10 youngest Indian billionaires: What they studied before hitting it big
India’s youngest billionaires are rewriting the nation’s economic story not just through innovation, but through the paths they’ve taken to get there. The M3M Hurun India Rich List 2025 showcases ten extraordinary individuals aged 31 and under whose ventures span sectors from instant delivery and fintech to solar energy and artificial intelligence.What unites them is not a uniform academic pedigree, but a shared readiness to break convention. Some are Stanford and IIT dropouts, others studied business in Pune or New York, and one never finished high school. Together, they mirror a generational shift in how India perceives education, success, and risk-taking in the age of startups.
Kaivalya Vohra
Education
Kaivalya Vohra, 22, completed his early schooling in Mumbai, where he showed a strong inclination toward computer engineering and coding. He went on to join Stanford University, majoring in Computer Science, but chose to drop out to pursue his startup ambitions. His brief time at Stanford exposed him to Silicon Valley’s startup culture and reinforced his belief that India’s fast-growing digital economy offered enormous potential for innovation.
Career Path
Vohra co-founded Zepto in 2021 with Aadit Palicha, transforming a pandemic-era idea into a quick-commerce enterprise valued at $5.9 billion. As Zepto’s Chief Technology Officer, he focuses on optimising logistics through data-driven operations and automation. His journey from a student developer in Mumbai to one of India’s youngest billionaires underlines how technical aptitude and timing can outweigh formal academic completion.
Aadit Palicha
Education
Aadit Palicha, 23, studied at GEMS Modern Academy, Dubai, where he earned a perfect 45 score in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, placing him among the world’s top-performing students. He later enrolled at Stanford University to study Computer Science, but left the program midway to pursue entrepreneurship full-time. His exposure to international education and early startup environments shaped his analytical and leadership skills at a young age.
Career Path
Palicha took the entrepreneurial leap alongside Vohra to establish Zepto, a company that redefined last-mile delivery in India through a model built on speed, efficiency, and customer trust. As Zepto’s CEO, he has been instrumental in driving growth strategy, funding, and nationwide expansion. His trajectory from an academically gifted student to a risk-taking founder reflects the mindset of a new generation willing to trade institutional prestige for innovation and impact.
Rohan Gupta
Education
Rohan Gupta, at just 26, holds an International Baccalaureate diploma from GEMS Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Although details about his specific college remain limited, his academic background reflects a strong grounding in finance and management fundamentals.
Career Path
Gupta leads SG Finserve, a financial services firm specialising in supply chain and business financing. By blending youthful insight with emerging financial technologies, he represents a generation of entrepreneurs leveraging analytical education to solve India’s credit and logistics bottlenecks, without necessarily coming from traditional elite institutions.
Shashvat Nakrani
Education
A native of Bhavnagar, Shashvat Nakrani enrolled at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Textile Technology. Like several modern entrepreneurs, he found his real calling outside the classroom, pivoting from engineering to finance during his time at IIT.
Career Path
In his third year, Nakrani dropped out to co-found BharatPe, a fintech company transforming digital payments for small merchants. Today, BharatPe stands among India’s most impactful financial startups, showing how technical education can nurture entrepreneurial problem-solving even beyond one’s chosen field of study.
Trishneet Arora
Education
Trishneet Arora’s educational story breaks every convention. He left formal schooling after Grade 8, opting to teach himself ethical hacking through online resources, community forums, and self-guided experimentation. Without any formal college degree, he gained mastery over cybersecurity tools and programming languages.
Career Path
At 19, he founded TAC Security, a global cybersecurity firm serving governments and Fortune 500 companies. Today, Arora is recognised internationally for his expertise in threat management. His rise from a high-school dropout to tech CEO underscores how India’s startup ecosystem is increasingly rewarding skill, persistence, and innovation over formal degrees.
Aravind Srinivas
Education
A true academic powerhouse, Aravind Srinivas earned a dual degree (B.Tech + M.Tech) in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras before pursuing a PhD in Computer Science at University of California, Berkeley. His doctoral research explored machine learning and natural language processing, laying the foundation for his later innovations in AI.
Career Path
After working with top researchers in Silicon Valley, Srinivas co-founded Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search and knowledge platform that has become one of the fastest-growing tech companies globally. His journey demonstrates how rigorous academic research can seamlessly translate into commercial innovation at scale—bridging India’s technical talent with global AI leadership.
Ritesh Agarwal
Education
Born in Bundi, Rajasthan, Ritesh Agarwal attended St. John’s Senior Secondary School and later joined the Indian School of Business & Finance (ISBF), Delhi. However, his entrepreneurial ambitions led him to drop out soon after being awarded the Thiel Fellowship—a program that funds young innovators to pursue ideas outside formal education.
Career Path
Agarwal founded OYO (now rebranded as Prism) at age 19, transforming India’s fragmented budget hotel industry. With early mentorship and global exposure through the Thiel Fellowship, Agarwal turned OYO into one of India’s most recognized hospitality brands. His trajectory demonstrates how targeted mentorship and funding can substitute for years of conventional schooling.
Hardik Kothiya
Education
Hardik Kothiya, 31, holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil Engineering) from Shri Swami Atmanand Saraswati Institute of Technology, affiliated with Gujarat University. His coursework focused on construction design and energy systems, offering the foundation for his later ventures in renewable infrastructure.
Career Path
Kothiya co-founded Rayzon Solar, now one of India’s leading solar panel manufacturers. His technical education proved pivotal in understanding manufacturing, materials, and scalability in clean energy—a sector at the heart of India’s green transition.
Aditya Kumar Halwasia
Education
Aditya Kumar Halwasia graduated with a Bachelor’s in Commerce from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, followed by a Master’s in Global Finance from Fordham University, New York. His education bridged traditional commerce principles with modern financial analytics, preparing him for leadership in capital-intensive sectors.
Career Path
As an executive at Cupid Ltd., Halwasia has been instrumental in expanding the company’s global footprint and enhancing investor relations. His dual exposure to Indian and Western financial systems highlights how globalization is shaping a new breed of Indian entrepreneurs fluent in both local and international markets.
Harsha Reddy Ponguleti
Education
Harsha Reddy Ponguleti, 31, pursued a BBA from Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies, Pune, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from University of Warwick (WMG), UK. His academic focus on management innovation and real estate systems gave him both strategic and operational expertise.
Career Path
Reddy now leads Raghava Constructions India, steering major infrastructure projects across South India. His education abroad exposed him to global management practices, which he has integrated into India’s rapidly modernising real estate industry.
A generation rewriting the rules
These ten young billionaires embody a new era in Indian entrepreneurship—one that values learning but is unafraid to leave classrooms behind. From Stanford to street-smart startups, their journeys show that success in today’s economy is less about where you study and more about how you apply what you learn.They represent a mindset shift: formal education remains valuable, but agility, innovation, and timing now carry equal, if not greater, weight. As India’s youth look toward the future, these stories illuminate a truth that transcends degrees: it’s not the institution that defines the entrepreneur, but the initiative that sustains the journey.
