Names that have made it to Entrepreneur's 35U35 List in the Past Years The celebrated list of Entrepreneur India has seen some of the biggest names come in the light, it's time to once again pull the curtain off their names accomplishments!
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Entrepreneur's most awaited list is back with its special 2019 edition. However, before we present the new exciting 35 bright and young minds, it's time to pull the curtain off the names that have made it to the list in the past!
Entrepreneur IndiaArunabh Sinha, 34
The idea of setting up a laundry business was born when Sinha saw his wife losing her cool one day over laundry at home. In 2016, he launched UClean - a laundry startup which was based on quite a different business model unlike other modern day laundry start-ups.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaPrabhdeep Singh, 29
At the inception of StanPlus are personal stories of three co-founders, Antoine's Poirson, Jose Leon and Prabhdeep Singh. StanPlus has serviced over 10,000 patient calls in last 12 months. On an average, it receives over 60+ calls per city every day, with each one answered in less than 15 seconds.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaGurmehar Kaur, 20
In the age of digital trolling, the one who survives runs the show. Kaur has been there, done that and now, in her words, "It doesn't bother me anymore." Kaur came into limelight when she was trolled for saying "Pakistan did not kill my dad, war killed him."
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaHarshil Mathur, 27 l Shashank Kumar, 27
Digital payment for businesses was not accessible unless the IIT duo Mathur and Kumar established Razorpay by end of 2014. Mathur shares that his initial journey was really tough.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaJinder Mahal, 26
Yuvraj Singh Dhesi, aka, Jinder Mahal, is the very definition of a self-made man, having battled his way to the WWE Championship. And 23 years later, Mahal arrived on WWE TV for the first time. His initial short run in WWE was interesting, to say the least.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaKabeer Biswas, 33
When Biswas was running his first start-up a few years back, he realized that he never gets time to take care of his personal chores. And, that's how Dunzo app was conceived in 2015. "I thought why not start running other people's' tasks to see if there was a business to be had," shares Biswas.
The company has run seven lakh tasks over the last two years for over 60,000 users. Be it pickup-drop, shopping or fixing something, Dunzo can do it all. The company is operational in Bengaluru and Pune. "Additionally, we've built our product with empathy for our user that makes their experience unmatched," he added. 2017 was a great year for Dunzo. In December, it closed a round led by Google, with both Blume Ventures and Aspada participating. Biswas along with other co-founders are planning to use that capital to refine the product and grow.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaSunil Chhetri, 33
In a country where cricket is the religion of the day, Chhetri has made football the pride of the nation. Today, football is known because of this youth sensation and many aspire to pursue this path because of the path he has paved for generations to come.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaRakesh Deshmukh, 34
During his second venture moFirst Solutions in 2013, Deshmukh realized the gap in the way around 800 million smartphone users, who primarily spoke in their native language, understood smartphone usage and the way smartphone makers perceived it to be.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaManushi Chillar, 20
Another doctor on our list! This beauty has proven that an intelligent mind is only a wonderful addition to the long list of her achievements. The fact that she won Miss World for India after many years will remain an unforgettable phase in India's beauty pageant history.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaShuchi Pandya, 34
It takes a moment to realize where your passion lies and what can lead you to success! Similarly, a former Wharton MBA Pandya reveals what made her think of the winning idea Pipa+Bella.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaGaurav Mehta, 34
Gaurav's fascination for watches began at a very young age. The first watch he owned was an HMT, a gift from his father at the age of 12. The childlike enchantment with the watch made him open up the machinery and reassemble it, which soon turned into a hobby.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaArun Chandru Raju, 32
The acute shortage of human organs available for transplantation can be met by lab-grown human organs to save and extend life. That's the first of its kind effort that Chandru and Dr Tuhin Bhowmick has been putting at Pandorum Technologies - Bengaluru based biotechnology company. The duo co-founded the company while pursuing their doctoral programs at the Indian Institute of Science in 2011. "Human tissue engineering has the potential to positively impact millions of lives," he adds. Chandru and his team are now developing 3D living human mini-livers and corneas.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaSagar Daryani, 31 l Vinod Homagai, 32 & Shah Miftaur Rehman, 31
