Radhakishan Damani, veteran investor and founder of retail chain D-Mart, leads the list of the Top 200 Self-made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2023, with a market capitalisation of Rs 2.38 lakh crore.
He is followed closely by Binny Bansal and Sachin Bansal, founders of e-commerce behemoth Flipkart, with an equity value of Rs 1.19 lakh crore, IDFC FIRST Private Hurun India’s report released on November 30 said.
The list also includes Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal and and Dream 11 promoters Bhavit Sheth and Harish Jain, with market caps of Rs 86,835 crore and equity value of Rs 66,452 crore, respectively.
Notably, eight of the top-10 most valuable companies founded in the millennium are startups. The list includes 405 founders who have founded valuable companies in India since the year 2000. More than 56 percent of the founders on the list studied engineering, while 10 are chartered accountants, and 7 are doctors.
Thirty eight founders on the list graduated from IIT Delhi, making it the most preferred undergraduate college for top 200 self-made entrepreneurs of the millennia 2023. This is followed by IIT Mumbai with 24 entrepreneurs and IIT Kharagpur with 20 entrepreneurs.
All the companies in the list together are worth Rs 30 lakh crore, which is the same as the GDP of Denmark. Kaivalya Vohra, 21, the co-founder of grocery delivery app Zepto, is the youngest entrepreneur on the list. The next youngest are Shashvat Nakrani, 25, from Bharatpe, and Dilsher Malhi, 27, from Zupee.
Falguni Nayar from Nykaa is the top woman entrepreneur on the list. The youngest women on the list are Ghazal Alagh from Mamaearth and Saumya Singh Rathore from Winzo, both 35 years old.
Entrepreneurs on the list come from 23 cities in India, with the most from Bengaluru (129), followed by Mumbai (78), Gurugram, and New Delhi (49). These three cities make up more than half of India’s top entrepreneurs of this era, which includes 20 women.
However, only 25 percent of the companies on the list are publicly traded on the stock exchange.
Anas Rahman Junaid MD and Chief Researcher, Harun India said: “The list demonstrates the vibrance of Indian entrepreneurship across age groups, gender, and geography with one-third of entrepreneur featured in the list are aged under 40 and the eldest on the list is 80 years old. It is interesting to note that Bengaluru occupies the top choice for most of the founders in the list to start their companies.”
“The list showcases the immense talent, innovation, and accomplishments of India’s visionary founders, those who are propelling the nation’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to new heights,” said Vikas Sharma, Head-Wealth Management & Private Banking, IDFC.