When Falguni Nayar launched Nykaa back in 2012, she was sure of one thing: her startup would be a destination store for all things beauty.

Global IndianstoryFalguni Nayar: The entrepreneur helming Nykaa, India’s only profitable unicorn to go public

Entrepreneurship

Falguni Nayar: The entrepreneur helming Nykaa, India’s only profitable unicorn to go public

Written by: Global Indian

(August 11, 2021; 7 pm) When Falguni Nayar launched Nykaa back in 2012, she was sure of one thing: her startup would be a destination store for all things beauty. Over the years, the e-commerce platform earned a loyal fan following and is now one of the most successful beauty stores in the country. From curating a range of beauty and wellness products to introducing some of the finest luxury beauty brands to India, launching several successful offline stores and now racing towards filing an IPO, Nykaa has come a long way. And former New York investment banker Nayar is being heralded as the game changer for the country’s women entrepreneurs.

While it may not be the first startup to go public this year, it will be groundbreaking as it is the first woman-led startup heading for an IPO and is one of the first profitable startups to be listed in the public markets. It is also one of the few startups in the country where the founder is expected to have a strong control over the company compared to other Indian startups also heading for a public listing. Nayar and her family own over 54% stake in the parent company. According to Bloomberg News, the company which filed preliminary documents for an IPO this week, could be valued at more than $4 billion.

Falguni Nayar with her husband Sanjay and kids

Journey to the top

Born in Mumbai in 1973, Nayar’s father ran a ball-bearing business. She went on to graduate from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics before doing her MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad. Nayar then landed a job at AF Ferguson & Co where she worked for eight years, before moving to London in 1994 as Head of International Business for Kotak Securities. Three years later, Nayar was heading Kotak’s international business department in New York, where she worked for four years, before moving back to Mumbai as director and head of Kotak’s Institutional Equities Business.

In 2007, Nayar took over as the Managing Director of Kotak Investment Banking, a job that she quit four years later to dive headlong into the world of entrepreneurship.

Nykaa signed on Jahnavi Kapoor as its brand ambassador

Entrepreneurial journey

When Nayar founded Nykaa, the segment was relatively new and not as popular as it is today. Until then, naysayers were of the opinion that e-commerce and beauty retail don’t work in India. However, Nayar was confident of her venture and had done her market research before testing waters. Soon, the e-commerce platform gained popularity as it began bringing luxury beauty brands to Indian shores such as Charlotte Tilbury, Farsali, Chopard, Chloe, and even top Korean skincare brands such as Laneige and Sulwhasoo. In an interview with YourStory, she said,

“I felt that there is a lot of early-stage value creation by entrepreneurs, and yet, there are several naysayers. It was the entrepreneur’s drive and belief that intrigued me, and it was something that I wanted for myself.”

The idea for Nykaa came about from Nayar’s observations of how in the West, entire floors of high-end stores were dedicated to beauty products. In India, however, it was usually the neighborhood variety stores that women turned to. With limited choices and poor displays, Nayar was ready to change the beauty business – her goal was to create a slick shopping experience where women could also get first-hand tips from celebrities and beauty influencers alike.

For women by women

Falguni Nayar and Katrina Kaif

At the heart of the business was Nayar’s missions to help Indian women look after themselves. In an interview with The Print, she said,

“Our message to women has been that the spotlight of her life should be on herself. You are important in your story and should feel no guilt at being center stage.”

Nayar’s vision soon had the company grow from strength to strength and Nykaa introduced its own product line under Nykaa Cosmetics, Nykaa Naturals, Nykaa Man and Kay Beauty with Katrina Kaif. Today, the platform has close to 4,000 brands and has processed 19.5 million orders until March this year. Nayar also ensured she tapped into the power of influencers and Nykaa has a network of as many as 1,300 influencers from across the globe to help drive sales.

What the IPO means

According to YourStory, women-led businesses usually find less funding when compared to those led by men with the former raising only 5% of the total funding between 2018 to 2020. Nykaa’s IPO therefore, will be a huge leg up for India’s startup ecosystem, especially for its women entrepreneurs. The success of this IPO will draw more investor attention to women-led startups and attract more women to entrepreneurship.

