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The most inspiring and successful entrepreneurs in the world are found in India. These entrepreneurs have established themselves in the business world and are still breaking new ground in a variety of industries, from software companies to retail firms.
Despite that, reports indicate that 11 to 15 percent of Indians work in the entrepreneurial sector. Additionally, only 5 to 10% of these business owners go on to build their ventures. This is why there needs to be a greater focus on entrepreneurship in India to boost the economy and promote our entrepreneurial sector.
According to a survey by Statista, Mukesh Ambani is the favourite business icon of the youth of India and it’s absolutely correct. However, the success stories of Indian Entrepreneurs date back to the 20th century when Ghanshyam Das Birla and Dhirubhai Ambani started their companies that are now multisector global industries; making them one of the first successful entrepreneurs in India.
And as the Indian economy is flourishing every year the number of successful Indian entrepreneurs is only increasing. This is a chance for the youth of nation and every person who aspire to start their business to know about the best Indian Entrepreneurs and learn from them. So, here is the list of best known and successful entrepreneurs in India.
Top 10 Successful Entrepreneurs in India: Stories of Innovation
Let’s explore the list of some of the most influential entrepreneurs in India, based on their net worth.
- Ritesh Aggarwal
- Deepinder Goyal
- Vijay Shekhar Sharma
- Kunal Shah
- Sachin Bansal
- Nithin Kamath
- Bhavesh Aggarwal
- Deep Kalra
- Albinder Dhindsa
- Aman Gupta
1. Ritesh Aggarwal
The Founder and CEO of Oyo Rooms, Ritesh Agarwal, was born in Bissam, Cuttack, Odisha, in 1993. He started selling SIM cards when he was just 13 years old. He attended a Delhi college after completing his education but left to join the Thiel Fellowship programme, which is supported by billionaire internet investor Peter Thiel.
In 2012, Agarwal started Oravel, his first business. Aiming to be the Airbnb of India, the company changed its name to OYO Hotels and Homes in 2013 and is now among the top hotel chains in the globe.
With a current net worth of about $612.1 million, Ritesh is among the most well-known and prosperous businesspeople in the nation.
In India, the United States, China, Nepal, Japan, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia, OYO has 4,50,00 listings spread across 500 urban areas.
2. Deepinder Goyal
Mr. Deepinder Goyal established food delivery company Zomato in the year in 2008 which was initially known as Foodiebay. He graduated from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in Mathematics and computing. As a food lover he was driven towards creating Zomato to deliver food with the tap of a finger.
He is widely recognised as one of the prominent figures in India’s start-up circle and has played a significant role in revolutionising the food and restaurant industry through Zomato. Goyal’s leadership has propelled Zomato into becoming one of the leading food delivery platforms not only in India but also globally.
As of recent estimates, Deepinder Goyal’s net worth is reported to be around $750 million, making him one of the affluent entrepreneurs in India. Zomato, the company he co-founded, has been valued at several billion dollars, with a significant presence in various countries around the world.
3. Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Vijay Shekhar Sharma is founder and CEO of Paytm. He is the son of a teacher from a small city in northern India. He founded indiasite.net in 1997 while he was still a college student. Two years later, he sold it for $1 million.
He founded One97 Communications in the year 2000. The business provided mobile content, such as news, cricket scores, ringtones, exam results, and a wide range of other things.
The mobile wallet Paytm, which debuted in 2011, is owned by One97. Paytm has benefited from India’s 2016 demonetisation possibly the most, with 400 million subscribers and 25 million daily transactions.
Sharma persuaded Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway to invest $300 million in Paytm in August 2018.
In November 2021, Paytm began its first public offering (IPO). Sharma also founded Paytm Mall and Paytm Payments Bank.
Today he is India’s second-youngest billionaire with $2.35 billion wealth as per Forbes list of India’s 100 Richest People (2020).
4. Kunal Shah
CRED, the second-fastest-growing unicorn start-up in India with its headquarters in Bangalore, Karnataka, was founded by Kunal Shah. Through an internet app, CRED offers services for credit card payments and offers numerous prizes. CRED offers a variety of goods including CRED Pay, CRED Cash, CRED Rent Pay, CRED Travel Store, and CRED Store and has a consistent growth rate.
Paisa back, a company that offers cash-back promotions services to shops, was Kunal’s first venture. One of India’s most creative company models, Free charge, was co-founded by Kunal Shah. In 2015, he sold Free Charge to Snapdeal for $2400 crore, after which he founded CRED. He has a brilliant business mind and an estimated net worth of Rs.5985 crores in 2021.
