Chennai Born Arun Pudur Is Asia’s Wealthiest Under-40 Entrepreneur – WealthX

Arun Pudur, a relatively unknown tech entrepreneur born in Chennai has topped the latest WealthX Report of Richest Under-40 Entrepreneurs from Asia. With a net worth of $4 billion (Rs 25000 crore), he has beaten entrepreneurs from China & Japan to secure the top rank.

Interestingly, he is the only Indian entrepreneur in the top 10 list, which is dominated by China and Japan. Another highlight of the report is that, 9 out of 10 entrepreneurs have made their fortunes from technology niche, including Arun Pudur.

Only Zhang Bangxin, founder of TAL Education Group from China, has made his billions from the education niche.

The youngest entrant in this list is 32-year-old Leo Chen, who is the founder of Jumei International Holding, which is China’s largest online retailer of cosmetic goods. Majority of his $1.1 billion materialized after his company was listed in the New York Stock Exchange last year.

In the list, 6 entrepreneurs are from China, 3 from Japan and one from India.

Here is the list of top 10 wealthiest entrepreneurs from Asia:

Rank	Name	Age	Country	Net Worth*	Primary Company
1	Arun Pudur	37	India	4.0	Celframe
2	Zhou Yahui	38	China	2.2	Beijing Kunlun Tech
3	Zhang Bangxin	35	China	2.2	TAL Education Group
4	Yao Jinbo	39	China	2.2	58.com
5	He Zhitao	33	China	2.0	Hangzhou Liaison Interactive Information Technology
6	Naruatsu Baba	37	Japan	1.6	Colopl
7	Kenji Kasahara	39	Japan	1.5	Mixi
8	Yusaku Maezawa	37	Japan	1.3	Start Today
9	Pang Shengdong	38	China	1.2	Shanghai 2345 Network Holding Group
10	Leo Chen	32	China	1.1	Jumei International Holding

 

Who Is Arun Pudur?

37 year old Arun Pudur is the founder of Celframe, a company which creates software products. As per their website, Celframe has more than 6 million customers and their clients include Fortune 500 companies.

WealthX said in their report that an Office Suite sold by Celframe called Celframe Office is world’s second most popular word processor after Microsoft Word. Some other products offered by Celframe include: Transcarta, an International Business Suite, Business Solutions, a document writing tool for businesses, Celframe CRM and an anti-virus which is free to download.

Arun has moved to Malaysia, and runs his business empire from there.

He founded his company after he graduated in 1998, and delved deep into software product creation. As per a recent interview with Economic Times, he made his first million dollars at the age of 21 and his first billion dollars 10 years back when he was 26.

He said, “I had revenues of a billion dollars almost a decade ago, when I was about 26. I remember my CFO telling me that I easily qualify to be listed as a billionaire. I was not very keen as the billionaire status wouldn’t contribute towards my business”

Friends With Mark Zuckerberg?

In the month of March, WealthX released a global ranking of under-40 billionaires, where Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg was ranked #1 with net worth of $35 billion.

Arun Pudur was the only Indian ranked in that list, as he was placed at #10 with net worth of $4 billion.

In the interview, he said, “I’m on a one-on-one basis with Mark (Zuckerberg), but we’re not chums.”

Besides his software company Celframe, Arun has invested heavily into real estate, gold and mining. E2 Holdings, which is a venture capital firm ‘supported’ by Arun Pudur holds substantial stake in Celframe.

You can find the complete WealthX report here.