The rise of self-made entrepreneurs and startups in India is creating unprecedented wealth this century, with Radhakrishna Damani’s DMart and Binny Sachin Bansal-founded Flipkart leading the charge. According to a report Hurun and IDFC First, the top 200 companies of self-made entrepreneurs in India have created a whopping ₹30 lakh crore, which is equivalent to the GDP of Denmark.
The top 10 list is dominated startups like Zomato, Swiggy, Dream11, and Razorpay, along with Flipkart and DMart. Most of these companies started in the early or mid-2010s, representing the digital and new-age trend in businesses such as fintechs and D2C brands.
Notable presence was also observed from the healthcare sector, with companies like Global Health and Laurus Labs making the cut.
Young entrepreneurs play a significant role in this wealth creation, with a third of the founders featured in the list under 40. Anas Rahman Junaid, founder & managing director of Hurun India, highlighted the diversity and inclusivity of India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, with 20 women entrepreneurs and 32 founders born in the 1990s among those featured.
Over half of the entrepreneurs are engineers, while the IITs of Delhi, Mumbai, and Kharagpur have produced 82 of the founders. Other professional degrees such as doctors and chartered accountants are also represented among the founders.
The report also revealed that three-quarters of the companies listed are privately held, with the rest being publicly listed. The dominance of startups is reflected in the top 10 listed companies, with most of them being startups or soon-to-be-unicorns.
This report demonstrates the surge in wealth creation driven startups and young entrepreneurs, showing the potential for continued economic growth and expansion in the entrepreneurial landscape of India.