Empowering entrepreneurs and unlocking the potential of partnerships
Living up to its name, which means ‘wealth’ in Sanskrit, Vananam is a conglomerate that seeks to empower entrepreneurs to create wealth for all stakeholders. Launched in 2021, as a start-up entrepreneurial enterprise, it has a presence across diverse domains from real estate and agri-commodities to transit retail and the rewards sector.
In barely two years, it has achieved meteoric growth, clocking a turnover of USD100 million by 2023. It has also rapidly scaled up its geographic presence from just one office to five physical offices in India and two subsidies - one each in Dubai and Singapore. Starting out with a team of just three people in September 2021, Vananam has grown in strength to 197 people today, of which 30+ are emerging leaders whose inspiring work has been backed by Vananam. Among all these commendable milestones, its biggest achievement is that the organisation has been profitable all along its journey this far.
Despite Vananam’s exponential growth, its young and visionary co-founders – Keshav Inani and Mahendra Rathod – have an even greater vision for the future of the enterprise. In a special episode, titled ‘Vananam – Creating Wealth and Building Bharat’, CNBC TV18 caught up with the dynamic duo to get a sense of what has motivated and enabled them to achieve so much, so quickly, and what they have planned for the future of their venture.
A Chartered Accountant by qualification, Keshav Inani hails from a family of Marwadis that migrated from Rajasthan to North Karnataka two generations ago and threw themselves into the magic of making miracle sarees. “I come from a family of hustlers,” he says, adding, “Watching my family doing business and expanding their domain always inspired me. It is perhaps what sowed the seeds for Vananam.”
Mahendra Rathod, on the other hand, shared that his grandfather was a humble farmer in a small village in Gujarat. “My father was the first person in that entire village to pursue an education and move out to become a teacher. Thanks to my parent’s efforts I had a chance to study at Sainik School - Balachadi, one of the most premium military schools in India. There I learned about perseverance, adaptability, hard work and other values that came in handy during my entrepreneurial journey.”
The young achievers recalled how they started Vananam with a mission to create wealth for all its stakeholders and empower entrepreneurs. “After I completed my CA in 2019, I had the opportunity to work with some of the best minds in the start-up space and help them scale up their businesses. There was clearly a funding gap in the space, despite the windfall flow of investments into India at that time. That’s when I conceived the idea of approaching the Marwadi community, who had the funds and were risk takers by nature, with an offer to invest in good quality start-ups at a very early stage of their development. This would deliver a win-win situation for both the entrepreneurs and people with financial capital.”