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Neeraj Kakkar: The man who’s keeping traditions and memories alive, one drink at a time

(July 28, 2021; 6.15 pm) What are some of your earliest memories? We bet it involves happy times spent with your family and friends over some cherished food or beverage. For instance, it could be chugging a chilled glass of buttermilk after a summer afternoon spent playing in the sun with cousins. Or it could be haggling with the neighborhood chaat wala for an extra cup of spicy golgappe ka paani. Or sneaking into the kitchen to take a swig from that jug of sherbet your mother had prepared especially for the guests due to arrive at any moment. Somehow, memories and food go hand in hand. For Neeraj Kakkar, co-founder of Hector Beverages, it was this need to keep alive traditional recipes and innocent memories that drove him to launch the Paper Boat range of juices. Made with all natural ingredients just the way our mothers and grandmothers did all those years back, the Paper Boat range offers 13 varieties of traditional Indian drinks. These range from the much-oved aamras, aam panna, neer mor, panakkam, chilli guava, thandai, sherbet-e-khaas, rose tamarind, and kokum. [embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clTxVEqpGtE[/embed] How it all began As a young boy growing up in Haryana, Kakkar was especially fond

aam panna, neer mor, panakkam, chilli guava, thandai, sherbet-e-khaas, rose tamarind, and kokum.

[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clTxVEqpGtE[/embed]

How it all began

As a young boy growing up in Haryana, Kakkar was especially fond of Kaanji, a drink made of fermented purple carrots and mustard. His family lived in a large house that also accommodated several other families; their landlady Maati would painstakingly make a large pot of kaanji and place it in the patio. Each child was given a glass... one glass strictly. The drink was delicious and Kakkar always wanted more. He resorted to swiping an extra glass for himself when nobody was watching. When he was caught, of course, he got into trouble, he said during a TED talk.

Several years later, as a young man, Kakkar wanted to drink kaanji again; the flavors still fresh in his mind. He also wanted to introduce it in his line of products at Paper Boat, the company he had launched in August 2013 along with Neeraj Biyani, James Nutall, and Suhas Misra under the parent company Hector Beverages. The idea for Paper Boat came up during an office lunch between the co-founders as they mulled over potential business ideas. Commercial production of traditional Indian drinks was hitherto unheard of in a market that was largely dominated by carbonated beverages.

Paper Boat launched with two products: Aam Ras and Jaljeera; both well-known and well-loved across India. The idea took off and today the company offers several more varieties, some of them seasonal. The name Paper Boat too was specifically chosen to invoke a feeling of nostalgia. In 2016, Kakkar had famously said that every product launched by his company would have a tinge of Indianness; and the company has so far stayed true to his word.

[embed]http://twitter.com/paperboatdrinks/status/1405453555801083907?s=20[/embed]

From Haryana to the US and back

Interestingly, Kakkar had worked for nearly seven years with Coca Cola in India, before he did his MBA from The Wharton School in Philadelphia where he was a Palmer Scholar, one of the highest academic honors. He co-founded Hector Beverages with Biyani, Misra and Nutall in 2009 and they began manufacturing Tzinga, an energy drink. The company was backed by Narayan Murthy’s VC firm Catamaran and Bangalore-based Footprint Ventures had also invested ₹6 crore. By 2013, the company had raised a second round of funding of $8 million from Sequoia Capital and Paper Boat was launched later that year.

The team was bent on preserving traditional recipes and spent quite a few months on R&D. As they expanded their product portfolio, Kakkar still wanted to introduce his beloved Kaanji into the market. However, to his surprise the market was overtaken by the common orange and red varieties of carrots and farmers had all but stopped growing purple carrots. The teams research led them to find that purple carrots were being grown in Turkey. So Kakkar flew to Turkey, filled up a suitcase with 20 kgs of purple carrots and flew back to Delhi... only to have his entire stock confiscated. Crushed, Kakkar did the next best thing. He began importing purple carrot seeds from Turkey and had them planted in three cities: Palampur, Ujjain and Ooty. After 13 continuous trials they finally got a crop in Ooty and the company set about producing Kaanji. It's a different story that the drink didn’t pass the quality test and had to be temporarily shelved.