Building fortune out of a street side delicacy is not everyone's cup of tea... errr momos! But things were different for Homagai and Daryani, who set up Wow Momo in 2008. Later, Rehman also joined the team as their third co-founder.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaTrishneet Arora, 24
School dropout, Arora is one of the youngest ethical hacker India ever had. "Since childhood, I was intrigued to learn about ethical hacking. It was quite challenging for me to prove that even without formal education you can actually pursue a passion to build a fortune," says Arora.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaAniruddha Sharma, 30
Not every memory behind an idea is a fond memory. For Aniruddha Sharma, the inspiration to building Carbon Clean, a company to regulate industrial (air) pollution and use it to make by-products, could be traced back to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaGaurav Munjal , 27 Roman Saini, 25 and Hemesh Singh, 25
In India, when education is still distantly achievable for the mass, accessing technology was out of their radar. However, bridging the gap and utilizing technology for the masses, Munjal, Saini and Singh formed Unacademy, a digital education platform in January 2016.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaHardik Patel, 24
Politicians and politics, both refine with age. But Patel, leader of Patidar Agitation in Gujarat, has defied all odds and has become one of the most famous faces giving way to counter cultures and pluralism in the Indian society.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaKarthik Naralasetty, 28
Being a technology geek, blood was not his first love. The Rutger University dropout, Naralasetty started Socialblood, a social media application that connects patients with compatible blood donors through a Facebook chat group.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaTanmay Bhat, 30
Who says humour doesn't come with responsibility? Bhatt known to be a part of the AIB squad has let his humour do all the talking. From addressing socially relevant issues to making news for roasting celebrities on a roast platform, Bhatt has become quite a youth sensation.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaSatish Kannan, 28 l Enbasekar Dinadayalane, 29
Back in 2012 when India was still preparing its digital race, reaching doctors conveniently was a challenge unless the former IIT Madras friends Kannan and Dinadayalane formed DocsApp in 2015.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaMunaf Kapadia, 29
One fine Sunday afternoon, roughly three years back, Munaf got into a fight with his mother over watching TV. She frustratingly told him, "I don't have anything else to do." "The thought struck me hard. And from then on, I started looking for options to keep her busy," says Munaf.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaShalabh Gupta, 32
Back in 2008, when cold pressed juice was still not adapted in the Indian market, Shalabh Gupta then residing in the USA understood that Indians required Ayurvedic beverages owing to the unruly lifestyle.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaDiljit Dosanjh, 34
The voice of Punjab that reaches far and wide and penetrates the soul of the person who hears it is none other than Diljit Dosanjh's. This man has made a mark not just with his acting but also singing! His fan following is not just domestically but also internationally!
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaUmesh Sachdev, 32
When Umesh Sachdev was building Singularis, his first company, he realised that there exists a huge global problem which needs to be addressed. Even though we were amidst a digital revolution, more than half of the country remained disconnected.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaAkshar, 34
At the age of 17, Akshar got introduced to the world of Yoga. His initial tryst with it was not a professional calling, it was to live happily and lead a good journey. He did some odd jobs as a consultant, banker, but those never made him happy.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaManan Khurma, 31, Founder And CEO, Cuemath
You are above all if you know maths, if not then you are just another one among all. That's precisely how most students feel in learning numbers. But what makes them hate maths is lack of clarity on basics right from lower grade and style of teaching math that seems inherently boring.
Launched in December 2013 Cuemath unlike other e-learning platforms is focused on helping kids understand maths right from kindergarten till 8th grade through a technology enabled offline learning mechanism. "I realized that maths is a way of thinking and if you can build a strong maths foundation at a very young age then students can excel in it," says Khurma, a maths lover who have been teaching maths to students even before graduating from IIT Delhi in 2007.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaFarid Ahsan , 25, Bhanu Pratap Singh, 26 & Ankush Sachdeva, 24
While studying in IIT Kanpur, Ahsan, Singh and Sachdeva started building their product back in 2012. Post several trial and errors, they realized the urgency for Indian language platforms where content could be browsed. That is how ShareChat happened in October 2015.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaRohan Narayana Murty, 34
Being the son of such illustrious parents can be burdening. However, Rohan Murthy is there to stay and for long. Armed with degrees from the best universities of the world, he has made it clear that Rohan Murthy can and will achieve because sky is not the limit for him!
