Top 10 Indian Entrepreneur’s Success Story

The past few decades have greatly transformed India’s economic landscape, with innovative and daring entrepreneurs. With the help of innovative ideas, determination and unshakable grit, these dynamic minds created multi-billion dollar enterprises from scratch.

These entrepreneurs created employment, wealth and altered industries like technology and education, e-commerce, and healthcare while increasing India’s global entrepreneurial ranking.

Top 10 Successful Entrepreneurs in India and Their Story

1. Dhirubhai Ambani – The Visionary Behind Reliance Industries

• Humble Beginnings

Mohammed started his first job at a petrol pump in the Arab country of Yemen after being born in Chorwad, Gujarat, in 1932.

• Entrepreneurial Leap

In 1966, he started Reliance Commercial Corporation using only ₹15,000, which focused on importing and selling yarn and spices. Initiated Vimal, a recognized textile brand praised for being both premium and inexpensive.

• IPO Revolution

Reliance made its stock public in 1977, attracting the interest of many retail investors and allowing the general public to invest.

• Integration Mastery

Using backward integration, they took charge of processes from sourcing raw materials to manufacturing completed products.

• Refining Giant

The biggest oil refinery in the world, which can process 1.24 million barrels of oil daily, was built in Jamnagar.

• Industry Expansion

Reliance also began working with petrochemicals, power, telecom (started with Reliance Jio) and retail.

• Legacy & Scale

Reliance’s tremendous market capitalization is over ₹19 lakh crore (~$230 billion), and over 3.6 million shareholders hold it. He is remembered for turning Indians into investing by the thousands and improving entrepreneurship in the country.

2. Ratan Tata – The Gentleman Industrialist

Ratan Tata, born into the prestigious Tata family in 1937, got his degree in architecture from Cornell University and completed an advanced management program at Harvard Business School. In 1991, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Tata Group. Thus, he had to convince those who doubted him that he could lead the company after J.R.D. Tata, who had decided to retire when India was going through economic reforms.

Key Milestones

• In 2000, he oversaw the buying of Tetley Tea, which was the company’s initial expansion into other countries.
• In 2008, Ratan Tata directed Tata Motors to buy Jaguar Land Rover from Ford for $2.3 billion, and today, that deal has become a worldwide success story.
• In 2009, Tata introduced the Nano, the world’s most affordable car at ₹1 lakh, to make car ownership possible for more Indian families.
• The large-scale growth of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) made it among the world’s leading IT firms.
• A large percentage of Tata Sons’ equity, which is 66%, is donated to charitable trusts that support education, health care, and activities in rural areas.

Success Principle

Ratan Tata’s leadership, ethics, and vision transformed the Tata Group from a local conglomerate into a respected global one still committed to purpose and integrity.

 

3. Narayana Murthy – Founder of Infosys

• Journey

Born in 1946 in Karnataka, Narayana Murthy was a bright student who earned his engineering from the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore and his master’s from IIT Kanpur. In 1981, with ₹10,000 borrowed from his wife Sudha Murthy, he co-founded Infosys in Pune with six other co-founders. His dream was to create an Indian company that could provide high-quality software services to global clients – something that of at that time.

• Achievements

• Pioneered the Global Delivery Model (GDM), which is the backbone of modern outsourcing.
• Took Infosys to be the first Indian company to be listed on NASDAQ in 1999 and thus boosted India’s reputation in the global tech space.
• Introduced corporate governance and employee stock ownership programs (ESOPs), making Infosys one of the most transparent and employee-friendly companies.
• Under his leadership, Infosys grew from a 7 people team to a global giant with over 300,000 people today.

Impact

Narayana Murthy is known for his ethical leadership and long-term vision. Infosys became a symbol of India’s emergence as a global IT powerhouse, and Murthy is often called the “father of Indian IT.”

4. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw – India’s Biotech Queen

Journey

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw was born in 1953 in Bangalore. She had her training as a master brewer at Ballarat University in Australia. Although she was fully qualified, she was still faced with gender bias from the male-dominated brewing industry in India, which decided not to hire a woman for technical jobs. Shaw, however, refused to be beaten and went instead into biotechnology, a relatively unknown and risky field at the time. She started Biocon in her garage with a capital of 710,000 only and was initially making enzymes for industries to use.

