10 Youngest Self-made Billionaires in India

Youngest self-made Billionaires? Sounds impossible? “It always seems impossible until it’s done!”, says Nelson Mandela. 

A child always dreams big! But how many of them really keep their promise, to fulfill the dreams they saw as a child?

Here are the top 10 youngest self-made billionaires in India who with their hard work and ability to turn their dream into reality became who they are today.  

Check out this list of 10 Youngest Self-made Billionaires in India:

1. Ritesh Agarwal: CEO and founder of OYO Rooms. 

About Ritesh Agarwal:-

Ritesh Agarwal is one of India’s youngest self-made billionaires and entrepreneurs. He is the CEO and founder of OYO Rooms. He was born and brought up in Odisha, India. After completing high school, he moved to Delhi for college. 

But he dropped out of college and was selected for the prestigious ‘Thiel Fellowship’ which supports young minds. From childhood itself, Ritesh was a tech freak. He loved travelling. Therefore, he decided to combine both his passions together! 

First initiative towards the idea of OYO Rooms:

He started his journey with the aim to come up with an innovative idea and a solution for people who were looking for affordable hotels during their travel. Entrepreneurship needs patience and dedication. Ritesh first came up with ‘Oravel Stays’. 

But somehow, he felt that the idea of ‘Oravel Stays’ was not up to the mark. He felt the need to develop a more enhanced, polished and standardized version of the earlier concept. 

Devising the concept of OYO Rooms:

Ritesh worked on his previous idea of ‘Oravel Stays’ to make a better version of it. He created a much more refined version of his earlier idea, which we today know as ‘OYO Rooms’. ‘OYO’ stands for ‘On Your Own’. 

‘OYO Rooms’ basically provide its users with affordable rooms with basic and standard facilities in hotels all over India. The idea of ‘OYO Rooms’ made Ritesh Agarwal a billionaire at the age of 23. 

2. Bhavish Aggarwal: Co-Founder of OLA Cabs 

About Bhavish Aggarwal: 

Bhavish Aggarwal is an entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of OLA Cabs. He was born in Punjab, India. Being a bright student since childhood, he first received his degree in Computer science. Later he did his engineering at IIT, Bombay. He is one of the youngest self-made billionaires in India.

He first worked at Microsoft. Microsoft became the first platform for Bhavish to start his career. Bhavish and Ankit were listed as the youngest richest Indians in the year 2015. 

Devising the concept of OLA Cabs:

Bhavish got the idea of OLA Cabs when he had an unpleasant experience with the taxis. He, along with Ankit Bhati co-founded OLA Cabs in 2010. 

OLA is basically an app, where you can book a taxi, auto, car or even a bike to reach your desired destination. OLA Cabs partnered with a number of cab drivers instead of renting their own cars. 

It also offers a wide range of cabs from Mini, prime and even luxury. The prices of the cabs too were comparatively cheaper than the other cab drivers. 

Benefits of OLA Cabs:

• Ola Cabs is a user-friendly app
• Reasonable prices for every ride.
• Comfortable travel
• The choice to select the type of cars that the customers travel with: Mini, Prime, Luxury.

3. Byju Raveendran: Founder and CEO of Byju’s 

About Byju Raveendran: 

Byju Raveendran is an Indian educator, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Byju’s. He co-founded the company with his wife, Divya Gokulnath and hails from the state of  Kerala, India. He is one of the youngest self-made billionaires in India.

Byju Raveendran completed his B.Tech and then later he started working as a service engineer. 

Devising the concept of Byju’s:

• Byju Raveendran first started teaching his friends and prepared them for their CAT Exams. Later, he himself took the CAT examination. He also helped other people to prepare for their CAT Examinations. 
• In 2007, he came up with the idea of Byju’s classes. 
• In 2011, he co-founded Byju’s with his wife. Initially, he used to teach the students through offline mode but later in 2009, he devised an online video-based learning program for CAT examinations. 
• During this time, he got the idea to combine education with technology. Later in 2015, he launched Byju’s learning app. It made it easier for students to learn the educational concepts and access the study material.
• This learning app also coaches students for competitive examinations like NEET, CAT, JEE, GMAT, and GRE. Byju’s learning app also provides coaching classes for grades 4th to 12th. 

Benefits of Byju’s learning app:

• Engaging videos
• Unique content 
• Expert trainers
• Flexible schedules

4. Divyank Turakhia: Founder of Media.net

About Divyank Turakhia:

Divyank Turakhia is a businessman, entrepreneur, programmer and investor. He founded Media.net and later sold it to a Chinese consortium. Divyank was born in India. Since childhood, he was interested in coding and started pursuing it from a very young age. 

In 2016, Divyank was ranked #95 on the Forbes list of India’s 100 Richest people! 

About Media.net:

• Media.net is an advertising technology company. It develops a range of products for advertisers as well as publishers. These products are licensed by some of the largest ad networks and other ad companies. 
• The company claims that the acquisition will only help the company to grow and develop more. 
• A new set of products and services will attract new customers which will ultimately help the company to progress. 

5. Binny Bansal: Co founder of Flipkart 

About Binny Bansal: 

Binny Bansal is an entrepreneur and co-founder of the e-commerce platform called Flipkart. He, along with Sachin Bansal first served as the COO and was then promoted to the CEO of Flipkart. 

Binny hails from Chandigarh, India. He graduated with a degree in Computer science and engineering from IIT, Delhi. 