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaJanhavi Joshi, 25 and Nupura Kirloskar, 25
The World Health Organization estimates that there are more than 360 million people worldwide with a disabling hearing loss. Joshi and Kirloskar of Bleetech, aims to break barriers between the usual lot and hearing impaired communities by focusing on humancentric design solutions.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaNeha Kakkar, 28, Singer
From a contestant on a reality television show to now being a judge for future singers, life has come full circle for this vivacious singer. 2016 was a year that belonged to Neha Kakkar with some chartbuster hits like Kala Chashma and Kar gayi chull. 2017 looks much more promising for this young talent.
Neha Kakkar started singing at the tender age of four. Being a sibling to Sonu Kakkar and Tony Kakkar, music was an everyday phenomenon at home.
Having such talent at home, she never felt the need to get any formal training in singing. This further led to her aim to participate in Indian Idol 2. "I started with Bhajan-Sandhyas, Mata-ki-Chowki from the age of four until 16 when I auditioned for Indian Idol 2," shares Neha.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaShreya Mishra, 27
Despite of having a systematic and a wardrobe full of dresses, we are always short of clothes. Creating an opportunity in this space, three IITians Surana, Saxena and Mishra gave birth to an online fashion rental portal, Flyrobe in 2015.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaAnirudh Sharma, 29, Founder And Director, Graviky Labs
On a fine sunny day on a dusty road in Mumbai, when a truck passed by leaving clouds of black fumes and pigments on his white shirt, rather than washing it off, Anirudh thought of extracting ink out it. That's practically how Graviky Labs seem to have come about to life.
He and his team have developed "Kaalink', a retrofit to the exhaust of engines that captures around 95 per cent of particulate matter pollution to turn it into recyclable products like ink, carbon nano tubes and even future wearables.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaJatin Ahuja, 32, Managing Director, Big Boy Toyz
There are very few people who are able to pursue their passions and indeed fewer parents who let their children turn their passions into profession. Jatin Ahuja is the lucky boy who got his passion of exotic cars transformed into a venture and got his father, a CA on board to look over the finance department. Big BoysToyz, a division of Magus Cars, sells pre-owned high end exotic beauties to other enthusiasts who may afford it, at a price they never bargain.
Back in school, Jatin used to tell the brand of a car blindfolded by the noise it made, and in college, he successfully revamped and sold a damaged maroon S Class at a profit of 25 lakhs. That, he calls as his biggest turning point in life.
Entrepreneur IndiaJaspreet Singh, 34, Founder And CEO, Druva
According to Jaspreet, "When the whole world was still building solutions by support of hardware and software (DVDs), and no one was thinking of cloud centric solutions," Druva found the gap in the market and emerged as a big product centric company in the space of enterprise data and cyber security of end point mobility devices like smart phones, laptops and tablets.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaGreg Moran, 31, CEO And Co- Founder, Zoomcar
Greg has dedicated his entire career to sustainable development across the globe. Zoomcar is India's first and largest self-drive rental player. Remembering his early days, Greg says,
"Getting to the start line was very challenging due to the ambiguity around government regulations. Even today, it is a challenge since it also constrains our supply growth."
Zoomcar is yet to break at the corporate level. That's what Greg plans to achieve in 2017. He is building Zoomcar, into a large scale, by becoming a hyper local transport business in India with ZAP marketplace.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaMihir Desai, 33, Co-owner, The Bar Stock Exchange
It was during Mihir Desai's visit to New York in 2014 where he came across a brewery trading in beer like a stock exchange trades in stocks, and he was fascinated by the concept. It was there and then, that he planned to open one in Mumbai with more categories of spirits, beers and wines.
"We've been in the bar business for over a decade now, and our desire to try something out of the box led to planning such a concept in India," shares Mihir, who has now expanded in other cities and in global market by setting up first outlet in Dubai. TBSE trades in alcohol whilst making sure the customer has a great exchange.