Challenges & Triumphs

• Biocon started by producing papain and isinglass enzymes and soon became the first Indian company to export enzymes to the U.S. and Europe.
• In the early 2000s, she pivoted Biocon into biopharmaceuticals, producing affordable insulin, cancer drugs and biosimilars.
• In 2004, Biocon went public and saw a 300% gain on its IPO day, making it the second Indian company to cross $1 billion in market cap on listing day.
• Biocon has become a global leader in biosimilars and affordable biologics, especially in emerging markets.

Legacy

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a self-made billionaire and a trailblazer in India’s biotech sector. She is celebrated for her scientific and business acumen and as a role model for women in STEM and entrepreneurship.

5. Byju Raveendran – Revolutionizing Education with BYJU’S

Journey

Byju Raveendran was a teacher by passion and an engineer by profession. He was born in a small Keralan hamlet. In 2006, he started tutoring students for the CAT (MBA entrance exam), and he soon gained recognition for his successful teaching methods. As his popularity grew, he converted his classroom coaching into online video classes, and he and his wife, Divya Gokulnath, co-founded BYJU’S—The Learning App in 2011.

Growth Trajectory

• As soon as it launched in 2015, BYJU’S was downloaded more than any other education app in India.
• Over 100 million users and 6.5 million paid subscribers were listed on BYJU as of 2021.
• With the highest valuation of $22 billion, Byju’s became India’s most excellent edtech company.
• Expanded aggressively by acquiring platforms like WhiteHat Jr. (coding), Toppr (K-12), Great Learning (upskilling), and Aakash Institute (test prep).
• Global investors were interested in companies such as Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, Tencent, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Vision

Byju’s mission is to transform learning into engaging, personalized, and accessible for all kids, particularly those in underserved areas. In the last few years, BYJU has encountered some regulatory and operational challenges, yet it continues to be a leader in the digital learning revolution for Indian students.

6. Falguni Nayar – The Woman Behind Nykaa

Journey

Falguni Nayar was an investment banker for over 20 years and held leadership roles at Kotak Mahindra Capital Company. At 50, she boldly quit her high-profile job and went after the least penetrated Indian beauty and wellness market. She launched Nykaa, an e-commerce platform for authentic beauty products from local and foreign brands, in 2012.

Achievements

• Nykaa grew fast by focusing on product authenticity, customer experience and a wide range of beauty, skincare and wellness products for Indian consumers.
• The company expanded into offline stores across major cities and blended online and offline sales for a seamless customer experience.
• In October 2021, Nykaa went public with its IPO, raising over ₹5,352 crore (~ $ $ $700 million) and becoming one of the most successful IPOs by an Indian startup. The listing gave Nykaa a valuation of over ₹50,000 crore (~ $ $ $6.5 billion).
• Through this venture, Falguni became India’s first self-made woman billionaire, inspiring countless women entrepreneurs nationwide.

 

Inspiration

Falguni’s journey is a perfect example of age not being an obstacle to becoming an entrepreneur. Her mission, tenacity, and customer-centric strategy that supported Nykaa to become the leader of the beauty retail industry in India, playing the role of an energy source for millions of consumers and changing the way beauty products are sold and purchased, have all been highlighted here.

7. Sridhar Vembu – The Rural Tech Innovator of Zoho

Journey

Sruthidar Vembu, from a humble family in Tamil Nadu, completed his education at IIT Madras and gained a PhD from Princeton University. In 1996, he co-launched AdventNet, now Zoho Corporation, which supplies the global business community with a full suite of SaaS (Software as a Service) products such as CRM, email, finance, and collaboration. Zoho, whose principal offices are in Chennai and California, has expanded from being a local to one of the world’s biggest privately owned software companies.

Unique Approach

• Taking a courageous step, Sridhar relocated Zoho’s operations to rural India, initially to a village near Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu.
• He decided not to take any money from outside and grew the company by himself while maintaining complete control and profitability.
• Developed the Zoho Schools of Learning, a program that educates young rural people who have not gone to college, professional-skilled software developers and engineers.
• By 2023, Zoho had more than 100 million users in over 180 countries, going head-to-head with Salesforce and Microsoft.

