Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, has made history by becoming India’s youngest billionaire at just 37 years old. Forbes recently ranked him as the 40th richest Indian in the world. Alongside his brother Nithin Kamath, they’ve built Zerodha into a massive financial services company worth billions of dollars.
Together, the Kamath brothers have a combined net worth of USD 5.5 billion, which translates to over Rs 45,700 crore in Indian currency. Zerodha, the company they founded, boasts an impressive market capitalization of over Rs 30,000 crore.
But Nikhil’s journey to billionaire status was far from conventional. He dropped out of school because he believed that the standard curriculum couldn’t harness his full potential. At the tender age of 14, he started selling mobile phones to make some money. However, his mother wasn’t pleased with this endeavor and famously flushed all the phones down the toilet. His academic scores were so low that the school barred him from taking the Class 10th exams, ultimately leading to his dropout.
Nikhil’s path to success took an unconventional turn when he began working at a call center, earning a modest salary of Rs 8000 per month. However, his entrepreneurial spirit was undeterred. In 2010, he co-founded Zerodha, a company that revolutionized the stock trading landscape by offering incredibly low fees. Within just three years, Zerodha reported a net profit of over Rs 2000 crore.
Today, both Nikhil and Nithin Kamath enjoy a salary package of Rs 100 crore each. Zerodha has amassed over 1 crore users and has refrained from hiring individuals from prestigious institutions like IIT and IIM. The Kamath brothers believe that such candidates may not always prioritize what’s best for the company, and they have carved their own unique path to success in the financial services industry.
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