Entrepreneur IndiaKavin Bharti Mittal, 29, Founder & CEO, Hike Messenger
2016 didn't mark the best year for start-ups. Funding was down and valuations saw a nose dive. At that time four-year-old startup Hike raised funding that too with a valuation of above billion dollar. Hike made it to the unicorn list of Indian startups in shortest span of time. Entrepreneur decodes Hike!
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaRana Daggubati, 32, Actor & Producer
Not being the typical story of an actor becoming a producer, Rana started as a producer and then took to acting. Talking about the change in path, Rana says, "This was a decision which I made eight years ago, at that time I was doing a lot of things but cinema was where my most of the interest was." In 2004, Rana set up Spirit Media and in 2010, Rana's acting career started with "Leader' a political drama in Telugu. Soon after his first film, he starred in a Hindi film called "Dum Maaro Dum'.
It was a fair debut but the country finally took notice of him with Baahubali. The 2015 historical fiction became the highest grossing Indian film. The film took four years to be made but it was worth all the time and became the third highest grossing Indian film globally. As per Rana, each film comes across as a new learning. The actor is also the brand ambassador for the Pro Kabaddi League.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaAronin P, 27, Co-founder And CEO, Sastra Robotics
Fascinated by electronics while growing up, Aronin P. gradually realized how future belongs to a marriage between machines and humans that can bring characters from the science fiction movies to reality.
Started in 2012, his robotics start-up,Sastra Robotics, has built an industrial robotic arm for small scale manufacturing and research and a touch screen testing robotic arm to save time and cost. In fact, the latter is the world's fastest touch screen testing robotic arm. But the most exciting first of its kind in India product Aronin and his team developing is a prosthetic robotic arm (like seen in I, Robot movie) to do much more than what a human hand can do.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaArchit Gupta, 32, ClearTax Founder
ClearTax solves two key problems for a consumer namely tax filing and tax savings. In order to address the painful need to solve the tax payers' headache, this great software was created which was very easy to use. For businesses, the ClearTax platform helps businesses get incorporated, do their business and tax filings.
Sharing his lows from his journey Archit says, "Three years of bootstrapping was incredibly challenging. Maintaining cash flow to stay alive was painful on many days." ClearTax went on became the first Indian company to raise investments from PayPal co-founder, Max Levchin and Founders Fund.
Entrepreneur IndiaAnisha Singh, 34, Co-Founder, Letternote, 2012
To fill the gap with a range of everyday objects with a simple, minimalist design aesthetic, Anisha Singh with her husband, Gurpreet Singh, founded LetterNote in 2012. Before Gurpreet and Anisha founded LetterNote, they were running a creative agency. It was a big pivot for them to start a product design brand.
"We started Letter Note with our savings and haven't taken any external funds. We have focused on a steady, self-sustainable growth path for LetterNote", said Anisha. They have remained true to their design philosophy, created an unique design brand, found acceptance and appreciation, and have a profitable, growing business now. Their big high is when they see someone using a LetterNote product.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaAnanya Birla, 23, Founder, Svatantra Microfin
For Ananya, setting up things on her own has been the call. Putting behind her surname, she is the daughter of India's leading industrialist, Kumar Mangalam Birla, she set out on her own. Entrepreneurship runs in her blood, owing to this, Ananya couldn't resist and started out at the age of 17.
Even while studying at Oxford, she dabbled in a venture to teach kids how to code. From coding, Anaya went on to start Svatantra in 2012. Svatantra is a new age microfinance, which leverages technology to make 100 per cent cashless disbursements, enabling rural women to join the financial mainstream. In the last three years, Svatantra has grown from six branches to 82 branches, from 8,000 clients to 1.60 lakh clients, from Rs 8 crore to Rs 230 crore of a loan portfolio. In human capital, it grew from 30 employees in 2012 to 700+ employees at present.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaVirat Kohli, 28, Captain, Indian Cricket Team
From being seen as a brash, aggressive, and outspoken member of the Indian cricket team to captaining India in all three formats of the game, Virat Kohli in a very less time has given the perfect direction to his never-say-die attitude to get on top of his career, the way he guides the ball to the stands. But as they say with great power comes great responsibility, Kohli has from time to time been dismissed by his sceptics but the 28-yearold Delhi boy has showed his other side of self-belief, persistence, and having long term vision till he comes back in the game.