5. Sachin Bansal
The great online retailer Flipkart, which is renowned for its top-notch delivery services and availability of a broad selection of goods, was founded by Sachin Bansal. Sachin Bansal, a native of Chandigarh, Haryana, and founded his internet company with his friend Binny Bansal after working at Amazon Web Service.
He is one of India’s top 10 businesspeople. His estimated net worth is Rs 8848 crores. Flipkart makes shopping simple by letting us buy products from the comfort of our homes and by offering a vast selection of goods. The company headquarters is in Banglore, Karnataka. After 11 years with the company, Sachin Bansal resigned from his position after Flipkart was acquired by Walmart in 2018.
6. Nithin Kamath
Nithin Kamath is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zerodha. He began trading stocks when he was introduced to the markets by his friends at just 17.
Established in 2007, Zerodha spearheaded the discount broking model in India, allowing its users to trade stocks at a lot cheaper cost than the opposition.
Zerodha, which has never raised funding, has over 7 million users. Of these, 5 million are active users. Active users are those traders who have exchanged somewhere around once a year.
Nithin Kamath’s net assets have swelled to $1.9 billion, making him the third biggest stock broker in the country, just after ICICI and HDFC.
7. Bhavesh Aggarwal
Bhavesh Aggarwal is one of the well-known entrepreneurs in India, he is known as the Co-founder of OLA Cabs. He was born in Rajasthan and comes from an engineering background. Bhavesh started working on developing OLA Cabs alongside his friend Ankit Bhati. They both got the idea of starting this app when they struggled to find a taxi in Mumbai and realised there was a huge gap in the market for a reliable ride-hailing service. Since then, Ola has grown exceptionally and is now present in over 250 cities in India, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, with more than 2 million drivers on its platform. And if talk about OLA Cabs’ net worth, today it stands at the whopping amount of $7.3 billion.
The success of OLA Cabs made Bhavesh one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India and has garnered him several awards like the Entrepreneur of the Year award at the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence in 2017. He is also a member of the prestigious Young Presidents’ Organisation (YPO).
8. Deep Kalra
Deep Kalra and his venture MakeMyTrip are known for turning people’s travelling dreams into reality in just a few simple clicks. This makes him one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India, born in Hyderabad and coming from corporate background Kalra started his venture of MakeMyTrip alongside with Co-founders Rajesh Magow and Keyur Joshi in 2000.
Deep Kalra got the idea of starting this business when he was working in USA and struggled to find any reliable source to book tickets to get back to India. This made him realise that there was a need for an online travel platform to book flights and hotels easily.
That’s how Kalra created MakeMyTrip, a platform which provides an end-to-end solution for travellers. The platform helps people book flights and hotels but also provide information about tourist attractions, local customs, and culture. And today MakeMyTrip values around $2.58B.
9. Albinder Dhindsa
Today Grofers (Blinkit) has become a go-to place for every household for their grocery shopping all thanks to the Indian businessman Albinder Dhindsa. Albinder was born in Panipat, Haryana completed his education at IIT. After completing his education he worked for Zomato, the food delivery platform and left it in 2013 to start Grofers alongside Co-founder Saurabh Kumar.
Dhindsa and Kumar got the idea of starting Grofers while working for Zomato, where they observed that that the online food delivery market was becoming crowded and competitive. This made them realise that there is huge potential in the market for online grocery delivery, particularly in India where many people still preferred to shop for groceries in person. This led them to create an online platform that could offer a wider range of products and simplify the grocery shopping experience for customers. Today after Zomato’s acquisition the company’s worth stands at $630
10. Aman Gupta
You might know him from Shark Tank India, or might have one electronic device of his company Boat. Yes, the next person in the list of most successful entrepreneurs in India is Aman Gupta. Gupta is the founder of the Indian consumer electronics brand, Boat. He is an Indian entrepreneur with a passion for technology and innovation, and his vision has transformed Boat into a leading player in the audio and lifestyle products segment.
Aman got the idea of starting Boat from his own struggle to find affordable and quality audio products in Indian market. He also noticed the increased use of smartphones among young people in India, but there were very few good options for headphones and other audio products that were compatible with their mobile devices. That’s how he started Boat alongside other two co-founders and made took Boat from nothing to a $70 million company and a household name in India.
