Forbes India Tycoons of Tomorrow 2021
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Aaditya Sharda, co-founder, Infra.Market
Image: Vikas Chandra Pureti for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: Revenue jumped from Rs 350 crore in FY20 to Rs 1,242 crore
in FY21; now clocking a run rate of Rs 6,000 crore
Why a Tycoon: Valued at $2.5 billion, Infra.Market is a profitable unicorn, and
the largest B2B online infra procurement platform in India
Medium to long-term prospects: IPO plans in a year
Abhinav Asthana, co-founder and CEO, Postman
Image: Hemant Mishra for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: Became largest API network; value sky-rockets to $5.6
billion
Why a Tycoon: Ushering in the era of 'API-first' software
Medium to long-term prospects: Potential to become a game changing platform for
software development
Aditi Ashok, Golfer
Image: Donald Miralle / AFP
Highlights of 2020-21: Finished 4th at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, within striking
distance of a medal
Why a Tycoon: For giving Indian golf rare visibility and its best moment
Medium to long-term prospects: If she builds on her current success, Aditi will
not only up her stocks on the international circuit, but also inspire a lot of girls to
take up the sport in India
Anchit Nayar, Chairperson and CEO, Beauty E-commerce, Nykaa; Adwaita Nayar, co-founder, Nykaa and Chairperson and CEO of Nykaa Fashion
Image: Madhu Kapparath
Highlights of 2020-21: Nykaa's blockbuster IPO
Why a Tycoon: Adwaita heads Nykaa Fashion, which is growing rapidly; Anchit is
behind onboarding some of the largest international brands on Nykaa
Medium to long-term prospects: Growing Nykaa Fashion, Nykaa Man, and the e-B2B
Superstore
Aman Gupta & Sameer Mehta, co-founders, boAt
Image: Emmanual Karbhari for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: Revenue zoomed from Rs 237 crore in FY19 to over Rs 1,000
crore in FY21
Why a Tycoon: India's biggest earwear and true wireless brand, and the 5th largest
wearable brand globally
Medium to long-term prospects: Filing an IPO early next year
Ankush Sachdeva, co-founder and CEO, ShareChat
Image: Selvaprakash Lakshmanan for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: Built out short video platform Moj within hours of the
TikTok ban in India; boasts 160 million MAUs. Parent company Mohalla Tech, which also runs
ShareChat, turned unicorn with a $2.1 billion valuation in April
Why a Tycoon: For steering ShareChat and Moj to become India's leading local
language social networking and short video platforms, respectively, in a short span of
time despite stiff competition
Medium to long-term prospects: If capital and AI capabilities are a moat in this
business, Mohalla Tech has built out a strong defence for itself to take advantage of the
content boom India is set to see
Vimal Sagar Tiwari, Ashish Singhal & Govind Soni, co-founders, CoinSwitch Kuber
Image: Hemant Mishra for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: Raised $260 million in Series C funding from Coinbase
Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz in September; crossed 11 million registered users in a
record 15 months in October
Why a Tycoon: It is India's most valued crypto unicorn, valued at $1.9 billion. It
is Andreessen Horowitz's first investment in an Indian startup, and Tiger Global's first
investment in an Indian crypto company
Medium to long-term prospects: Plans to deliver diverse investment options to its
growing customer base
Ashwin Damera, co-founder, Eruditus
Image: Nayan Shah for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: Annual bookings almost doubled from $92 million in FY20 to
$175 million in FY21; now clocking a run rate of $505 million for FY22
Why a Tycoon: Valued at $3.2 billion, Damera is building a global business out of
India that is growing at a furious pace, and is on course to break even in FY22
Medium to long-term prospects: Targeting a bigger slice of higher education, which
is a $3 trillion market globally
Asish Mohapatra, Ruchi Kalra, Vasant Sridhar, Nitin Jain & Bhuvan Gupta, co-founders, OfBusiness
Image: Madhu Kapparath
Highlights of 2020-21: Turned unicorn; commerce business grew 4x
Why a Tycoon: For building a large company in the B2B sector
Medium to long-term prospects: Plan to go public, expand into more sectors and
business lines
Gaurav Kumar, Founder and CEO, CredAvenue
Image: Balaji Gangadharan for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: CredAvenue raised a record $90 million from Sequoia Capital
India, Lightspeed, and other investors—the largest Series A funding through equity for an
Indian company
Why a Tycoon: For successfully creating and running three startups
Medium to long-term prospects: Strong, considering that the need for debt will
continue to be present in a still low interest rate regime
Shashank Kumar & Harshil Mathur, co-founders, Razorpay
Image: Nishant Ratnakar
Highlights of 2020-21: Turned unicorn, grew 3x in the past one year
Why a Tycoon: For creating a company that continues to bring out innovative
products that make life easier for customers