This speaks volume about his maturity over the time not just only as a player. Drawing a parallel to his business interests, one can read between the lines of how his personality and maturity is visible off the field as well.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaSidharth Gupta, 32, Founder, Treebo Hotels
Started at a time when the nearest competitor was "demonstrating gravity defying growth and seemed to have found a business model that was unstoppable, unbeatable", says Sidharth Gupta. Treebo had a tough time in the initial phase to validate its model of business that did not rely on unrealistic discounts and freebies to the customers.
What differentiates Treebo from hotel aggregators is the fact that the in-room inventory is completely owned by the company, giving them larger control on the properties. Today, Treebo has become the third largest hotel chain and the largest budget hotel brand in India with 230+ properties and an inventory of 5600+ rooms in 45+ cities, getting a total of $ 23 million as investments, which is just a fraction of what the nearest competition has raised and spent.
Entrepreneur IndiaNeha Juneja, 32, Co-Founder, Greenway
Prior to Greenway Neha Juneja had two other start-ups which did not take off. In 2011, she partnered with Ankit Mathur and co-founded Greenway. She went on to raise USD 2.5 Million from Acumen Fund, Vikram Gandhi and Pramod Bhasin. Sharing her biggest achievement,
Neha says," Our biggest achievement has been able to build a credible distribution network and to fully backward integrate i.e. set up a manufacturing unit from scratch. Glad to share that today, Greenway is India's largest manufacturer of clean cookstoves." Greenway is one of the few enterprises that sees a lucrative business opportunity in developing specialized everyday products for developing world consumers.
Entrepreneur IndiaTarun Arora, 31, Director, Finance And Operations, IG International Pvt. Ltd.
Tarun has been instrumental at enabling IG to emerge as the leader in fresh fruit imports to India. Having completed his diploma in private equity from the Harvard Business School, he then completed an MBA from MIT School of Business. Groomed in business fundamentals by his father, Tarun identified the need to establish an end-to-end cold supply chain for fresh produce.
The immense business potential of the idea led to the incorporation of IG Supply Chain Pvt. Ltd, which currently comprises temperature-controlled warehouses holding a capacity of 20,000 pallets across nine facilities. In addition to the cold stores, IG Supply Chain operates a fleet of 70 trucks.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaSatnam Singh Bhamara, NBA Player
Standing tall at 7'2", Satnam became the first Indian to be drafted into NBA after he was picked up by the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA drafts in June 2015. Born in a village called "Ballo Ke' in Barnala district of Punjab, he got the opportunity to train at the prestigious Bradenton based IMG Academy that has previously produced players like Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Joakim Noah and Chauncey Billups. Bhamara is currently tackling it out in the NBA Development League (D-League) for Texas Legends and has played in five out of 14 games so far, scoring six points in all.
In 2010, Reliance Industries partnered with the global sports marketing company, IMG, to sign a 30-year contract with Basketball Federation of India (BFI) to improve the facilities and help organize leagues to improve the standard of the game in India. In 2010, Satnam led the Punjab team to national victory and was chosen by BFI to play in NBA "Basketball Without Borders' in Singapore.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaSaket Modi, 26, Founder, Lucideus Tech
Incubated out of IIT Bombay, Saket Modi, Vidit Baxi and Rahul Tyagi started off as a Cyber Security Training company, Lucideus Tech Private Limited, in 2012. In 2013, they also started their services business with the objective to quantify digital risk such that a risk becomes an informed decision leading to minimal disruptions to businesses and lives.
"Since then, we have served more than a hundred of the Fortune 500 companies in India and abroad. In 2016, in support of Digital India, we started a campaign called "Secure Digital India", where we yearn to train more than 10,000 students across more than 50 colleges spanning in more than 30 cities," Modi says.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaP V Sindhu, 21, Sports Personality
Born to parents who were professional volleyball players, PV Sindhu went on to choose badminton as a career. Sindhu started playing at the age of eight-and-a-half with her interest
driven towards badminton.