[caption id="attachment_6215" align="aligncenter" width="499"] For Neeraj Kakkar it was this need to keep alive traditional recipes and memories that drove him to launch the Paper Boat range of juices. Neeraj Kakkar[/caption]

Mentors who shaped him

While initially retailers were sceptical to stock the Paper Boat line, the drink eventually grew in popularity and is now available through various channels. But for Kakkar, who has been reinventing the whole ethnic beverage industry, there are key lessons he’s learnt from three mentors who shaped his perception of entrepreneurship. “First, Kanwaljit Singh, co-founder at Helion ventures, exposed me to the world of entrepreneurship during my internship period there. Kanwal encouraged me to work with a few startups in Bangalore who were doing interesting jobs. He also recommended food to be the best sector to start; when Hector Beverages was launched, he became our angel investor,” said Kakkar in an interview in Medium.

The second was Shripad Nadkarni, head of marketing at Coca Cola, and Kakkar’s former colleague, who helped them with the marketing and branding of the company. And the third was Narayana Murthy. “I would say the value system of our organization in some ways is a reflection of his personality. He has also been with us from day zero. He doesn’t interfere with our day-to-day work — he doesn’t tell us about what to do with our strategy, however on the value system, he has always had strong viewpoints and he kind of makes sure that we do not deviate from the right path,” he says.

Challenges to overcome

While the company saw an uptake in sales in FY2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Paper Boat sales in a large way, given the lockdowns and travel restrictions. Airports and Railway stations were important touch points for the brand. While production was completely halted for a brief period in 2020, it gradually resumed as the lockdowns eased. Now, the company is looking to expand its online-only range of products in a bid to thwart the effects of the pandemic and its resultant losses.

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Ramya Ravi: The Harvard educated entrepreneur bringing alive the magic of her grandmother’s biryani

(March 13, 2022) Growing up Ramya Ravi remembers feasting on the fragrant donne biryani whipped up by her grandmother. With each grain of the jeera samba rice coated in her secret blend of masalas and aromatic herbs, the greenish hued biryani left behind memories of its lusciousness long after it had been demolished. But the entrepreneur wondered why the donne biryani that filled her childhood with its deliciousness failed to enjoy its moment in the sun pan India like the Hyderabadi or Lucknowi biryanis. It was this desire to popularise the typically Karnataka style of biryani that led the Harvard alum to launch RNR Biryani as a cloud kitchen bang in the middle of the pandemic. However, the entrepreneur’s gamble paid off and today, RNR is a hugely profitable enterprise with dine in restaurants too. What started off as a cloud kitchen with an investment of ₹5 lakh in late 2020 is now a flourishing business clocking in a turnover of ₹10 crore. With a considerable presence across Bengaluru, RNR Biryani is set to spread its branches to neighbouring states this year. The fact that it was launched in the midst of a pandemic and managed to successfully grow at a

f a pandemic and managed to successfully grow at a time when the hospitality and F&B industries took a hit, makes it a unique story of spotting an opportunity at the right time.

[caption id="attachment_21258" align="aligncenter" width="670"] Entrepreneur | Ramya Ravi Ramya Ravi with her sister Shweta[/caption]

Born in Bengaluru into a family that owns a chain of hotels, Ramya and her two sisters – Shweta and Raveena – were always encouraged to be independent and come into their own. “We were always taught that it was all about what we brought to the table as individuals,” says Ramya, who schooled at The Valley School before doing her B.Com from Christ College.

“My father would always share stories of successful women entrepreneurs with us from early on,” says Ramya, who went on to do a short-term management course from Harvard University. “As I watched my father work, it influenced me to get into the hospitality sector myself,” the 27-year-old tells Global Indian. She also pursued multiple internships with various establishments and also worked with her father R Ravichandar, which gave her more exposure into the hospitality and F&B industries.

“But I always wanted to start up on my own,” says the entrepreneur, who often wondered why naati style Karnataka cuisine wasn’t celebrated across India; specifically the donne biryani. She launched RNR Biryani (named after her father Ravichandar and grandfather Ramaswamy) in November 2020 along with her sister Shweta as a tribute to their grandmother’s recipe. “The whole idea was to make RNR Biryani a family affair and dedicate it to my father and grandfather.”

Entrepreneur | RNR Biryani

They first began as a delivery-only model from a 200 square feet space in Nagarabhavi in Bengaluru with a single cook, two assistants and an investment of ₹5 lakh. “What gave us the confidence to start up in the middle of a pandemic is the fact that we saw an opportunity to deliver good quality donne biryani at a time when people were ordering in a lot,” says the entrepreneur, adding, “Given that during the pandemic hygiene was paramount, we found very joints that could deliver a hygienically made donne biryani; most of them were the small local joints.”

