oyo to run the operations. The organization additionally gives economic guide through its partnership with economic institutions that have allotted loans to greater than a hundred properties. Loans are to be had for upgrading space, operating capital and different wishes.
As in retaining a combined report with the resource of using Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) the Indian co-living marketplace is predicted to boom at a robust CAGR of 17% within the subsequent 5 years. Identifying the marketplace opportunity, Oyo entered the phase in 2018 with Oyo Life, which operates a fully-provided condo housing arm of Oyo.
Oyo believes that the maximum important benefit of co-living areas, alternatively than paying visitors or serviced apartments, is that it notably cuts down the value of residing because of the fact now no longer handiest do humans proportion the lease however additionally revel in upload on offerings which include each day housekeeping, laundry/ on-name resident facility control; curated meals, etc.
Oyo works with big builders and impartial asset proprietors to take over a whole building, tower or an impartial house. Oyo Life isn’t an aggregator and takes obligation for a stop to stop control of areas, rent whole homes, furnish, clean rework.
Shubham Kumar