As a child, Sindhu ended up crying every time she lost a match. But, over the years she improved her game and also learnt to handle failure. After passion, Sindhu counts hard work as the ultimate recipe for success. Sharing her aim, Sindhu says, "I definitely want to see myself at the top of the world."
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaSachin Jaiswal, 28, Founder, NIKI.AI
Sachin Jaiswal founded, Niki, an AI aided chat bot, in 2015 to get rid of traditional offline method which allows customers to get suggestions and is more instinctive, but very slow
and inconvenient.
"It is the best of both worlds. It enables the user to converse with Niki to explore options, which is as natural as chatting with a friend. It also provides a fast and convenient experience to the customer to simplify their life" he says. The journey so far has had many ups and lows. Having investors like Ratan Tata and Unilazer Ventures on board, the company is seeing 35 per cent growth in revenues month on month.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaSamar Singla, 32, CEO, Founder, Jugnoo
Samar Singla's third startup, Jugnoo, was tough to get off the ground again but it took him six months to reach 1,000 daily transactions and in next six months, it touched 20k daily.
Talking about the hardest decision Samar made, he says,"To say no to Flipkart and Naspers for Jugnoo funding." Jugnoo went on to raise USD 16 million in three funding rounds. Starting from being an auto-rickshaw aggregator, it has now evolved into a go-to platform for all the hyperlocal needs. Profitability is the target for Jugnoo by this year-end.
(Courtesy: Entrepreneur Magazine Staff)
Entrepreneur IndiaRajesh Yabaji, 28, CEO And Co-Founder, Blackbuck
Within around 10 months of launching operations in April 2015, Bengaluru-based BlackBuck became India's biggest logistics company in business-to-business full truck load (FTL) freight transportation category. The inter-city logistics start-up works on a marketplace model by aggregating truck fleet owners and improving their utilization time by 30 per cent with real time visibility of the demand and movement of trucks across India.
"We have 100,000 trucks aggregated on our platform but that is not even close to probably one per cent of the total trucks in India which is about 10 million out of which five million trucks operates on inter-city routes," says Yabaji.
Entrepreneur IndiaNikhil Kamath, 31, Co- founder, Zerodha
Financial brokerage company, Zerodha, which was launched in 2010, have been providing
services at as low as Rs 20. "Since 2010, we've continued to disrupt this industry by bringing in new technology initiatives and still managed to keep the cost low," says Kamath.
The company which was funded by their own trading income and friends at the beginning managed to break even within an year. "The hardest decision was to move to a brokerage free environment on equity investments last year. Investing in stocks is now absolutely free at Zerodha," he says.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaRahul Uppal, 33, Founder And Director, Woohoodoodh (Happy Beverages And Foods Pvt. Ltd.)
While consulting a client on the dairy business, Rahul himself started researching to understand the model. He says, "I was motivated due to the advanced stage of the White Revolution, which although generated quantity, but utterly left quality go down the drain."
Today, Uppal's WooHooDoodh is selling almost 700 litres of unadulterated milk to about a 1,000 families in Pune. Talking about the best moment in this entrepreneurial journey, Rahul says, "When I saw somebody just bought and started drinking milk from the carton itself".
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaKalyani Khona, 24, Inclov, Founder
The world's first matchmaking app that focuses on people with disability and with health
disorders is Made in India. The 24-year-old founder, Kalyani Khona, believes that no one should be alone.
With an aim to serve the society, a non-techie, Khona, launched the appbased
platform in January 2016 with her co-founder, Shankar Srinivisan. Amongst the seven investors and advisors on board for Inclov are Raghav Bahl, Quintillion Media's owner, along with an advisor from global matchmaking website, Match. com. 80-90 per cent of the stake is still with the founders.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaSrikanth Bolla, 24 , Founder And CEO, Bollant Industries
When he met former President APJ Abdul Kalam, he told him he wishes to be the first blind President of India. He is also the first Indian blind student to secure an admission in MIT. Today, he is running his 4-year-old company, started with a total investment of Rs. 8 crore, including that of Ratan Tata, to churn out annual revenue of Rs. 20 crore, selling earth-friendly products and helping cottage industries grow with the technical know-how of modern machinery and financial inclusion. Incidentally, over half of Bollant Industries' workforce is differently-abled.