That became RNR Biryani’s USP – hygienic, authentic naati style donne biryani. Packaged in a blue tin box, RNR Biryani soon became quite popular as the startup tied up with Swiggy for delivery and in their first month clocked in over 10,000 deliveries. Soon, they’d launched their second kitchen in JP Nagar and there was no looking back. A year later, in November 2021, RNR also opened doors to its first dine in restaurant in Bengaluru’s Jayanagar. Today, RNR also has a delivery radius that covers almost every corner of the metropolitan city.

Entrepreneur | Ramya Ravi

So what is it that makes the donne biryani so unique when compared to other biryanis? To start off, it’s more robust in its flavours, says the entrepreneur. “Since it is made with jeera samba rice, as opposed to basmati, the rice itself absorbs the flavours of the masala and herbs very well.” The RNR offers its biryanis in chicken, mutton, and vegetarian variants along with a slew of sides and kebabs, ghee roast, tender coconut payasam and a fusion rasmalai cremeux. Another unique offering they’ve developed is the drumstick chilli, a hit with vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike.

“We also paid great attention to packaging and opted for tin boxes that also become collectibles. It turned out to be a talking point when we first launched our donne biryani in the market,” says Ramya, a trained Bharatanatyam dancer.

As RNR has made its way into the hearts of Bengalureans, Ramya is now set to take her offering to other states as well. “I want to make the naati style donne biryani as popular as the Hyderabadi biryani. The plan is to first introduce it to other South Indian states and popularise it there,” says the entrepreneur, who also loves to travel, explore new places and cuisines in her free time.

Follow RNR Biryani on Instagram

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Jayshree Ullal: The Indian American self-made billionaire who is among the top 5 influential people in the networking world

(October 28, 2021) Jayshree Ullal has many monikers to her credit; Queen of the wired world is just one of them. She is not just another Indian name that has made it big in the global corporate world. According to Forbes, Ullal is counted amongst the top five influential people in the world of networking and has been giving technology behemoths a run for their money. This year, 60-year-old Ullal, was one of the five Indian Americans to be named in Forbes’ list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women with a net worth of $1.7 billion. The president and CEO of Arista Networks, who is known for her business chops, helped transform the cloud computing firm into a world leader in networking technology. In fact, her acumen and skills have earned her several awards and recognitions. She was named one of the Top Ten Executives by VM World, A Woman of Influence for Security CSOs, Innovator and Influencer Award by Information Week, was ranked number 2 in Top 25 Disruptors of 2014 by CRN, World’s Best CEOs: Growth Leaders in 2018 and was also ranked 118 on Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year for 2019. Indian roots Born in London and raised in Delhi, Ullal studied at the Convent of Jesus & Mary before her family relocated to the US when her

est CEOs: Growth Leaders in 2018 and was also ranked 118 on Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year for 2019.

Global Indian Jayshree Ullal

Indian roots

Born in London and raised in Delhi, Ullal studied at the Convent of Jesus & Mary before her family relocated to the US when her physicist father got a new job. She eventually attended San Francisco State University where she did her Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and then her Masters in Engineering Management from Santa Clara University. In college she was only one of two female students in a batch of 70. Which she says is a sign that more women need to be encouraged into technical education.

She began her career at Fairchild and eventually moved to AMD before joining Crescendo, a communications company, which was later taken over by Cisco. Ullal, too, was brought on board by Cisco on a two-year contract, which thanks to her skills lasted for a good 15 years. According to an interview she gave Business Line, Ullal said, that she with the support of her CEO and boss was able to grow the switching business from zero to a more than $10-billion business in a decade. The startup spirit within such a large company was what excited Ullal and soon she was appointed a senior executive at Cisco. Incidentally, the switching business turned out to be a cash cow which brought in a third of Cisco’s revenue by helping businesses link their devices to the same network.

Global Indian Jayshree Ullal

All about the balance

As Ullal continued to grow from strength to strength, she did have her moments of self-doubt. Was she being a good parent? Was she able to balance it all and do justice to each of her roles? “In 2000 I wondered if I was being too career driven. So, I took a leave of absence from Cisco for several months to be a full-time mom to my daughters. However, they were soon telling me, ‘Amma, when are you going back to work?’ A very telling moment. I did return to Cisco, this time with heightened awareness that I was meant to balance my career and family,” she said in an interview. The fact that she had incredibly supportive parents and husband helped too.