Medium to long-term prospects: As India's digital ecosystem grows, so will
Razorpay with its full-stack financial platform for businesses and startups
Saumya & Kairav Engineer, Vice Presidents, Business Development, Astral
Highlights of 2020-21: Announced the launch of sanitaryware along with other
launches in existing verticals
Why a Tycoon: Grown the piping and adhesive business significantly
Medium to long-term prospects: Successfully creating a brand for Astral in the
sanitaryware space
KL Rahul, Cricketer
Image: Rahul Jhangiani
Highlights of 2020-21: Scored a century at Lord's; highest run-scorer in IPL 2020;
hit the second-fastest fifty by an Indian during the T20 World Cup
Why a Tycoon: Has cemented his position as an opening batter across three
formats
Medium to long-term prospects: Shaping up to be the captain of the national team
in the long run
Mahima Datla, Managing Director, Biological E
Image: Harsha Vadlamani
Highlights of 2020-21: Bringing out vaccines for India's Covid-19 fight
Why a Tycoon: She is single-handedly running and building Biological E into a
vaccine powerhouse in India
Medium to long-term prospects: Covid-19 vaccines, and WHO-approved vaccines for
kids where her company has built up a solid presence
Mihir Parekh, Executive Director, Nilkamal Limited
Image: Hemant Mishra for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: While plastic was a non-essential material during Covid-19,
Parekh led his team to quickly re-engineer their business vertical to develop emergency
hospital beds, barriers, shields and other health care products
Why a Tycoon: For launching a sustainable reusable plastic vertical and heralding
the company towards a sustainable business
Medium to long-term prospects: With focus on sustainability and new business
verticals, Parekh is poised to tap a larger addressable market
Mithila Palkar, Actor
Image: Nayan Shah for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: Won popularity and acclaim for her performances in the
series 'Little Things' and Hindi film 'Tribhanga', both on Netflix
Why a Tycoon: She has emerged as a relatable young star who is pushing the
envelope by picking projects and roles across mediums and languages
Medium to long-term prospects: With streaming platforms gaining popularity, a
young, multi-talented performer like her with a growing fan base is sure to receive an
interesting variety of offers for both OTT and the big screen
Parth Jindal, Managing Director, JSW Cement and JSW Paints
Image: Mexy Xavier
Highlights of 2020-21: Raised Rs 1,500 crore for JSW Cement
Why a Tycoon: For incubating JSW Paints, expanding JSW Cement, steering the US
operations, and building JSW Sports
Medium to long-term prospects: Taking JSW Cement and Paints public
Siddarth & Pranav Pai, Founding Partners, 3one4 Capital
Image: Hemant Mishra for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: Two of their funds were ranked as top-performing amongst
VCs, based on IRR, during 2010 to 2018
Why a Tycoon: For identifying and investing in startups that will play a deeper
role in the current decade
Medium to long-term prospects: Bright, considering their investments are in
startup platforms linked to electric vehicles, health tech, neo-banking and social media.
One of their investments, direct-to-consumer meat brand Licious, is already a unicorn
Rahul Garg, Founder, Moglix
Image: Madhu Kapparath
Highlights of 2020-21: Being part of the oxygen cylinder procurement during the
peak of the Covid-19 crisis; becoming a unicorn
Why a Tycoon: Moglix became a unicorn in May, showcasing the ability of an
industrial goods company to become a $1 billion valuation company with a strong
potential
Medium to long-term prospects: As the manufacturing sector begins to see growth,
Moglix wants to emerge as the one-stop solution for all manufacturing needs
Rajkummar Rao, Actor
Image: Mexy Xavier
Highlights of 2020-21: Won acclaim for his performance in 'The White Tiger'; had
releases such as 'Ludo' and 'Chhalaang'
Why a Tycoon: Is a proven performer over the years and among the finest actors of
his generation
Medium to long-term prospects: Can only go a notch higher and essay even more
challenging roles; he is here for the long haul
Varun & Ghazal Alagh, co-founders, Mamaearth
Image: Amit Verma
Highlights of 2020-21: From Rs 112 crore revenue in FY20, Mamaearth almost touched
Rs 500 crore in FY21. The numbers are set to double this fiscal
Why a Tycoon: With a valuation of $730 million, Mamaearth is one of the most
valued D2C personal care brands
Medium to long-term prospects: Plans to get into more categories in personal care;
recently moved into colour cosmetics segment
Vidit Aatrey & Sanjeev Barnwal, co-founders, Meesho
Image: Selvaprakash Lakshmanan for Forbes India
Highlights of 2020-21: Number of women micro entrepreneurs using the Meesho app
surged to 9 million
Why a Tycoon: Have helped women in conservative India to make money within their
communities; created wealth for employees
Medium to long-term prospects: Potential to become a large online commerce
platform across small-town India