Srikanth tells us, "I wanted to provide employment opportunities for people whom nobody wants to employ. That is my social mission and I combine it my commercial mission, because charities are not sustainable. We want to create something that people would be of proud of using and that should not disturb the ecology and the environment."
Entrepreneur IndiaAditya Thackeray, 26, Politician
When politics is a serious business, being the grandson of an enigmatic leader is not an easy task. When grandfather, Balasaheb Thackeray, and father, Uddhav Thackeray, conquered the stage with speeches, young Aditya, now the chief of Yuva Sena, the youth wing of Shiv Sena, would enter the crowd and communicate with people. "This would make them feel that I am one of them," Aditya says.
When teachers in his college called a strike, Aditya looked into the concerns of the students and the issues pertaining to the teachers and solved those issues and immediately emerged as a youth leader.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaKaushal Dugar, 33, Founder & CEO, Teabox
Siliguri is a laid-back town and e-commerce and start-ups are not a regular feature, that's where Kaushal Dugar made the dent. Teabox is delivering freshness by reducing production to consumer time, which is typically three to -six months to a week or even lesser. In the past four years, it has shipped over 40 million cups worth of teas to customers in over 100 countries.
Teabox went on to raise over seven million from investors like JAFCO Asia, Accel Partners, Keystone Group LP and Dragoneer Investment Group, Ratan Tata, Cameron Jones. Kaushal proudly shares, "We are highly profitable on units economy basis."
Entrepreneur IndiaAmruda Nair, 33, Joint Managing Director And CEO, Aiana
Hailing from the legacy of The Leela Group, the grand-daughter of Capt.Nair, Amruda Nair has set out to create a brand of her own and establish it in the hospitality sector as a favoured destination for Indians travelling abroad. She realized that annually only five million travelers are entering India whereas more than 18 million Indians are travelling abroad. So, "Aiana wants to be where the Indian traveler is," tells Amruda. Aiana has a joint venture with a Qatar based investor and has already acquired eight properties across the middle-east apart from six in Kerala and Karnataka. Currently, Aiana is on an expansion spree.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaAyan Mukherji, 33, Film Director
With two all-out hits, Wake Up Sid and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, even before he turned 30, Ayan Mukherji fits perfect the bracket of new age directors and undoubtedly no one does young love better. Grandson of S Mukherji, who founded the famous Mumbai studio (Filmalaya), son of not-so-well-known actor Deb and cousin of screen goddesses Kajol and Rani Mukherji, Ayan grew up binging on Hindi movies.
Though he started studying engineering but left it after a year to assist Ashutosh Gowariker's movie Swades. Later, he also assisted Karan Johar. Currently, Ayan is directing Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt for his superhero film, Dragon.
Entrepreneur IndiaAbhiraj Bhal, 30, Co-founder, UrbanClap.com
UrbanClap was started 2.5 years back with the vision to organize the local services market in India. The idea was to create a large tech business which primarily caters to customers need. The local services industry is very fragmented and unorganized.
Sharing his start-ups story, Abhiraj says, "When we started UrbanClap, hiring a plumber, beautician, yoga trainer, math tutor etc. was a painful process. There were no standards, no concept of trust, pricing inefficiencies, and the industry was shackled in the "yellow pages" era. We saw this as a large opportunity." By leveraging technology, and a set of simple yet powerful processes, the company has been able to build a fairly disruptive platform, which is now the default way to hire these services in India.
(This article was first published in the February issue of Entrepreneur Magazine.)
Entrepreneur IndiaRitesh Malik, 29
Picking up an officially classified 'heritage building in Connaught Place, doctor turned entrepreneur Malik wanted to establish his foothold into starting a co-working space. This simple idea was sown as Malik experienced lack of a community led office spaces in the city.