In 2008, she left Cisco to join Arista Networks as president and CEO. She’d long been itching to head an independent company and Arista was the perfect opportunity. Soon she was nabbing business from her former employer and added some major clients such as Microsoft and Facebook to her portfolio. As she chipped away at Cisco’s market share, Arista has now become one of the fastest growing cloud networking companies with a valuation upwards of $25 billion. In fact, it was Ullal who played a major role in turning a once tiny nondescript startup into an emerging force in the field of computer networking.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_iC3c1cgaU[/embed]

Incidentally, when she led Arista’s IPO in 2014 at the New York Stock Exchange, its valuation was $2.75 billion. This makes Ullal’s estimated net worth $1.7 billion thanks to her 5% stake in the company. She is among the 72 self-made women billionaires in the world. This year she ranked 16 on the Forbes’ list of America’s top self-made women.

As this Global Indian continues to juggle a successful career and family, Ullal believes that to be able to strike a work-life balance it’s important to stay real. “You don’t have to be perfect at everything. There are some tradeoffs that should be made. It’s ok to take shortcuts. Work-life balance means you have to be realistic,” she said in an interview.

Follow Jayshree Ullal on LinkedIn

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Atul Satija: The social entrepreneur who gave up a lucrative corporate career for poverty alleviation

(September 23, 2021) The IMF recently forecast that India is emerging as one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. While that is certainly a reason to cheer, there is a scenario that one can’t ignore – the damage to the economy due to the pandemic has had far reaching effects. Over 230 million individuals fell below the national minimum wage poverty line, according to a report by the Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University (APU). And it is to address issues such as the widespread poverty in India that individuals like 42-year-old Atul Satija, founder of The/Nudge Foundation and founder 2.0 of GiveIndia, have been working towards poverty alleviation. In his LinkedIn profile, Satija writes, “Every human being can live a dignified life out of poverty, and it’s well in our collective means to achieve that goal. Within our lifetime.” A philosophy he deeply believes in and has been working towards ever since he gave up a 17-year-long career in the corporate sector to dive headlong into social entrepreneurship. Humble beginnings Born in a lower middle class Chandigarh home, Satija grew up watching his government employee father and school teacher mother go out of their way to help extended family who

fetime.” A philosophy he deeply believes in and has been working towards ever since he gave up a 17-year-long career in the corporate sector to dive headlong into social entrepreneurship.

Humble beginnings

Born in a lower middle class Chandigarh home, Satija grew up watching his government employee father and school teacher mother go out of their way to help extended family who were of modest means. The family’s financial status made Satija want to study well and earn good money, but his father’s outlook also inspired him to help people. So, after graduating in engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Satija worked with companies such as Infosys and Samsung before doing his Masters from Indian School of Business. He then worked with Adobe for two years before joining Google as the head of business development first in India and then for the Japan and Asia Pacific markets. In 2010 he moved to San Francisco to join InMobi as its Chief Business Officer where he helped scale the organization from a small startup to a global leader in mobile advertising.

When the social sector beckoned

Throughout his career though, Satija would make it a point to volunteer during the weekends with a nonprofit in Gurugram. But it never felt enough. "I was working with Google then. Few months into volunteering, I realized it was the social sector that I wanted to work in over the long term – I was looking for meaningful work and potential for impact,” he told the Global Indian in an exclusive chat.

[caption id="attachment_9222" align="aligncenter" width="581"] Indian social entrepreneur Atul Satija Atul Satija[/caption]

He found that his weekend volunteering kept him from contributing to society as much as he’d wanted to. By 2015, he had quit his corporate job to set up his own startup in the social sector space. “In 2015, I started my journey with The/Nudge Foundation to work towards poverty alleviation,” he says, adding, “The journey has been challenging, understanding the layers of the development sector, grassroot realities and then creating innovative solutions to reach our goals. The journey has also been one of purpose, meaning and satisfaction. I truly believe our generation can eradicate extreme poverty in India, given the resources and talent available now for this work.”