Meet the Top 10 Women Entrepreneurs
India is home to a large number of women entrepreneurs. These women have made a name for themselves in a variety of businesses and industries.
These women have all achieved great success in their respective fields and have inspired other women to pursue their own entrepreneurial dreams.
- Vandana Luthra
- Falguni Nayar
- Radhika Ghai Agarwal
- Khushboo Jain
- Vineeta Singh
- Shradha Sharma
- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
- Suchi Mukherjee
- Ghazal Alagh
- Pranshu Patni
1. Vandana Luthra
An entrepreneur from India named Vandana Luthra founded VLCC Health Care Ltd, a beauty and wellness conglomerate with operations in Asia, the GCC, and Africa. She also serves as the chair of the B&WSSC, a project that offers training in accordance with the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana programs.
In 2014, she was chosen to serve as the organisation’s inaugural chairperson. This provides skill training for the beauty industry and is supported by the Indian government. Her net worth is Rs.1300 crores.
2. Falguni Nayar
Falguni Nayar is a women entrepreneur who has made a name for herself in the Indian business world. She is the founder and CEO of India’s leading online beauty retailer, Nykaa.com.
In 2012, Nayar launched Nykaa.com, which has become the go-to destination for beauty products in India. The company offers a wide range of products from over 500 brands, and has a team of over 1000 experts who provide advice and guidance to customers.
Nayar has been honoured with several awards for her entrepreneurial achievements, including the Business Today ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award and the Economic Times ‘Woman of the Year’ award. She was also named one of Fortune’s ’50 Most Powerful Women in Business’ in 2018.
3. Radhika Ghai Agarwal
Radhika Ghai Agarwal is an Indian businesswoman and entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and CEO of ShopClues, an online marketplace. She is also a board member of the Indian School of Business.
Ghai Agarwal was born in Delhi and raised in Jaipur. She graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi with a degree in electrical engineering. After working in the software industry for a few years, she co-founded ShopClues with her husband in 2011. The company was started to create a one-stop online shopping destination for Indian consumers.
ShopClues has grown to become one of the leading e-commerce platforms in India. It has over 10 million registered users and more than 1 lakh sellers. The company has raised over $300 million in funding from investors such as Tiger Global, Nexus Venture Partners, and Helion Venture Partners. It is also an online marketplace with a net worth of $ 1.1 billion.
4. Khushboo Jain
Khushboo Jain is a women entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of the online fashion retailer, Voonik. She started her career as a software engineer but after a few years, she realised her true passion was in fashion and retail.
She quit her job and started Voonik with the aim of providing affordable and stylish fashion to women. Today, Voonik is one of the leading online fashion retailers in India and Khushboo is one of the most successful women entrepreneurs in the country.
Jain is the founder of Impactguru. It is a one-of-a-kind business model and a crowdfunding platform. It is known for funding NGOs, start-ups, and individuals.
5. Vineeta Singh
Vineeta Singh is a women entrepreneur who has made a name for herself in the business world. She is the founder and CEO of her own company, which is a successful online retailer.
Vineeta is a role model for other women who are looking to start their own businesses. She is an inspiration to all women who want to achieve their dreams. She is the founder of Sugar Cosmetics . Her net worth is $ 10 million.
6. Shradha Sharma
Shradha Sharma is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India who is founder of the company named YourStory. Her background is in journalism, where she worked for leading media organisations like CNBC TV18 and The Times of India.
Shardha’s company YourStory is a digital platform which is focused on telling stories of entrepreneurs and startups in India, the platform is known for its commitment to inclusivity and has helped several entrepreneurs and startups to spread their company’s name and making them known to people.
Do you know how Shradha got the idea of YourStory, she got the idea while she was working as a journalist for The Times of India. She realised that there was a lack of start-ups and entrepreneurs’ coverage in the Indian media, so she created a platform that could fill that gap. And today her company YourStory is worth $3.4 million.
7. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Kiran Mazumdar is known as a brand herself in the field of biotechnology and is an inspiring woman entrepreneur of India for other women. Born to a middle-class family in Bengaluru Kiran Shah is the Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company that specialises in the development and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, and bio-similar.
Kiran got the idea of starting Biocon Limited when she was working as a trainee in a company in Australia. When she came back to India and started her research, during that time she saw a gap in the Indian market for affordable healthcare solutions. She saw an opportunity to use biotechnology to develop low-cost drugs and decided to start her own company. And today under guidance the Biocon Limited has become an over $4 billion company, proving Shaw one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India.
