Mumbai: Radhakishan Damani (69), founder of Avenue Supermarts, IDFC First Pvt., the company that runs popular retail chain DMart, and Hurun India has topped the Top 200 Self-Made Entrepreneurs of the Millennium 2024. Avenue Supermarts cost more than Rs 3.4. Lakh crore shows a 44 percent increase in value compared to last year. Indian consumers’ demand for fast commerce put the founders of Zomato (Dipendra Goyal) and Swiggy’s (Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy) in second and third place respectively. Zomato, with a valuation of over Rs 2.5 lakh crore, grew 190 percent from a year ago while Swiggy gained Rs 1.01 lakh crore in equity value. Others in the top 10 were mainly new-age technology-driven entrepreneurs such as MakeMyTrip, Max Healthcare Institute, Zerodha, Dream11, Neetibazaar, RazerPay and Nyaka.
The study found that the total value of the 200 companies on the list touched Rs 3.6 lakh crore, which is almost equal to the GDP of Maharashtra and surpasses the GDP of other states in the country.
“India’s Top 200 Self-Made Entrepreneurs of the Millenia 2024” includes individuals from 46 cities nationwide. Bengaluru leads the table with 98 entrepreneurs, followed by Mumbai with 73 and New Delhi with 51. These three cities account for more than half of the entrepreneurs on the list. Financial services dominated the list with 50 companies, while healthcare and retail had 25 entrants each. Notably, 188 companies representing about 94 percent of the list have external investors, while the rest are bootstrapped.
Interestingly, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) strengthened their reputation as leading incubators of entrepreneurial talent in India. About one-third of specialized entrepreneurs are IIT graduates, with IIT Delhi emerging as the top graduate institution, followed by IIT Bombay and IIT Kharagpur. Other major IITs, such as Kanpur, Madras and Roorkee also featured prominently, showing their role in producing industry leaders such as Bhavish Aggarwal (Ola Electric) and Harshil Mathur (RazorPay).
The study includes entrepreneurs whose companies, launched after 2000, have changed India’s business landscape. The average age of the founders of the listed companies is 45 years. A third of the founders on the list are under the age of 40.
Anas Rahman Junaid, MD & Principal Researcher, Hurun India said, “IDFC FIRST Private & Hurun India’s Top 200 Self-made Entrepreneurs of the Millenia 2024 shows the extraordinary impact of self-made entrepreneurs on India’s economy, with total business value. India’s 200 most valuable family businesses – worth a quarter of USD 431 billion – despite being established within the last 24 years compared to the average age of 69 years. The four companies set up after 2020 are now collectively valued at Rs 69,400 crore.