The narrative of Indian business has traditionally been written by silver-haired patriarchs and century-old conglomerates. That script has now been shredded.
A new economic reality has emerged, one where the captains of industry are barely out of their twenties and thirties. According to the Avendus Wealth-Hurun India Uth Series 2025, India’s under-40 entrepreneurs now control businesses with a cumulative valuation exceeding $950 billion. To put that staggering figure into perspective, this cohort of young dreamers effectively manages an economy very nearly the size of the GDP of Switzerland.
This is not merely a story of inflated valuations or paper wealth. It represents a fundamental structural shift in how capital and value are created in the subcontinent. The report tracks 436 entrepreneurs across three age brackets, and the data points to a decisive break from the past. Nearly 80 percent of these founders are first-generation entrepreneurs. They did not inherit their empires; they built them from scratch, often in less than a decade. The era of dynastic succession is being challenged by an era of aggressive, relentless execution.
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At the forefront of this charge are the twenty-somethings who have disrupted traditional retail models with blistering speed. Kaivalya Vohra and Aadit Palicha, the 22-year-old founders of Zepto, have raised nearly $2 billion, proving that age is irrelevant when you have a product-market fit that resonates with millions. Their rise highlights a broader trend where capital is gravitating toward quick commerce and logistics density rather than just generic consumer internet plays. These are not just kids with apps; they are logistics commanders reshaping how urban India consumes.
Moving up the age bracket, the 30-to-40 cohort has solidified its position as the new establishment. Nikhil Kamath of Zerodha stands out not just for his wealth but for building a financial behemoth without burning venture capital cash. His trajectory, alongside Ritesh Agarwal of OYO and Deepinder Goyal of Zomato, illustrates the maturity of the ecosystem.
These founders have navigated multiple business cycles, regulatory hurdles, and market corrections to build institutions that are now too big to fail. Ritesh Agarwal, for instance, has steered OYO through a massive restructuring to focus on cash flows, raising $3.7 billion in the process and making his company the most capitalized in this series.
The sectoral spread offers further evidence that Indian innovation has moved beyond simple service aggregation. While software and fintech remain dominant, there is a tangible pivot toward hard assets and deep technology. Founders like Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola Electric are pushing into energy storage and manufacturing, betting on a future where India builds its own infrastructure. And while he may be having his struggles, the potential for upside is too strong to ignore if he recalibrates correctly.
Similarly, entrepreneurs in the space tech and green energy sectors are attracting serious capital, signaling that the next trillion dollars of value will come from solving complex, physical-world problems.
However, the report is not without its sobering statistics. The gender gap remains glaringly wide, with women comprising only 8 percent of this elite list. While leaders like Ghazal Alagh of Mamaearth and Shreya Mishra of SolarSquare are breaking barriers, the ecosystem is still overwhelmingly male-dominated. Bridging this divide remains the next great challenge for India’s startup landscape.
The impact of this cohort extends far beyond their personal net worth. These companies are now major employment engines, collectively supporting over 1.2 million jobs. Reliance Retail, led by Isha Ambani, tops the list with nearly a quarter of a million employees, but even pure-play startups are becoming massive job creators. This transition from job seekers to job creators is perhaps the most significant contribution of this generation. They are not waiting for the government or legacy firms to build the future; they are hiring the engineers, delivery partners, and executives to build it themselves.
Bengaluru continues to serve as the nerve center for this revolution, housing 109 of these founders, followed closely by Mumbai and New Delhi. But the geography of innovation is expanding. As these young leaders scale their ventures, they are creating a ripple effect that touches every corner of the country. The message from the $950 billion club is clear. The torch has not just been passed, so much as it has been seized by the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders.