A journey that fulfills

When he began his journey with The/Nudge, Satija spent a few months working with various communities across Bengaluru and Delhi and narrowed down on skill development through gurukuls as their first intervention area. They then began looking for grants, which is when Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of Infosys, supported them with a seed grant of $200,000. “Being our very first grant, it was an important milestone for the entire team. This was quickly followed by a series of partners coming forward to support our work including Mphasis, Cisco, Tata Trusts etc. Similarly graduating the first batch of 45+ students from our Gurukuls with 100% placements was also something that reinforced our approach and belief, and allowed us to stay focused in growing both our programs and impact aspirations,” says Satija.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjV-Sko6sVg[/embed]

In 2017, Satija and Venkat Krishnan, founder of GiveIndia, happened to have a conversation where they discussed working through funding challenges that nonprofits face through a tech platform. The two realized their goals and visions were aligned and soon Satija was brought on board as GiveIndia’s Founder 2.0. “The work at both The/Nudge Foundation and GiveIndia is for the larger purpose of poverty alleviation but the approaches are very different and complementary in India’s development journey,” explains Satija.

An evolving philanthropic culture

Over the years though, Satija has seen philanthropy and the concept of giving back in India evolve. The pandemic has increased the scale of giving by organizations as well as individuals and foundations and philanthropists are now playing a crucial role in strengthening the work being carried out in the development sector. “Digitization has increased connectivity among people and communities. With digitization making giving convenient, donors have increasingly become more forthcoming. In the pandemic, people have given more than they did before. Additionally, the Corporate Social Responsibility laws requiring organizations to give 2% of their profits has increased donor participation in the societal challenges,” he says.

So far, The/Nudge has been working towards addressing livelihood issues but is also aware of other areas that need to be supported such as education, public health etc. “Poverty is a wicked problem - complex, multilayered and multifaceted. We are focused on livelihoods as our primary area of work, and look at solutions that tackle the income in the hands of the poor by providing skilling and job placement, financial security, and social mobility."

Work during the pandemic

The past year has been about addressing the increased socio-economic concerns that the pandemic has raised. The need of the hour for the Foundation was to work towards efficient mobilization of aid to reach more and more of the needy population. “While GiveIndia has been working tirelessly to save lives, The/Nudge has geared huge efforts towards saving livelihoods and empowering the social welfare ecosystem, through its multiple initiatives across our three impact streams – Centre for Rural Development, Centre for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Centre for Social Innovation," says Satija, adding, “We launched Asha Kiran, which aims to serve 5 lakh poor households by 2025. We launched Indian Administrative Fellowship, to aid influx of talent into the development sector and to influence public policy and strategy. We are supporting other Social Enterprises through our incubator/accelerator. Our skilling and employment program has gone online and witnessed more enrolments than ever before, to help in economic empowerment of youth.”

[caption id="attachment_9223" align="aligncenter" width="377"] Indian social entrepreneur Atul Satija Atul Satija[/caption]

In April 2021, GiveIndia relaunched its flagship giving collective that began in April 2020 – India COVID Response Fund (ICRF) to meet the rising demands of the second wave. The organization mobilized aid in the form of oxygen cylinders and oxygen concentrators to those in urgent need and help families in financial distress. “We also worked closely with several NPOs to deliver ration and food relief into the heart of communities where it was needed the most.”

During the second wave, GiveIndia’s ICRF managed to deliver:

40,000 oxygen concentrators and cylinders at hospitals and to individuals at homes
279 districts of 25 States and 2 UTs supported through oxygen intervention
50 oxygen generation plants are being installed across the country
Over 87,000 diagnostic and wellness kits, 18,000 oximeters and 27,000 isolation kits were distributed
3.8 lakh people reached with meals and food rations
Cash relief provided for over 3,500 families of Covid-deceased

Road map ahead

“Since the inception of The/Nudge, we have been able to impact the lives of over 10 million people through both our direct and indirect work across India. Over the next five years, we want to focus on playing a catalyst role in scaling solutions that work on the ground across rural and urban livelihoods. GiveIndia was formed with an aim to serve the poor of the country. The pandemic has helped us grow as a giving community and we look forward to helping the needy and poor by enabling giving back for both individuals and organizations, and making giving bigger and better,” signs off Satija.

