India has seen a rise in the number of young entrepreneurs
who have set the industry on fire. Whether its hospitality, construction,
movies, healthcare or technology, you simply can’t deny the presence of these
young stalwarts who a breath of fresh air in the Indian business arena.
1.
Ritesh Agarwal – Founder OYO Rooms
Founder of the immensely popular Oyo Rooms.
An Odisha native, he founded the budget hotel chain with just one room in
Gurgaon in 2012.
He was selected for the 20 under 20 Thiel
Fellowship, a prestigious fellowship for which very few Indians have been
selected.
He aims to make OYO the Air BnB of India, a
feat quite achievable given the popularity of OYO rooms.
They have covered more than 15000 rooms in
India and have recently launched services in Malaysia as well.
2.
Kunal Shah – Founder & CEO, FreeCharge
Founder and chairman of FreeCharge. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree
from Wilson College, Mumbai and was enrolled in the MBA program at Narsee
Monjee Institute before dropping out.
Shah founded FreeCharge in 2010 along with
Sandeep Tandon. FreeCharge is one of the first online payments portals. Users
can pay anything from mobile bills to electricity bills, transfer funds and so
on.
In April 2015, FreeCharge was acquired by
SnapDeal for an estimated amount of $400 million. Kunal is the new CEO of
the acquired company.
Varun was born and bought up in Chennai.
After graduating from New York University, he returned to Chennai and founded
the Radiance group of companies. As he has a keen understanding of the city and
what its residents desire, he has spearheaded over 4 million sq.ft of
development across Chennai. Radiance has recently forayed into international
real estate with Radiance Aikya in Dubai.
Under Varun Manian entrepreneurship, Radiance has forayed into various ventures such as
Radiance Home Solutions, Radiance Facility Management and Radiance Total Care,
media and sports ventures.
4.
Nirav Modi – Designer & Founder, Nirav Modi
Nirav was born and raised in Belgium. After
dropping out of Wharton Business School, he came to Mumbai where he learned the
diamond and jewellery trade under his uncle.
He launched his own precious jewellery
brand Nirav Modi in 2010 and has enjoyed a high-end and celebrity clientele since
then.
His flagship store opened in New Delhi in
2014, followed by a store in Mumbai. He launched his brand globally with stores
in New York and Hong Kong in 2015.
5.
Gagan Biyani – Co-founder, Sprig
Co-founder of the hugely popular
app “Sprig”, a food delivery app which provides healthy, wholesome meals in
under 30 minutes.
A serial entrepreneur, he also
co-founded Udemy, one of the earliest MOOC platforms.
He has worked at Lyft, written
articles for TechCrunch, NextWeb, Medium and Mashable.
