Lalit Keshre, co-founder and CEO of one of India’s leading fintech startups, Groww, has officially entered the billionaire club. Shortly after the investment startup launched the investing platform, its market capitalisation soared beyond Rs 1 lakh crore. Keshre, with a 9.06 per cent stake in Groww, his holding soared to $1 billion.
Founded in 2016, the fintech giant was the brainchild of former Flipkart executives, Keshre, Harsh Jain, Ishan Bansal, and Neeraj Singh. It started as a mutual fund investment platform with a vision to make investing more accessible. Here’s how his humble beginnings from Madhya Pradesh led him to IIT Bombay and then a billionaire.
Who is Lalit Keshre?
Born in a small village in Lepa, Lalit Keshre, grew up as a farmer’s son. Due to limited educational opportunities, he moved to Khargone to live with his grandparents. There, he attended an English-medium school, setting the foundation for his prolific academic journey.
Attending college at IIT Bombay, he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering. He went on to specialise in microelectronics, after which he went on to take up tech-based jobs. Starting with names like Flipkart and Ittiam Systems, he had a huge role to play in developing Flipkart Quick. Later in 2016, Keshre and his former colleagues launched Groww making wealth management an accessible goal.
Under Keshre, Groww transformed from a startup into a full-fledged NSE listed investment platform. Attracting millions of users, it has several stock options globally. Becoming India’s newest tech-billionaire, Keshre’s reported net-worth is more than Rs 9000 crore as it scaled after Groww’s IPO launch.
India’s new entrants to the billionaire club
Lalit Keshre follows Lenskart’s Peyush Bansal, who recently joined the billionaire club after the October listing. As a regular angel investor on Shark Tank India, Bansal’s eyewear empire reached new heights after the initial public offering. Other notable new entrants include Zoho’s Sridhar and Radha Vembu, whose collective net worth amounted to nearly $10 billion. With an aim to revolutionise India’s tech space, they launched Arattai, giving direct competition to Meta’s WhatsApp.