Impact:

Sridhar Vembu has rewritten the rules of tech entrepreneurship in India, proving that world-class innovation doesn’t have to come from Silicon Valley or India’s cities. His rural-first approach has inspired a new generation of socially conscious business leaders who see inclusivity, decentralization and empowerment as the way to success.

8. Bhavish Aggarwal – Co-founder of Ola Cabs

Journey

Bhavish Aggarwal, an IIT Bombay graduate, started his career as a research intern at Microsoft. Nevertheless, a disappointing taxi ride on a short trip caused him to think of an idea that would change urban transportation in India forever. In 2010, at 24, Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati co-founded Ola Cabs from a small office in Mumbai. They aimed to provide transparency, reliability, and convenience to the cab market, which was still fragmented in India.

Growth Highlights

• Ola became one of India’s largest ride-hailing platforms, operating in over 250 cities and doing millions of daily rides.
• The company diversified into other verticals by acquiring TaxiforSure (2015), Foodpanda (2017), and Ridlr (2018) and strengthened its transportation and food delivery ecosystem.
• Bhavish launched Ola Electric in 2017 to lead India’s shift to clean mobility. The Ola S1 electric scooter, launched in 2021, became the country’s top-selling EV.

Vision

He is a strong advocate for Indian innovation and Make in India programs. His gutsy move from the cab aggregation business to the electric vehicle sector shows he is along for the ride in addressing India’s mobility problems with technology-based, green, and scalable solutions.

9. Vijay Shekhar Sharma – Pioneering India’s Digital Payment Revolution with Paytm

The founder and CEO of Paytm, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, is known as one of India’s top inspiring tech entrepreneurs. Becoming the leader of digital payments in India through hard work and creativity shows how powerful his dedication was.

Education

• He was born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, and, at 19, completed his B.E. in Electronics & Communication from the Delhi College of Engineering.
• Although learning English was difficult, he taught himself how to program using Hindi translations of books.
• He ran through various positions at RiverRun Software and India Today Group Online under different tech positions before following his dream.

Paytm and One97 Communications

• In 2000, Vijay Shekar Sharma set up One97 Communications, which initially worked with mobile content.
• In 2010, he invested $2 million in the introduction of Paytm, which began by providing mobile recharge and bill payment services.
• Made Paytm offer UPI payments, insurance, banking, lending and e-commerce alongside its usual services.

Milestones & Impact

• With demonetization in 2016, Paytm grew rapidly and became a leader in cashless payments in India.
• Many registered users plus over 20 million partners for merchants are part of PayPal.
• In 2017, Forbes named Sanjeev Aggarwal the youngest billionaire in India and was recently included among the wealthiest individuals in the country.

10. Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy & Rahul Jaimini – Co-founders of Swiggy

Swiggy has become a front-runner in the food-tech industry in the Indian market. It was established in Bengaluru in 2014 by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, and Rahul Jaimini. The company revolutionized the food ordering market and built an efficient hyperlocal delivery system that customers nationwide have highly rated.

Founders’ Background

Sriharsha Majety:

• Engineering + M.Sc from BITS Pilani
• MBA in Finance from IIM Calcutta
• Co-founded Bundl Technologies in 2013, the precursor to Swiggy

Nandan Reddy:

• M.Sc from BITS Pilani
• Worked with SourcePilani
• Co-founded a Hyderabad-based restaurant, Zurna, before launching Bundl

Rahul Jaimini:

• Dual degree in Computer Science from IIT Kharagpur
• Former Senior Software Engineer at Myntra
• Developed Swiggy’s early-tech infrastructure

Key Milestones

• Scaled to 500+ Indian cities
• Created new brands such as Swiggy Instamart for grocery and Swiggy Genie for parcel delivery
• To improve its service, Swiggy bought Supr Daily in 2018 and Dineout in 2022.

Impact

The three of them created one of the most successful startups in India by combining logistics, technology, and a user-centric service to change the food delivery ecosystem.

Conclusion

These top 10 Indian entrepreneurs represent more than business success—they reflect courage, vision, and persistence. From rural garages to global boardrooms, their stories prove that India is a land where dreams, backed by grit, can become global movements. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a student, or a curious reader, let their journeys inspire you to carve your path.