436 Under-40 entrepreneurs, $950 billion in business: Inside Hurun’s Uth Series

India’s growth story is no longer being written by the old guard. From software and fintech to healthcare and logistics, it is increasingly being shaped by founders under 40, many of them first-generation entrepreneurs.

Avendus Wealth & Hurun India have recognised 436 entrepreneurs under the age of 40 who are shaping India’s next phase of economic growth across the under 30, under 35 and under 40 cohorts. These entrepreneurs run companies with a combined net worth of over $950 billion or ₹83 lakh crore, which is larger than the GDP of Switzerland.

The Uth Series list includes many of India’s most prominent startup names, such as Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath (38), OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal (31), Mamaearth’s Ghazal Alagh (36), Physics Wallah’s Alakh Pandey (33), Zepto’s Aadit Palicha (22) and Meesho’s Vidit Aatrey (35).

Also read: Why Deepinder Goyal left Eternal CEO role to work on extending human lifespan, aircraft startup

The youngest leader in the U40 cohort is 36-year-old Sanjay Byalal Jagannath, co-founder of Bengaluru-based Exponent Energy. Meanwhile, Shreya Mishra, the 36-year-old co-founder of SolarSquare, is the youngest woman on the list.

Beyond business scale, several of these entrepreneurs also command significant digital influence. Nikhil Kamath tops the list with 1.39 million followers on LinkedIn, followed by Ritesh Agarwal with 1.32 million followers, while Ghazal Alagh remains the most followed woman entrepreneur with 6,33,000 followers.

In terms of cities, Bengaluru leads the youth entrepreneurship map with 109 entrants, driven by its high concentration of venture capitalists and angel investor network. Mumbai and Delhi follow with 87 and 45 names each. The presence of 18 entrepreneurs from San Francisco underlines the growing global footprint of Indian founders.

The IIT system remains a strong pipeline for the next-generation leaders. As per the report, IIT Kharagpur leads the way with 27 entrants, closely followed by IIT Delhi with 26 entrants, while IIT Madras ranks third with 22 entrants.

The data also points to a decisive generational shift as 349 entrepreneurs (nearly 80%) out of 436 are first-generation entrepreneurs, while second-generation leaders account for 37 entrants. However, the gender gap remains stark with just 36 women featured compared with 400 men.

Also read: Davos 2026 | Uber sees India as key market for mobility and technology innovation

In terms of employment impact, the scale of these under-40-led businesses is already significant. The largest employer in the Uth Series is Reliance Retail, led by U35 entrant Isha Ambani (33), with a workforce of nearly 2.48 lakh employees. It is followed by Shahi Exports with 1 lakh employees, Reliance Jio Infocomm with over 90,000 and RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group with 54,500.