Bansals Of Flipkart Become India’s First eCommerce Billionaires; Mukesh Ambani Is Still India’s Richest Person

By Mohul Ghosh Last updated Sep 24, 2015

With assets worth $1.3 billion, Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal have become India’s first eCommerce billionaires.

They have debuted at #86 on Forbes’s 100 Richest Persons list for the year 2015.

Although billionaires from software and IT services have graced this coveted list for several years (Azim Premji, ranked #3; Shiv Nadar, ranked #6; Narayan Murthy, ranked #53; and more..), it is for the first time that shareholders and founders of a Internet startup, that too eCommerce niche have been included in this list. At 32 and 34 year, Binny and Sachin Bansal are also youngest billionaires in this exclusive list.

This marks a new phase for the Internet and Digital industry in India.

Sourav Majumdar, Editor, Forbes India, said: “This year’s list reflects the churn in the global economy and the growing clout of emerging sectors like e-commerce in India.”

Overall, Mukesh Ambani having net worth of $18.9 billion is still India’s richest person. This is for the 9^th consecutive year that Mukesh has been ranked #1 in this list. Note here that compared to last year, his wealth eroded by $4.7 billion, but still he was able to maintain the lead.

His younger brother, Anil Ambani is ranked at #29, with net worth of $2.9 billion. Both Ambani brothers have collectively lost $8 billion since last year.

The top 5 richest persons in India are:

Mukesh Ambani (assets: $18.9 billion)
Dilip Shanghvi (assets: $18 billion)
Azim Premji (assets: $15 billion)
Hinduja Brothers (assets: $14.8 billion)
Pallonji Mistry (Assets: $14.7 billion)

Compared to last year, the overall wealth accumulated by the top 100 Billionaires from India remained almost unchanged at $345 billion; last year, it was $346 billion.

However, 12 new faces have arrived this year. Besides Sachin and Binny Bansal, Dubai based Sunil Vaswani of the Stallion Group has debuted at #48 with assets worth $2 billion. Stallion Group is into various business verticals in Middle East and Africa.

Rakesh Gangwal, co-founder of Indigo Airlines is another notable debutant this year. Thanks to their upcoming IPO, Rakesh has now assets worth $2.4 billion, and has been ranked #38.

You can see the complete ranking of top 10 billionaires from India here.