Startup Street mints new founder millionaires
₹9,900 crore ($1.1 billion), as per Mint's analysis of data from its red herring prospectus. Maheshwari and Bahl will also be sitting on hundreds of millions. In addition, Aggarwal owns stakes in Ola Cabs and Krutrim AI, both of which are unicorns (startups with valuation of a billion dollars or more).
To be sure, many other Indian startup founders are billionaires by virtue of their private holdings. These include broking business Zerodha’s Nithin and Nikhil Kamath; Zoho’s Vembu siblings Sridhar and Radha; and Sachin and Binny Bansal, who burst into the billionaire club after they cashed out their stakes in Flipkart in 2018 and January 2024, respectively. However, unlike privately held companies, listed companies provide greater liquidity to their founders and the spate of startup IPOs over the past three years has also produced certified millionaires.
Maheshwari sold ₹300 crore worth of FirstCry shares this January, and his balance 5.94% stake will be worth at least ₹1,271 crore ($151 million) at ₹440 apiece, on the lower end of the price band. Other cofounders of FirstCry also own stakes that turns them into millionaires—Amitava Saha ( ₹424 crore), Prashant Jadhav ( ₹308 crore) and Sanket Hattimattur ( ₹123 crore). Further, more than 30 employees, including Maheswari, will offload over 7.5 million shares in the offer for sale (OFS).
Maheshwari told Mint that young entrepreneurs will be able to take inspiration from the number of startups that have gone public. “It is also a ratification of venture capitalists and private equity investors; that they can put their money to use in this country," he said. For Bahl, who has seen teething troubles while building e-commerce platform Snapdeal, the listing of Unicommerce is a
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