Reading Time: 10 mins

Nithin Kamath: How this fintech entrepreneur went on to become one of the richest Indians

(September 7, 2021) He was all of 17 when he was first introduced to the world of finance and trading. Rather taken in by the whole concept of trading, Nithin Kamath spent the next 12 years doing just that. By the time he had graduated from engineering college, he’d earned a sizeable amount of wealth... only to lose it all soon after. Refusing to give up, he soldiered on and continued to trade during the day and worked at a call center during the nights. The tide finally turned when he met a high net worth individual who handed him a cheque and asked him to manage his money. [embed]https://twitter.com/Nithin0dha/status/1433061564865646592?s=20[/embed] By 2010, he’d garnered enough confidence and funds to launch his own startup – Zerodha, a retail online stock broking company – in association with his brother Nikhil. Ever since, the startup has been changing the way young India invests in stocks. The Bengaluru-headquartered company offers retail and institutional brokerage, currencies and commodities trading, mutual funds, and bonds. With an active client base of over 3.5 million, Zerodha is the largest retail stockbroker in India, beating even traditional brokerage firms such as ICICI Securities and HDFC Securities. In 2020 Zerodha became one of the rare profitable fintech companies to

ve client base of over 3.5 million, Zerodha is the largest retail stockbroker in India, beating even traditional brokerage firms such as ICICI Securities and HDFC Securities. In 2020 Zerodha became one of the rare profitable fintech companies to attain unicorn status and the 42-year-old Nithin made his debut on the Forbes list of India's 100 richest. His net worth is estimated at $1.55 billion.

[caption id="attachment_9567" align="aligncenter" width="453"] Indian entrepreneur Nithin Kamath Nithin and Nikhil Kamath founded Zerodha[/caption]

Journey to the top

Born in a Konkani family in Shivamogga, Nithin was raised in Bengaluru by a veena teacher mother and a Canara Bank manager father. Growing up in a neighborhood filled with active traders, Nithin was first initiated into stock broking at the age of 17. He was rather taken in by the whole system of making money through stocks and soon realized that he had a penchant for it too. He began actively trading ever since and continued to do so through his college years Bangalore Institute of Technology. By the time he’d graduated he’d earned a handsome profit. But that’s when things went south.

[caption id="attachment_9566" align="aligncenter" width="547"] Indian entrepreneur Nithin Kamath Zerodha in its early days; Nithin Kamath (extreme left)[/caption]

He’d borrowed money to trade and ended up blowing his trading account and lost a lot of money. To make up for the debt he took up a call center job that he worked at for four years even as he continued to trade during the day. On his website, Nithin writes, “I quit my job when I met the first person who asked me to manage their portfolio.”

By 2006, he had become a franchisee of brokerage firm Reliance Money to start a formal advisory business. Around this time, he was joined by his brother Nikhil, who Nithin claims is a better trader than he was. With Nikhil handling trading, Nithin figured he could set aside some time to build a brokerage firm that they wanted. When the markets crashed in 2008, several people suffered heavy losses, but Nithin had managed to make some money. By 2010, the brothers took the plunge and set up Zerodha.

Hustling to succeed

The idea for the startup came about when Nithin felt the need for a platform that offered people a seamless trading experience. He also believed that people needed a platform to educate them on the different investment options available. “With Zerodha, we were the first to introduce a flat fee model (a maximum of ₹20 per trade), helping traders save upto 90% of brokerage charges compared to the exorbitant percentage fees which was common at the time," Nithin writes on his website, “In addition, we offered this single pricing plan to all our clients unlike the then incumbent players who had opaque offerings for different groups of clients. While we started from zero, this transparency slowly got us attention on online communities and via word of mouth.”

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The operations which initially focused on day traders have now evolved to cater to long-term investors. The company began as a completely bootstrapped venture and has so far not required any external funding; it has been thriving despite the pandemic with people making a conscious effort to begin their investment journeys in these uncertain times. The platform has seen a 100% growth in concurrent users and won the NSE Retail Broker of the Year in 2018.

In addition to this, Nithin and Nikhil also founded investment management firm True Beacon which is aimed at ultra-high net worth investors and operates on a zero-fee model.

Giving Back

To empower retail traders and investors, Zerodha runs a number of open online educational and community initiatives. Varsity, is a learning module to educate young investors looking to explore the world of trading; it also has an active forum (Trading Q&A) for traders and investors to discuss stock ideas.

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In January 2021, Nithin set up the Rainmatter Foundation for which he set aside $100 million. The Foundation supports grassroots individuals and organizations working on solutions for climate change. A special emphasis is also laid on afforestation and ecological restoration activities. In an interview with YourStory, Nithin said, “I have had a problem with the concentration of wealth, where a small bunch of people have access to a high amount of wealth. It is time that these people do something to give back to society.”

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