Most teenagers and adults dream of striking it rich someday and becoming famous. Surprisingly, this is possible for almost everyone if we look at the stories of some self-made, richest, and youngest millionaires in India.
I’m not talking about people who inherit a business empire or wealth from their parents or have been born into millionaire families. Instead, I’m speaking about the top 12 billionaires of India that made it to the top with their own grit and effort.
Therefore, let’s learn a little about India’s millionaires (most are billionaires).
India’s Self-Made Youngest Billionaires
The list I’m presenting is arranged on the basis of age and not wealth. However, the last reported net worth of these self-made youngest millionaires in India below 40 is also mentioned in the article. Their age and wealth are reported by various publications including Forbes, Hurun List and Fortune in December 2019.
1. Ritesh Agarwal
Ritesh Agarwal, the founder of OYO Rooms, the New Delhi-based hotels and accommodations aggregator, ranks India’s youngest billionaire. At the age of about 25 years, his net worth in 2024 stood around Rs.75 billion.
Ritesh Agarwal drew inspiration from Airbnb and launched OYO Rooms for the Indian traveller. Today, OYO Rooms operates in most countries on all continents.
2. Nikhil Kamath
With the number of common people trying to make money by stocks and commodities trading, Nikhil Kamath and his elder brother had an idea. They decided to launch India’s first ever low-cost stocks and commodities brokerage, Zerodha, in 2024.
Today, Zerodha ranks as India’s topmost online stocks and commodities brokerage, with over one million individuals connected to its Zerodha Kite and Zerodha Coin platforms. This Bangalore-based richest Indian’s net worth is Rs.44 billion.
3ely kept secret. If one considers these holdings, Siddharth Mallya might well emerge as the richest young Indian.
3. Bhavish Agarwal
Most of us have used the services of Ola cabs, the startup launched by Bhavish Agarwal, a resident of Bangalore. Ola is also a copycat startup in many ways. It draws inspiration from Uber and Lyft in the USA.
Though Uber is the nearest rival in the cabs aggregator category in India, Ola holds sway in most parts of India due to its impeccable service. Bhavish Agarwal’s net worth in December 2019 stood at Rs.31 billion.
4. Binny Bansal
When Binny Bansal and his partner launched Flipkart in 2007, little did they realize their humble startup would emerge as the largest rival to their former employer, Amazon. Indeed, Binny Bansal and his partner, both based in Bangalore are now the centre of attraction worldwide.
Their venture Flipkart and its grocery division Super Mart have attracted investments from American supermarket giant Walmart. By the end of 2019, Binny Bansal’s net worth was estimated at Rs.55 billion.
5. Divyank Thurakhia
With a net worth of Rs.130 billion at the end of 2019, the IIFL-Hurun List India ranks Divyank Thurakhia, a Non-Resident Indian based in Dubai as the richest Indian citizen.
He co-founded Media.net, an online advertising platform that a group of Chinese companies eventually bought over for a whopping US$900 billion in 2024. Divyank Thurakia, an IT engineer by qualifications, was the brains behind Media.net, with headquarters in Dubai Media City
6. Sachin Bansal
Cofounder of Flipkart and also the self-made richest person in India, Sachin Bansal’s net worth stood at Rs.66 billion at the end of 2019. Sachin Bansal and his partner, Binny, started Flipkart from a two-bedroom apartment in Bangalore.
Despite humble beginnings, Sachin’s leadership and business acumen, combined with those of his partner Binny, are pivotal in the company’s success.
7. Byju Ravindran
Few Indians have heard about Byju Ravindran, a software engineer from Bangalore. However, he’s the founder of BYJU, India's most popular online learning platform. He holds about 34 per cent share of BYJU’s.
The young entrepreneur hadn’t imagined he would become a billionaire when he began coaching his juniors on various engineering subjects and math. However, his simple and easy style rapidly became famous.
As demand for his coaching grew, he launched BYJU’s app. At 36, Byju Ravindran’s estimated net worth stands around Rs.71 billion.
8. Amod Malaviya
Amod Malaviya is the co-founder of India’s first indigenous Business-to-Business (B2B) marketplace company, Udaan. With 100 million enterprises going online with Udaan, this entrepreneur and his team have given a new way for Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India to do business.
A software engineer by profession, Amod Malaviya and his team launched Udaan in 2024. Amod Malaviya’s net worth stood at Rs.35 billion in December 2019.
9. Vaibhav Gupta
Also a cofounder at Udaan, Vaibhav Gupta is also a Bangalore-based software engineer. His net worth stood at Rs.35 billion at the end of 2019.
Once an employee at Flipkart, this young entrepreneur came up with the idea of offering an online marketplace to independent vendors in India that earlier had to sell online through ecommerce giants or confine themselves to offline sales.
10. Sujeet Kumar
Sujeet Kumar, the third cofounder of Udaan, is also based in Bangalore. His efforts have proven pivotal for Udaan to get lots of foreign funding for India’s first-ever online marketplace.
A software engineer by qualifications, Sujeet Kumar, goes about developing various features of Udaan to provide a better user experience to shoppers and marketplace owners. His net worth at the end of December 2019 was Rs.35 billion.
11. Nithin Kamath
Nithin Kamath and his brother Nikhil are the brains behind Zerodha, India's largest online stocks and commodities trading platform and discount brokerage. Their success comes from the fact that Zerodha has the lowest fees for online stocks and commodities trading.
There are over a million people in India that use Zerodha Kite and Zerodha Coin apps for buying and selling stocks, commodities, Exchange Traded Funds, Mutual Funds, Debentures, Bonds and Initial Public Offerings, among others. Nithin Kamat’s net worth is estimated at Rs.66 billion.
In Conclusion
As we can see, most of these young entrepreneurs have become millionaires and billionaires on their own merit. And quite a few of them were fairly ordinary people that had a vision of trying something new. They succeeded because their ventures are attractive to the public at large.
Ashwin (Win) Honawar is an accomplished journalist and poignant author with 33 years of experience. He is renowned for his daredevil journalism and engaging narratives that explore various facts of human life and the resilience of the human spirit.
