By | Hema Ravichandar | Strategic HR Advisory, former CHRO Infosys Ltd
NEW DELHI : Bengaluru, India’s start-up capital, now also holds the distinction of being home to the most number of billionaires aged under 40. Hurun India Rich List 2019 has released a list of top 17 self-made entrepreneurs out of which a majority of 10 are from Bengaluru alone. While Mumbai registered the most number of billionaires across ages, Bengaluru, led by Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath and Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal, became the millennial billionaire’s hub.
Bengaluru’s richest startup founders:
1) The richest in the young billionaires list from Bengaluru is Nithin Kamath, founder and CEO of discount brokerage startup Zerodha. He is just 39-year-old and his net worth has been estimated to be ₹6,600 crore. Founded in 2010, Zerodha now contributes to almost 15% of the Indian retail trading volume and is India’s largest retail stockbroker with a customer base of more than 1.5 million.
Kamath started trading from his college days and even worked as a telemarketing executive in a call centre for three years before hitting the bull’s eye with Zerodha.
2) Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal ( ₹6,100 crore) and Binny Bansal ( ₹5,500 crore) are next on the rich list. Both had left their cushy jobs at Amazon to build India’s largest e-commerce site and most valued start-up Flipkart. Last year, Walmart had bought a 77% stake in Flipkart for $16 billion.
Sachin Bansal had sold his 5.5-6% stake for roughly $1 billion. Binny’s stake, on the other hand, was estimated to be worth $700-800 million in Flipkart last year. Since then, he has been offloading his stake in tranches to other investors.