Benny Bansal’s career before Flipkart: 

Benny first started working at Amazon. Earlier he was rejected twice by Google. He, along with Sachin Bansal came up with the idea of a comparison search engine. In 2007, he left Amazon only to find Flipkart, an e-commerce company. Later in 2018, he resigned from Flipkart. 

Devising the concept of Flipkart: 

• In 2017, he became the CEO of Flipkart. Sachin and Binny Bansal realized the technological advancement and potential of e-commerce. 
• They also noticed that over the years the number of internet users is going to increase. 
• Therefore, they came up with the idea of creating an online platform for shopping. Flipkart was one such concept where the developers wanted the shopping experience of the customers to take it up a notch. 
• Today, it is one of the biggest online platforms for shopping where one can find a range of products from fashion to electronics and even home essentials! 

6. Herman Narula: Co-founder and CEO of Improbable Worlds Limited. 

About Herman Narula:  

Herman Narula is a British-Indian businessman. He is the CEO and co-founder of Improbable Worlds Limited. Herman Narula was born in Delhi, India and later when was still a child he moved to the UK. 

He completed his education in computer science. Since childhood, he was interested in video games and he began learning coding in C++ at a very young age.

Herman found his partner, Rob Whitehead and both of them shared a common interest in video games. 

About Improbable Worlds Limited: 

• The company makes distributed simulation software. This can be used in video games and metaverse environments too.  
• Herman and his partner were supported by Herman’s family and a group of investors in their journey of developing Improbable. 
• Later in 2017, the company attracted a lot of investors which valued the company at $1 billion. 
• Herman opines how the power of video games is going to change the world. He believes that over time people will learn to adjust and accustom themselves to the same space. 

7. Vijay Shekhar Sharma: CEO and Founder of Paytm 

About Vijay Shekhar Sharma: 

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is one of the youngest self-made billionaires, founder and CEO of Paytm. He was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India and did his engineering in Delhi. In 2017  he was ranked as India’s youngest billionaire by Forbes. 

Career before Paytm:

Vijay Sharma started a website called indiasite.net, while he was still in college. Later after two years, he sold it for $1 million.

In 2000, he started One97 Communications. It basically provided services and content which included news, ringtones, results etc. One97 is basically the parent company of Paytm.  

About Paytm:

• It is basically a multinational financial technology. 
• It enables the service of making financial transactions and payments. 
• Paytm tries to create a mode or a way for easy transactions between users with a QR code or phone number.

Benefits of using Paytm:

• The users can recharge their phones, DTH, and metro recharge.
• One can also pay home bills with the app.
• It also provides financial services and transit and other services too. 

8. Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath: Founders of Zerodha. 

About Nithin and Nikhil Kamath: 

Both of them founded the company, Zerodha in 2010. The main agenda to develop an online trading platform was because previously he had faced some issues while trading. 

Nikhil Kamath is a member of the SEBI Security Markets Advisory Committee (SMAC) and Market Data Advisory Committee (MDAC).

Nikhil is an experienced investor. He is the financial planning head at Zerodha. 

About Zerodha: 

• The name ‘Zerodha’ is composed of two words: ‘Zero’ and ‘Rodha’ which means ‘barrier’ in Sanskrit. 
• The company aims to break all the barriers in terms of technology or costs. 
• Millions of clients have placed their orders through this platform which has deeply contributed to all Indian Retail trading volumes. 
• The company also took educational initiatives to support the traders.  

9. Deepak Garg: Founder and CEO of Rivigo. 

About Deepak Garg: 

Deepak Garg is the founder and CEO of Rivigo. He founded Rivigo in the year 2014. Before starting Rivigo, he worked with McKinsey & Co. There he gained the required experience by working with various clients across several countries. 

Deepak Garg has done his Master’s in Business Administration from IIM Lucknow. Along with that, he completed his Bachelor’s in Technology from IIT Kanpur.

About Rivigo: 

The idea behind Rivigo is to make the logistic services easier, faster and safer. Deepak Garg has used the idea of ‘relay driving’ to make the process much easier. 

He aims to solve complex issues by providing solutions through advanced technology. 

Deepak has hired a team of experts to help in the development and progress of Rivigo. 

Rivigo has emerged to be one of the most successful companies to provide the fastest technology-enabled services. 

10. Deepinder Goyal: Co-founder and CEO of Zomato

About Deepinder Goyal:

Deepinder Goyal is the CEO and co-founder of the food delivery service in India called Zomato. He along with his partner, Pankaj Chaddah started first a service called Foodiebay in 2008. In 2011, they renamed it Zomato. he is one of the youngest self-made billionaires in India.

He completed his graduation in Mathematics and computing from IIT Delhi in 2005. 

First initiative towards Zomato:

While working at Bain and Company in New Delhi, he noticed that there was significant demand for menu cards from customers.

At that time, the idea of the Zomato service popped up in his mind. He left Bain and Company and started working on his idea. He started a service called Foodiebay which was later renamed Zomato. 

About Zomato: 

Zomato is basically a food delivery service started by Deepinder Goyal. The Zomato app provides its customers with relevant information about the restaurants from which you wish to order your food. 

The app provides you with information like:  

• The menu of that specific restaurant.
• The contact number of the delivery boy as well as the restaurant.
• User reviews.

You can easily order your food by using the Zomato app. It is a very user-friendly app with easy payment methods too! 

Conclusion: 

With technological advancement, the world is now a changing place for budding entrepreneurs and youths with several innovative ideas. The world has now become an open platform for young minds to come up with unique and original concepts. 

The above list of some of the young Billionaires in India is an example which conveys the idea that dreams can definitely be fulfilled!