Success Story of Nikhil Kamath: From Dropout to Billionaire Entrepreneur
Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of India’s most popular stock broking platform Zerodha, is a testament to success in an atypical mould. Born in 1987 in the tech city of Bangalore, Kamath came from a humble background. He left school at 16, uninterested in studies and intrigued by trading and finance. What was a potentially risky decision became the start of a life-changing odyssey.
Nikhil started his career at a call center while trading stocks for himself using borrowed funds at the same time. His innate ability for comprehending market trends quickly turned him into a full-time trader. In 2010, along with his elder brother Nithin Kamath, he co-founded Zerodha with the aim to democratize investing in India by removing high brokerage rates and providing transparency to trading.
Zerodha was bootstrapped right from the beginning, with no external capital, and shook up the industry with its discount broking model. Now, the platform has over 12 million customers and is worth more than $3.5 billion. Kamath also contributed immensely towards the company’s technology-first, simple-to-use model, which attracted a new generation of retail investors.
Outside Zerodha, Nikhil co-founded True Beacon, an asset management company for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, and Rainmatter, an incubator for fintech startups. Nikhil is also engaged in philanthropy through the Young India Philanthropic Pledge (YIPP).
Though India’s youngest billionaire, Nikhil Kamath is not famous for anything else except being down-to-earth, a strategic thinker, and a giver. His rags-to-riches story from a high-school dropout to becoming one of Indian finance’s most powerful entrepreneurs is a testament to success coming from perseverance, creativity, and faith in your own destiny even if it goes against the norm.
