How These Six Sibling Partnerships Are Shaping The Indian Entrepreneurial Landscape On World Siblings Day (April 10), we throw light on sibling dynamics among the heads of some of India's leading entrepreneurial partnerships!
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Warm and mutually-respectful partnerships are the cornerstones of several successful businesses' leadership teams. On World Siblings Day (April 10), we throw light on sibling dynamics among the heads of some of India's leading entrepreneurial partnerships!
Nykaa: The Nayar Sister-Brother Pair
Beauty ecommerce giant Nykaa not only rendered founder Falguni Nayar the richest self-made Indian woman but also gave a taste of entrepreneurship to her children, twin siblings Adwaita Nayar (ED, CEO, Nykaa Fashion) and Anchit Nayar (ED, CEO, Nykaa E-Retail). Armed with degrees from top Ivy League universities, both Adwaita and Anchit have spent years collecting insights into consumer behaviour and preferences across segments such as beauty and fashion as well as pet care and household supplies and today leverage both online shopping as well as offline stores to expand their reach. Nykaa made a blockbuster stock market debut in November 2021 at a valuation of $13 billion.
Reliance Industries Limited: The Ambani Siblings
Although their father and uncle were embroiled for years in one of the most embittered sibling rivalries ever witnessed among Indian business families, Isha, Anant and Akash Ambani appear to be leading their own respective verticals with independence, rendering the broader Reliance Industries Limited a cordial group. This is no doubt by the design of father and billionaire entrepreneur Mukesh Ambani, who announced a succession plan for his conglomerate last year: eldest son Akash named as telecom arm Reliance Jio's head, daughter Isha as Reliance Retail's leader and younger son Anant as new energy business' head. Here's hoping the sibling entrepreneurs of this Ambani generation will continue to work with autonomy as well as overall harmony!
CarDekho: The Jain Brothers
Although Shark Tank India Season 2 has boosted the popularity of CarDekho's co-founder Amit Jain, who appears as one of the judges, the dynamic duo that leads the car search platform also includes younger brother Anurag Jain. Over the years, the siblings have seen many highs and lows together, at one point going nearly bankrupt after losing around INR 1.5 crore in stock markets. Having built their business from scratch again after such a setback, today they often speak about the importance of perseverance, learning from mistakes, and retaining conviction in oneself.
Lupin Industries: The Gupta Sister-Brother Duo
Founded by Desh Bandhu Gupta in the late 1960s to make anti-TB drugs, Mumbai-based pharma major Lupin Industries had already earned credibility in India by the mid 2010s. However, it was the effort of Gupta's children, Vinita and Nilesh, that helped the company burst onto the international market scene and make successful forays into the US and Japan. After working closely with their father for years, the siblings formally took over the charge of running day-to-day operations in 2013, with Vinita being made the CEO (chief executive officer) and Nilesh the MD (managing director) of the company. Though the two complement each other and work together as a team, the elder sibling is for sure the boss, Nilesh has occasionally conceded!
The Turakhia Brothers
Serial entrepreneurs Bhavin and Divyank Turakhia took to running businesses early in life—at ages 16 and 14 years respectively. Over the years, they have founded more than 12 ventures either together or individually, selling many of them at high valuations: for instance, Directi, a web-hosting and domain name registry business, was sold in 2014 for $160 million; adtech firm Media.net was sold off in 2016 to a consortium of Chinese buyers for $900 million; their web presence companies BigRock, LogicBoxes, ResellerClub, and Webhosting.info were acquired by a US firm for $160 million. According to Divyank, the brothers did not have very much growing up and decided to share everything in life. Thus, they co-own all the companies they have founded, whether individually or together, to share the success of their businesses.
Zerodha: The Kamath Brothers
One of the largest stock brokers in the country with over 10 million clients, Zerodha was founded by Nithin and Nikhil Kamath in 2010 and built into a highly successful full-service discount brokerage business, which is bootstrapped till date but a profitable unicorn nevertheless. The brothers also run a VC fund and incubator, Rainmatter, to support fintech companies working to cultivate financial inclusion, and an investment management firm, True Beacon.
