Modern Stars: D-Mart’s RK Damani tops the list of “Top 200 Self-Made Entrepreneurs”
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Radhakishan Damani, founder of retail chain D-Mart, may be leading the list of the “Top 200 Self-made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2023”, announced on Thursday, the focus of Modern India is elsewhere.
For, eight of the Top 10 most valuable companies in the list are startups.
“The IDFC FIRST Private Hurun India’s Top 200 Self-made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2023” list demonstrates the vibrance of Indian entrepreneurship across age groups, gender, and geography. One-third of these entrepreneurs on the list is aged under 40 and the eldest is 80 years old,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, Managing Director and Chief Researcher at Hurun India.
The cumulative value of all the companies in the list is Rs 30 lakh crores (30 trillion), equivalent to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Denmark.
Only one-fourth of these companies are listed on the stock exchanges. Altogether 405 company founders feature in the list.
Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal of Flipkart, Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, Bhavit Sheth and Harish Jain of Dream11, and Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy of Swiggy are among those who founded their companies after the year 2000. The list is based on value, defined as market capitalization for listed companies, and valuations for non-listed companies.
The 200 self-made entrepreneurs came from 23 Indian cities, led by Bengaluru (129), Mumbai (78) and Gurugram and New Delhi (49). These three cities account for over half of India’s Top 200 Self-made Entrepreneurs of the Millennia 2023.
Zepto’s Kaivalya Vohra, aged 21, is the youngest on the list, followed by Bharatpe’s Shashvat Nakrani, 25, and Zupee’s Dilsher Malhi, 27.
Falguni Nayar of Nykaa tops among women entrepreneurs. Ghazal Alagh of Mamaearth and Saumya Singh Rathore of Winzo, both aged 35, are the youngest women on the list.
More than 56 percent of the founders in the list are engineering graduates, 10 are chartered accountants and 7 are doctors.
Financial services and retail led the list with 46 and 30 such companies; healthcare came next with 26 entrants.
“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 of Wealth Management & Private Banking at IDFC FIRST Bank.
As many as 38 founders on the list graduated from the Indian Institute Of Technology Delhi (IIT-D), the most preferred undergrad college for the 200 entrepreneurs, followed by IIT-Bombay with 24 and IIT-Kharagpur with 20 entrepreneurs.
Altogether 156 founders of 68 unicorns – a privately held startup valued at over USD 1 billion – also made it to the list.
