Meet man who left IIT to start his company at 19, became youngest in Hurun India Rich List, he is...

Shashvat Nakrani, the co-founder of BharatPe, has made a name for himself as one of India’s youngest self-made billionaires. In 2021, at just 23 years old, he became the youngest person to feature on the IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List. Today, his journey continues to inspire young entrepreneurs across India.

Born in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, Shashvat Nakrani is now 26 years old and has already achieved remarkable success. He co-founded BharatPe, one of India’s leading fintech companies, at the age of 19 while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Textile Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi from 2015 to 2019.

Nakrani’s vision for BharatPe came from identifying a major problem in the digital payments sector. He realized that merchants were facing difficulty managing transactions from multiple apps like Paytm, Google Pay, PhonePe, and BHIM. To address this, he came up with the idea of creating a unified payment gateway. BharatPe’s solution was a zero MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) UPI QR code, which allowed merchants to accept payments from all major UPI apps using a single QR code. This innovation changed the way digital payments were made in India and set BharatPe apart from its competitors.

The idea for BharatPe came to Nakrani during his third year at IIT Delhi. He saw that while UPI was widely used for transactions, there was no easy way for merchants to manage payments from different platforms. His solution was simple yet powerful, an interoperable payment system that allowed seamless transactions across multiple UPI apps.

As of 2024, Shashvat Nakrani’s net worth is a staggering Rs 1,300 crore, making him one of the youngest billionaires in India. In FY22, he earned Rs 29.8 lakh in salary, with stock-based payments adding an additional Rs 70 crore. This represents a 218% increase compared to the previous year.

Shashvat Nakrani’s success story is a true testament to the power of innovation and entrepreneurship. His role in shaping India’s fintech landscape continues to inspire others, especially the younger generation, to take bold risks and pursue their dreams.