The richest newcomer to the list of India's wealthiest women is Neha Narkhede, co-founder of the data streaming technology company Confluent.
The 38-year-old, whose net worth is believed to be Rs 13,380 crore, was ranked eighth on the Leading Wealthy Women 2021 list compiled by research firm Hurun, one spot ahead of Vandana Lal of Dr Lal PathLabs, the only other newcomer among the top 10.
Confluent saw a 25% increase in June 2021 on the Nasdaq, valuing the company at US $11.4 billion. Before starting Confluent, Narkhede was a software developer at LinkedIn, where she made contributions to the creation of Apache Kafka, an open-source messaging system created to manage the networking site's massive data input.
Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairman of HCL Technologies, has topped the Hurun list for the second year in a running with a net worth of Rs 84,330 crore. Falguni Nayar, the founder of FSN E-Commerce, topped Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon to claim the title of richest self-made woman in India, according to the list, with a net worth of Rs 57,520 crore.
The third annual ranking of India's wealthiest female business owners and professional managers is the Kotak Private Banking Hurun Leading Wealthy Women List 2021, which is produced by Hurun Report. The wealth calculations include 97 Indian women from four countries and 29 cities as of December 31 of the previous year. New Delhi has surpassed Mumbai as the favourite city to live in, with 25 women entrepreneurs.
Their overall wealth increased by 53% year over year to Rs. 4.16 trillion. 48 people, up from 10, have a combined value of $1 billion or more.
The industries where the most people made the list were pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and consumer goods. Divya Gokulnath (36) of BYJU's and Ruchi Kalra (38) of OfBusiness are two of the eight start-up founders with wealth records of Rs 4,550 crore and Rs 2,600 crore, respectively. Twenty women who are 40 years old or younger, nine of them, are self-made. The youngest self-made woman on the list is JetSetGo's 33-year-old Kanika Tekriwal.
“The Kotak Private Banking Hurun Leading Wealthy Women List serves as a barometer to understand the progress of women-led wealth creation in India and this year’s list clearly states that India’s leading women wealth creators are unstoppable. Around 25 per cent of the list has been replaced with new entrants,” said Anas Rahman Junaid, MD and chief researcher of Hurun India.
There are also four unicorns on the list that were co-founded by women. Neha Bansal, 40, co-founder of Lenskart.com, debuted on the list at position 35 with a net worth of Rs 1,540 crore. In April 2021, Lenskart acquired Hyderabad-based DailyJoy in order to enhance its technical and technological capabilities. With a net worth of Rs 1,390 crore, co-founder of LEAD School Smita Deorah, 44, came in at number 39. In a Series E fundraising effort in January 2022, LEAD School raised Rs 760 crore, amounting to Rs 8,340 crore. One of the list's newest members, 34-year-old Saumya Singh Rathore, has fortune of Rs 520 crore. She is a co-founder of WinZo, a social gaming platform that rewards users with cash and prizes.