8. Suchi Mukherjee
If you do online shopping then you might have heard about Limeroad, the online women’s shopping platform founded by one of the well-known female entrepreneurs in India Suchi Mukherjee. Suchi was born and raised in India and has valuable experience in the technology and finance industry. But 2012, Mukherjee founded Limeroad with the dream of creating an e-commerce platform specifically for women’s fashion needs.
Suchi got the idea of starting Limeroad from her own struggles to find the right clothes for herself and having a lack of time to visit physical shops. That’s why she thought of starting an online app which helps women curate their own wardrobe by creating scratch books and using AI to give each shopper a personalised shopping experience. Today the platform has become one of the most successful e-commerce companies in India and a $690 million company.
9. Ghazal Alagh
Ghazal Alagh is the co-founder of Mamaearth. Mamaearth is a fast-growing Indian personal care brand which focuses on natural, toxin-free and sustainable products for babies, kids and adults. Ghazal started Mamaearth with her husband, Varun Alagh, in 2016 when they realised that there were very few options available for natural and safe baby products in the Indian market.
She thought about starting Mamaearth when she became a mother herself while searching for good baby products for her child, she found that the majority of products in the market are filled with toxics and harmed her child. That’s how she decided to start Mamaearth with her husband and made products with natural ingredients, and today they have made it a $1.48 billion company making Ghazal one of the best Indian entrepreneurs.
10. Pranshu Patni
If you have tried to learn English online, then you might have come across the English teaching app “Hello English”. Pranshu Patni one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India is the co-founder of Hello English. Patni was born and raised in Rajasthan, India; she completed her education at IIT and worked as a software engineer for some time and then decided to start her own business.
Patni got the idea of starting Hello English after her father faced the problem of the language barrier in a foreign country, this experience led Patni realise importance of language learning. That’s how she thought of creating an affordable language learning app that would be accessible to anyone, regardless of their socio-economic background. To make this dream turn reality Patni met with the team of developers and language experts and after extensive research and coding Hello English was launched in 2014 and since then it has been downloaded over 50 million times and has raised around $6.5 million dollars till now.
What makes Indian entrepreneurs unique?
India has always been a land of young entrepreneurs. Therefore, the long chain of entrepreneurs continues to date with young people entering businesses with innovation and technologies. Moreover, many businessmen and women went on to expand their brands worldwide and succeeded in it. India has one of the youngest populations in the world. In addition, despite having a good education, many of these young individuals are looking for employment. The government has been concentrating on economic growth while aiming to provide youth with employment options. One of the strategies used by the Indian government to provide job possibilities is entrepreneurship. Hence, the market for fresh ideas and innovations in the Indian economy broadens with the increase in market size. It’s always good to read about the success stories of entrepreneurs in India and take inspiration from them to start your own business.
Frequently Asked Questions
In recent times, the founder of OYO Rooms, Ritesh Aggarwal has been one of the most successful entrepreneurs in India. OYO Rooms, is the originator of a well-known business in the hospitality sector, and is renowned for its top services, comfortable rooms, and accessibility in all regions of India.
Vandana Luthra is one of the most successful women entrepreneurs in India. She is the founder of VLCC, a beauty and wellness company. VLCC also offers cosmetic services such as laser treatment, haircare, and slimming services. She also has a net worth of 1,300 crores. Furthermore, she runs an NGO to provide education to the underprivileged. Therefore, she was awarded Padma Shri in the year 2013.
Ritesh Agarwal, aged 27, is the founder of OYO rooms. He is also one of the youngest billionaires in India, with a net worth of $ 1.1 Billion. Moreover, he is listed in the Forbes 30 under 30 list for Asia. He started the business when he was only 18 years old. When he started the business, it became one of India’s most successful and unique entities.
Reliance Industries is the most successful business in India. It is an Indian Multinational Conglomerate company founded in the late 1960s. Currently, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani manage Reliance Industries. Furthermore, Reliance industries employ lakhs of people and are recognised with many awards for its successful business model.
One of India’s youngest entrepreneurs, Tilak Mehta, has shown that there is no age limit for creativity and enterprise. The little child is the inventor of the Mumbai-based app-based courier firm “Papers n Parcels,” a digital courier business that works in conjunction with the Mumbai Dabbawalas to provide one-day delivery services.
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