Byju Raveendran, the founder of India’s largest online education platform has made it to Fortune’s global list of 40 under 40 this year. Fortune’s list of 40 influential people under the age of 40 spans across five categories: Finance, technology, healthcare, government and politics, media and entertainment.
Thirty-nine-year-old Byju Raveendran, 39, made it to the list, showing that it is possible to build a massively successful online education platform. Since its inception in 2011, Byju’s has grown into the biggest education technology company in the country. Today, it is valued at more than $10 billion.
“Byju’s, as the company is known, has become India’s biggest education technology company, helping millions of students prep and study for the most important exams of their lives while teaching them a thing or two about core topics like mathematics and science,” Fortune wrote.
The list also featured the twins of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, Akash and Isha. The 28-year-olds featured in the technology section of the list. Akash and Isha joined the company in 2014 and 2015 respectively. As Jio board members, they helped seal the company's recent deal with Facebook - $5.7 billion dollars for a 9.99% stake - plus major follow-on investments from tech giants like Google, Qualcomm and Intel. "Recently, Akash and Isha helped launch Jio Mart, a venture that aims to challenge Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart for command of India's massive and fast-growing online shopping market," Fortune said.
Another prominent Indian who has made it to the list is Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), which is working towards introducing Covid-19 vaccines in India. "Few people on the planet are more in demand right now than Poonawalla," Fortune said. Founded more than fifty years ago by Poonawalla's father, SII happens to be the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines.
Manu Kumar Jain, the managing director of Xiaomi India also features on the list. He has previously founded Jabong, a fashion e-commerce website that was eventually sold to Flipkart.
“Under Jain, Xiaomi overtook Korean colossus Samsung to become the smartphone leader in India in just three years, bolstered by a strategy to act more like an Indian company. How? For example, connectivity across the country is spotty, forcing consumers to use multiple SIM cards—so Jain added a second slot to the phone. He also sourced as many components as possible from within India, bypassing costly tariffs,” Fortune wrote.
Dhaval Shah and Dharmil Sheth, founders of e-pharmacy startup Phameasy also made it to the list. Find the full list here.
With ians inputs