Sharma has a net worth of Rupees 7300 crore.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm is the richest businessman in India under 40, according to Hurun’s India rich list for 2016. With a net worth of Rupees 7300 crore ($1095 million), Sharma is ranked 103 in the list of richest Indians prepared by Harun’s magazine.
The net worth of Sharma, 38, jumped 162 percent making him the richest young entrepreneur in India.
The surge in Sharma’s wealth is mainly attributed to the upturn in Paytm’s valuation after Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba made a huge investment in the company last year.
The company is in the process of raising another $300 million with which the valuation of the company is expected to go up to $5 billion.
Born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, Vijay Shekhar Sharma founded One97 Communications in 2005 which is the parent company of Paytm, one of India’s highly successful startups.
A graduate of Delhi College of Engineering, Sharma launched Paytm in 2010. It offers mobile recharging, bill payment, bus, movie, and flight booking, and e-commerce services. In 2014, the company launched Paytm Wallet, now India’s largest mobile payment service platform with over 100 million wallets & 10 million app downloads.
In 2015, Paytm received investment from Indian industrialist Ratan Tata and Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.
In the Harun’s list, Sharma is followed by Nilima Motaparti of pharmaceutical company Divis Laboratories, whose wealth is estimated at Rupees 7,100 crore. Her brother Divi Satchandra Kiran (Divis Laboratories) holds the third position with a net worth of Rupees 6000 crores.
Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, the founders of Flipkart, come behind Kiran with estimated net worth of Rupees 5,400 crore each. The wealth of Sachin and Binny fell drastically from Rupees 9010 crore last year.
Bhavish Aggarwal, 30, of Ola Cabs is the youngest entrepreneur in the list with an estimated net worth of Rupees 3000 crores.
The Harun’s India Richest List includes 339 entrepreneurs having a net worth of Rupees 1600 crore and above. Eleven entrepreneurs below 40 found a place in the list.