Flipkart co-founders Bansals new billionaires: Forbes

    

Sachin Bansal with Binny Bansal, co-founders of Flipkart,

 

Leading Indian e-retailer Flipkart's co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal are the latest billionaires in the country, with $1.3 billion (Rs.8,582 crore) net worth each, according to leading business magazine Forbes India' rich list released on Wednesday.

"Indian e-commerce has added its first billionaires with Flipkart's founders (Bansals) making debut on our rich list at number 86, with $1.3 billion net worth each," the magazine said in a statement in Mumbai.

Though Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani tops the rich list for the ninth consecutive year, his net worth, however, declined $4.7 billion to $18.9 billion (Rs.127,700 crore) from 2014 owing to lower oil prices that hit his oil and petrochemicals giant.

Sun Pharmaceutical's Dilip Shanghvi also retained the second spot, with $18 billion net worth, acquisition of drug major Ranbaxy Industries for $4 billion by his company notwithstanding.

Wipro chairman Azim Premji also retained the third spot in the list, with a net worth of $15.9 billion though $500 million less than in 2014.

"The generous billionaire has pledged 18 percent of his stake in Wipro to his charitable trust, in addition to a 21 percent stake already given," the statement noted.

"The combined wealth of India's 100 richest remains largely unchanged at $345 billion, as compared to $346 billion in 2014," it added.

Similarly, wealth of 10 tycoons slumped by $1 billion over the year owing to global and domestic factors, including a volatile stock market and currency fluctuations.

Fortune of steel magnate L.N. Mittal (65) declined by $4.6 billion to $11.2 billion and his ranking in the rich list slipped to eight from five year ago, as his and world's largest steel major ArcelorMittal was hit by imports from China.

"India is facing a reality check in 2015 after the euphoria in 2014. Though it has impacted several big fortunes in the top 100, the country's entrepreneurial spirit remains buoyant, as evident from a dozen new faces on the list," said Forbes Asia's India editor Naazneen Karmali.

Other top 10 billionaires are Hinduja brothers ranked fourth with $14.8 billion net worth; Pallonji Mistry (86), fifth, $14.7 billion; Shiv Nadar (70), sixth, $12.9 billion; Godrej family, seventh, $11.4 billion; Cyrus Poonawalla (74), ninth, $7.9 billion and Kumar Mangalam Birla (48) tenth, $7.8 billion.

Gujarat-based Adani group's founder chairman Gautam Adani (53) is ranked 11th with net worth of $7 billion and Kotak Mahindra Bank vice-chairman and managing director Uday Kotak (56) is 12th with $6.5 billion net worth.

Only two women figure in the top 100 billionaires' list - Leena (Gandhi) Tewari (58 years), chairman of drug major USV Ltd, is ranked 54 with $1.9 billion net worth, while Indu Jain (79 years), chairperson of the country's largest media group Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, is ranked 57 with $1.85 billion net worth.

Five co-founders of global software major Infosys Ltd figure in the rich list- N.R. Narayana Murthy (69) ranked 53, $1.92 billion; S. Gopalakrishnan (60), 67, $1.67 billion; Nandan Nilekani (60), 69, $1.61 billion and K. Dinesh (61) 96, $1.19 billion.

Mahindra group chairman Anand Mahindra (60) is ranked at 99 with a net worth of $1.12 billion.

The rich list also has 12 new comers, including IndiGo budget carrier co-founder Rakesh Gangwal at 70 with $1.6 billion net worth, while his friend and co-founder Rahul Bhatia moved up 12 positions from last year to 38 with $2.4 billion net worth.

The biggest gainer is Poonawalla, the vaccine magnate, whose fortune increased to $7.9 billion from $6.2 billion in 2014 and entered the top 10 list at nine. He recently bought heritage property Lincoln House in Mumbai for $110 million.

"This year's list reflects the churn in the global economy and the growing clout of emerging sectors like ecommerce in India," Forbes India editor Sourav Majumdar added.

No. of new rich to grow fastest in India, says study





The number of new rich in India will almost double over the next five years, posting the fastest growth of 47%, a latest study says. In comparison, the number of such individuals with a wealth of over $1,00,000 will grow 7% globally and 10% in Asia by 2020, the study says. The study , conducted by EIU and commissioned by Citibank, for the first time focuses on new wealth builders (NWBs) -a term used to describe self-made individuals who are either salaried, self-employed professionals or entrepreneurs in new-age startups. In India, the number of such new wealth builders is expected to be close to five crore and the total value of their financial assets is expected to be $879 billion in 2020 -almost double of what it was a decade ago.
According to the report, the NWBs represent a new breed of self-generated suc cess, are humble and focus on making progress for those around them. “Nearly eigh in 10 NWBs acquired most o their wealth in the past 10 ye ars. Almost none attribute current wealth to inheritan ce,“ the report said.
According to Kartik Kaushik, Citi India global he ad of consumer banking two additional trends for In dia were that there was a ve ry high savings rate and a majority of them would be young -in their mid-20s to 30s. He said the growth of this segment provides a big opportunity for banks like Citi. “Until now we had nothing in between Suvidha, Citibanking and Citi Gold.To address this category, we are launching Citi Priority as an integrated offering for those who maintain a Rs 15 lakh relationship with the bank,“ said Kaushik. He explained that this was not a bundling of separate services but a comprehensive product where the customer gets debit card, credit card and other services as part of the offering.

Paytm, redBus founders back Innerchef

Paytm, redBus founders back Innerchef





Gurgaon-based ready-to-cook meals delivery startup, Innerchef, has raised Rs 11crore in its first round of funding from a clutch of high profile entrepreneur angels like Vijay Shekhar Sharma of Paytm, Phanindra Sama of redBus, and Anupam Mittal of Shaadi.com, along with two fund houses, valuing it at $10 million. Innerchef 's other angel investors in the new financing round include Murugavel Janakiraman, founder of Bharat Matrimoney , Dinesh Agarwal of Indiamart, Hungama's Neeraj Roy , Vishal Gondal from GOQii, among others. Japan's Netprice, M&S Fund's Hiro San and T A Venture have also participated in the series A round, said a company executive, at a time when food-delivery startups are struggling to raise new capital and signs of early consolidation are surfacing in the sector.
“We will use this cash to expand. We have two food kitchens at the moment and we are planning to add 10 more. Next month, we would enter Bengaluru while Mumbai would see our entry in November.One more kitchen will be opened in Noida,“ Rajesh Sawhney , co-founder of Innerchef told TOI.

E-comm chat co MagicTiger gets funding

E-comm chat co MagicTiger gets funding





Chat commerce startup, MagicTiger, promoted by Growthstory , the entrepreneurship platform of husband-wife duo, K Ganesh and Meena Ganesh, will be raising $10 million in Series A funding over the next three months. The app, which has 5,000 users already , is in the process of being rolled out in major cities.
MagicTiger will enable the user to order anything through the simplicity of a chat. In short, the user can use the chatting platform to type out what he or she needs.
The startup is co-founded by Pratyush Prasanna, who earlier founded cross-messaging platform Plustxt, Arun Kumar, one of the cofounders at Portea Medical, and serial entrepreneur Srinivas Anumolu. It is also being backed by marquee investors including Paytm founder and chairman Vijay Shekhar Sharma.